Debris, diatoms, and dolphins: tracking child engagement at a public science festival

Abstract

Visitors to public science festivals have a tremendous amount of free choice to decide how to navigate through the festival, as well as when, where, and how long to stop at an exhibit. This study examines how elementary-aged children individually or collaboratively engaged with festival exhibits at a public science festival in St. Petersburg, Florida. Although many exhibit activities are designed to appeal to children, no research has been done with regard to child engagement with one-day, outdoor science festivals, such as this one. Engagement can be measured by unobtrusive observation of the behavior and interactions of children. Factors that influenced child engagement in a free-choice learning environment included attention capacity and goals (e.g. engage with exhibits, explore the ambient environment, eat lunch), the ability to interact with peers and adults during their engagement, and the ability to make choices about engaging in collaborative activities or independent free play.

Exploring participant engagement during an astrophysics virtual reality experience at a science festival

“…Our study, thus, presents empirical evidence that the unique affordances, capabilities, and features of VR-environments can be successfully used in the EPO context. Moreover, our findings contribute to a growing body of research that places science festivals as an important informal learning space onto a sound theoretical and empirical footing (Bultitude et al, 2011;Canovan, 2019;Grimberg et al, 2019;van Beynen & Burress, 2018). We anticipate future research that will further unpack the complex engagement processes that occur in VR-environments in informal learning spaces and public outreach events.…”

“…First, science festivals are socially active because they target a broad public audience (van Beynen & Burress, 2018). Due to the diversity of the audience, researchers can study how different groups of visitors with different backgrounds and expectations interact and engage with VR-technology.…”

“…Moreover, visitors have agency in deciding what constitutes a successful science experience for them because they have chosen to visit the science festival. In response to these diverse expectations, science festival providers try to engage visitors by designing activities that facilitate experiences and outcomes beyond the development of science knowledge (van Beynen & Burress, 2018). VR-technology has the potential to provide such experiences that promote curiosity, interest, and fun in addition to conveying science content knowledge (Lindgren & Johnson-Glenberg, 2013;Southgate et al, 2019).…”

“…(Davies, 2019). This transitory nature provides rich possibilities to create emotional connections with complex and abstract scientific concepts (Grimberg et al, 2019) and leads to different interactions than one finds in other informal learning spaces (Bultitude et al, 2011;Davies, 2019;van Beynen & Burress, 2018). Activities at science festivals are characterised by short-term interactions that often arise spontaneously in collaborative settings.…”

“…A science festival is a socially active informal learning space that prompts a variety of interactions and unpredictable events (van Beynen & Burress, 2018). It is likely that the use of VR adds to this complexity of activities because of the potentially novel engagement processes that can unfold in VR environments.…”