Where Science Intersects Pop Culture: An Informal Science Education Outreach Program

Abstract

Attracting a general audience to STEM topics can be a challenge, and developing engaging and interactive instruction is important for educators in all fields. While many chemical educators have successfully used pop-culture themes to introduce their students to scientific concepts, these encounters are largely limited to formal classroom environments. Inspired by the successes of community science programs such as Science Café and Nerd Nite, science educators from two Nebraska campuses sought to broaden the exposure of their pop-culture themed class lectures, and created the SciPop Talks! program. Now entering its fifth year, this informal educational outreach program has become a model of faculty/librarian partnerships and successful campus outreach. In this article, we discuss the program's formation, outline its strengths and challenges, and stress the importance of using interactivity to engage with learners. We report on findings from a survey of our attendees, which revealed surprising differences along gender lines. By sharing the motivations, strategies, operational specifics, outcomes, and future goals, we hope that scientists, science educators, outreach coordinators, and librarians will be inspired to launch their own SciPop Talks! programs.

Are Women a Missing Audience for Science on YouTube? An Exploratory Study

“…The last question I asked is when women do watch science video, why do they watch them. Descriptively, there do seem to be differences between men and women in why they access videos that are consistent with the instrumental vs. curiosity-satisfying motivations described by Burks et al (2017). In this study, women primarily said that they watched the science videos for informational purposes (74%) with only 19% citing entertainment.…”

“…Fewer studies, however, investigate adult women's engagement with informal STEM learning experiences. One such study by Burks et al (2017) examined gender-based engagement with their SciPop Talks! Program among college-aged adults.…”

Using Pop-Culture to Engage Students in the Classroom

“…Moreover, while many educators have successfully used pop-culture themes to introduce their students to scientific concepts, educators have continually tried to use new techniques to engage their students such as the creation of a Science Caféon the pop-culture theme. 99 Video games 100 have become an increasingly important part of the entertainment industry, and they are also considered a form of art; 101 surprisingly, the use of video games to illustrate chemistry or chemical engineering 102 is relatively unexplored in the literature even though pedagogical video games exist. 103−105 Video games being used directly in education are an increasingly popular research topic, and even just playing commercial video games has been shown to benefit important skills in adult learners like effective communication, executive function, and resourcefulness.…”

“…to unveil the name of a super hero (Clark Kent from Superman) or famous gimmicks of a character 88,98 such as "Bazinga" from the TV series The Big Bang Theory. Moreover, while many educators have successfully used pop-culture themes to introduce their students to scientific concepts, educators have continually tried to use new techniques to engage their students, such as the creation of a Science Café on the pop-culture theme 99 . Video games 100 have become an increasingly important part of the entertainment industry, and they are also considered a form of art 101 ; surprisingly the use of videogames to illustrate chemistry or chemical engineering 102 is relatively unexplored in the literature even though pedagogical videogames exist [103][104][105] .…”

Using Classic Movie Chemistry Scenes to Introduce Classroom Activities

“…Adapting scientific principles in motion pictures is a well-known plot device, , and playing scenes from films that depict specific chemical concepts has been suggested as an entertaining addition to classroom topics to further engage students. − The focus has generally been on more recent science fiction films, − including popular franchises such as Star Wars , Harry Potter , and the Marvel universe since these are very familiar to contemporary students. While older movies have not been entirely ignored, films from the classic movie period (1930s–1960s) are more likely to be overlooked since students may view them as outdated, slower paced, and lacking the spectacular special effects and popular actors of the day.…”