Communicating science matters: positive evidence from the BASCOE study, a quantitative study from Brain Awareness Week outreach activities

Introduction While the importance of science communication and outreach is widely acknowledged, their impact is often overlooked or not measured. To address this question we carried a study aimed to quantitatively assess the influence of science communication and outreach activities on knowledge acquisition and retention by secondary school students during Brain Awareness Week (BAW) 2023 in Lisbon, Portugal. Methods A population of 428 students raging from 6th to 12th grade (6–12 years of formal education), was involved in this study. Results Analysis of pre-and post-event questionnaire data revealed a significant improvement in participant knowledge scores 7 days post-activity compared to the baseline. Discussion These findings highlight the importance of such quantitative evaluations and underscore the pivotal role of science communication in enhancing scientific knowledge in schoolchildren.