The Aeolus project: Science outreach through art

Abstract

With a general decline in people's choosing to pursue science and engineering degrees there has never been a greater need to raise the awareness of lesser known fields such as acoustics. Given this context, a largescale public engagement project, the 'Aeolus project', was created to raise awareness of acoustics science through a major collaboration between an acclaimed artist and acoustics researchers. It centred on touring the large singing sculpture Aeolus during 2011/12, though the project also included an extensive outreach programme of talks, exhibitions, community workshops and resources for schools. Described here are the motivations behind the project and the artwork itself, the ways in which scientists and an artist collaborated, and the public engagement activities designed as part of the project. Evaluation results suggest that the project achieved its goal of inspiring interest in the discipline of acoustics through the exploration of an otherworldly work of art.

Engaging Parents About the Importance of Play: The Impact of a Brief, Arts‐Informed Community Presentation

“…Future studies of ThroughPlay will build on this exploratory study and address these and other design limitations (discussed subsequently). However, previous studies at research universities and in higher education classrooms (Kumagai, ; Mackh, ; Mcintosh & Warren, ; National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine, 2018), in laboratories (Krippel et al, ; Mayer, ; Plass & Kaplan, ; Um et al, ), and by scholars in the field of arts‐based research (Drumm et al, ; Leavy, ; Schwartz, ) provide strong support for the benefits of arts and multimedia integration and suggest a variety of mechanisms by which such content assists with the communication of scientific information. One common theme that recurs across these interdisciplinary investigations is that aesthetic and sensory characteristics of the arts promote affective engagement that, in turn, deepens attention and aids memory.…”

“…Arts‐informed methods of communication are increasingly used for community outreach because they are proposed as affectively engaging and useful for educating the public about important scientific research (Drumm et al, ; Lesen et al, ; Leavy, ; Mcintosh & Warren, ; Schwartz, ). Although such methods can be used for public education about a variety of research topics, the authors chose to integrate the arts in a community presentation to inform parents about the benefits of play for children and adults.…”

“…Evidence confirming the positive impact of arts integration for learning about science is accumulating in higher education classrooms (Kumagai, 2012;Mcintosh & Warren, 2013;National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine, 2018), in assessments of arts-science collaborations for public outreach (Dowell & Weitkamp, 2012;Drumm et al, 2015;Gergen & Gergen, 2010;Leavy, 2018;Lesen et al, 2016;Mackh, 2015;Schwartz, 2014), and in laboratory studies suggesting that the aesthetic elements of instructional materials (e.g., visual design, color, and sound) can induce positive emotions, increase mental effort, and result in greater learning and comprehension of scientific information (Krippel, McKee, & Moody, 2010;Tractinsky, Katz, & Ikar, 2000;Plass & Kaplan, 2016;Um, Plass, Hayward, & Homer, 2012).…”

“…Driving this change in science outreach is the notion that it is important to engage the public through affective learning , especially if one's goal is to modify a perspective or point of view (Freidman, 2013). When an art–science project stimulates experiences of excitement, interest, or curiosity, people become more invested in learning about the underlying scientific process (Drumm, Belantara, Dorney, Waters, & Peris, ). Inspiring an emotional connection to the topic of interest, in other words, is thought to be just as important as communicating the facts.…”

Toward narrowing the gap between science communication and science education disciplines

“…As Table c shows, articles that were found by searching for science engagement matched mostly the theme communication channels types rather than scientific knowledge construction , particularly with papers retrieved from science communication journals (e.g. Anderson et al., ; Drumm et al., ). This finding implies that the science education literature views communicating science not just as a means to promote scientific knowledge (e.g.…”