Leisure and Pleasure: Science events in unusual locations

Abstract

Dr Karen Bultitude oversees a wide project portfolio related to methods of engaging public audiences through 'live' interventions. Recent and current research relates to an international review of science festivals; gender-aware teaching in the physical sciences; a comparison of national strategies for science communication; and researcher motivations for becoming involved in public engagement activities. Karen is one of nine national Public Engagement mentors for the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) in the UK and in 2008 was awarded the prestigious Joshua Phillips Memorial Prize for Innovation in Science Engagement. Dr Ana Margarida Sardo conducted this work whilst a Research Fellow in the Science Communication Unit at the University of the West of England, Bristol. Her research interests include science contributions to environmental policymaking, good practices in communication science and key communication skills in recent graduates. Leisure and pleasure: science events in unusual locations IJSE: B 2 Building on concepts relating to informal science education, this work compares science-related activities which successfully engaged public audiences at three different 'generic' locations: a garden festival, a public park, and a music festival. The purpose was to identify what factors contribute to the perceived success of science communication activities occurring within leisure spaces. This paper reports the results of 71 short (2-3 minute) structured interviews with public participants at the events, and 18 structured observations sessions, demonstrating that the events were considered both novel and interesting by the participants. Audience members were found to perceive both educational and affective purposes from the events. Three key elements were identified as contributing to the success of the activities across the three 'generic venues': the informality of the surroundings, the involvement of 'real' scientists, and the opportunity to re-engage participants with scientific concepts outside formal education.

Einstein’s Garden 2009–2014: unexpected encounters with science

“…In line with similar findings in other non-science leisure spaces [3], evaluation data for Einstein's Garden suggests that this direct engagement is perceived by the audience to be genuine and rewarding. Scientists are described as passionate, enthusiastic and patient, with conversations often developing into prolonged discussion and debate [7].…”

“…Novelty is also important in attracting audiences to participate in science-related activities in nonscience leisure spaces [3]. It is therefore possible that generating inherently unexpected content, perhaps even perceived as incongruous, such as science-inspired activities within a music festival, has an immediate advantage in creating novel and unique experiences for the audience.…”

Considerations for effective science communication

“…Poetry slams have occurred as social events at conferences (e.g., Bird Jam & Poetry Slam at the 2016 North American Ornithological Conference) and as public events hosted by conference organizers (e.g., The Windy City Physics Slam at the 2016 International Conference on High Energy Physics). Integrating creativity and going beyond the lecture and the lecture hall when communicating science has thus far generated positive feedback from both audience and scientist participants (Bultitude and Sardo 2012;Dowell 2014;Sayer et al 2014;Dance 2016). …”

What Works in the Field? Evaluating Informal Science Events

“…However, in the midst of a busy festival, people want to move quickly to the next event and few are willing to spend 20-30 min in an intensive interview. We find "snapshot" interviews to be a quick and focused method of capturing lively and immediate feedback (DeWitt, 2009;Bultitude and Sardo, 2012). They last no more than 2 min, asking a small number of consistent, clear, and structured questions.…”