Does the messenger matter? Studying the impacts of scientists and engineers interacting with public audiences at science festival events

Boyette, Todd; Ramsey, J. Ross

doi:10.22323/2.18020202

Cited by 24 publications

(25 citation statements)

References 15 publications

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“…To address the general motivations and expectations (RQ1), the science slam audiences were asked to participate in a survey. Audience surveys are a common method for evaluating science communication activities (Boyette & Ramsey, 2019;Canovan, 2019;Jensen & Buckley, 2014). The audience surveys in our study were conducted by means of a standardized written survey.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Science Slams as Edutainment: A Reception Study

Niemann¹,

Bittner

Schrögel

et al. 2020

MaC

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Science slams are a prominent form of science communication especially in Germany that seeks to entertain. While some view science slams as an excellent vehicle for disseminating knowledge, others argue that the imperative to entertain undermines the scientific value of this form of presentation. Drawing on empirical data from three science slam events, this explorative study examines how audiences and presenters perceive the science slam, particularly as it relates to entertainment and the communication of scientific knowledge. Our multi-method analysis includes audience surveys (n = 469), an eye-tracking study, and interviews with science slammers (n = 18). Our results show that the main reason audiences attend a science slam is for entertainment, yet they also have a strong interest in scientific content. Assessing the slammers’ aspirations concerning the audience, we find entertainment to be an important part, but the motivation to impart scientific knowledge is key for most. When asked to evaluate individual presentations (n = 20), spectators tended to rate both the entertainment and scientific value of the presentations as high. However, in terms of visual attention within individual presentations, spectators spent more time considering scientific content than entertainment content. Overall, we do not find evidence for the common claim that the focus on entertainment undermines the scientific value of science slam presentations—rather, entertainment and scientific content are combined to produce “edutainment” in a positive sense.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Science Slams as Edutainment: A Reception Study

Niemann¹,

Bittner

Schrögel

et al. 2020

MaC

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“…Learning in these contexts is not confined to acquiring factual knowledge; it is generally understood to encompass knowledge and understanding; skills; attitudes, opinions and beliefs; creativity, inspiration and enjoyment; and action and progression [Museums Libraries and Archives Council, 2014]. Indeed, interaction with scientists themselves has been identified as one of the key learning and social experiences from live events [Boyette and Ramsey, 2019]. We can presume that the distinct characteristics of live science events enable scientific literacy and science capital by developing informed decision-making skills [Liu, 2009], enhancing social connections to science [Archer et al, 2015], or driving participation in science-related issues and activities throughout life as scientifically literate citizens [Crowell and Schunn, 2014].…”

Section: Contextmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Whilst they acknowledged the value of social interaction, they felt that live public science events needed to include genuine STEM researchers in order to be authentic. Many of these participants came from university sectors which are addressing 'Public Engagement with Science' ideals [Bensaude Vincent, 2014;Palmer and Schibeci, 2012] however, other research has reinforced that audiences value direct interactions with scientists at science festivals [Boyette and Ramsey, 2019;Fogg-Rogers et al, 2015;Jensen and Buckley, 2014] Focus group H participant -I come down on the side [that] if there is not a scientist involved, it's great science communication, but maybe it's not public engagement with science.…”

Section: Science Engagement As Part Of Wider Culturementioning

confidence: 99%

Science live — articulating the aims and ethos of science event practitioners in the U.S.A. and U.K.

Fogg‐Rogers¹,

Wiehe²,

Comerford³

et al. 2019

JCOM

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Live science events engage publics with science in a social context. This article articulates the aims and ethos of this growing sector within a research context. Semi-structured interviews (N=13) and focus groups (N=77) were conducted with event practitioners (both professional and volunteers) in the U.S.A. and U.K.. Inductive thematic analysis indicated that event producers aim to raise awareness of and professionalism in the sector. In particular, they seek to develop research into long-term impacts of events for both audiences and practitioners.

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“…The tournament also provides lesson plans as an Open Educational Resource ( Miao et al, 2016 ) to educators who systematically integrate March Mammal Madness into their curriculum. March Mammal Madness achieves key SciComm goals by reaching many audiences ( Varner, 2014 ), facilitating interactions between scientists and students ( Boyette and Ramsey, 2019 ), and effecting propagation and sustained adoption of the tournament ( Stanford et al, 2017 ). Across 11 evenings, beginning with a Wild Card through early rounds into the Sweet Sixteen, the Elite Trait, the Final Roar, and finally the Championship “battle”, March Mammal Madness is a SciComm extravaganza.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

March Mammal Madness and the power of narrative in science outreach

Hinde

Amorim

Brokaw

et al. 2021

eLife

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March Mammal Madness is a science outreach project that, over the course of several weeks in March, reaches hundreds of thousands of people in the United States every year. We combine four approaches to science outreach – gamification, social media platforms, community event(s), and creative products – to run a simulated tournament in which 64 animals compete to become the tournament champion. While the encounters between the animals are hypothetical, the outcomes rely on empirical evidence from the scientific literature. Players select their favored combatants beforehand, and during the tournament scientists translate the academic literature into gripping “play-by-play” narration on social media. To date ~1100 scholarly works, covering almost 400 taxa, have been transformed into science stories. March Mammal Madness is most typically used by high-school educators teaching life sciences, and we estimate that our materials reached ~1% of high-school students in the United States in 2019. Here we document the intentional design, public engagement, and magnitude of reach of the project. We further explain how human psychological and cognitive adaptations for shared experiences, social learning, narrative, and imagery contribute to the widespread use of March Mammal Madness.

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Does the messenger matter? Studying the impacts of scientists and engineers interacting with public audiences at science festival events

Cited by 24 publications

References 15 publications

Science Slams as Edutainment: A Reception Study

Science Slams as Edutainment: A Reception Study

Science live — articulating the aims and ethos of science event practitioners in the U.S.A. and U.K.

March Mammal Madness and the power of narrative in science outreach

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