The role of online video-sharing and online video-sharing platforms for science and technology communication

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The role of online video-sharing and online video-sharing platforms for science and technology communication

Author: Joachim Allgaier – RWTH Aachen University, Germany

Co-authors:

  • Andrea Geipel – Technical University of Munich and Deutsches Museum Munich, Germany
  • Lê Nguyên Hoang – École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Switzerland
  • Craig Rosa – KQED, United States
  • Gianna Savoie – University of Otago, New Zealand

In this roundtable discussion, we are interested in the impact of online video-sharing on the public communication of science and technology. The online video format has great potential for public science and technology communication, but there are also pitfalls and potential problems that need to be thoughtfully reflected upon. One issue we are going to discuss is the role of particular online video-sharing platforms, such as YouTube, Vimeo, and Facebook Watch. YouTube, for instance, now has two billion users worldwide and is the second most popular search engine after Google in many countries. Many citizens around the world use it as a source of information about science and technology issues.

During the discussion, we will explore the production context of online videos about science and technology. Who creates and uploads videos with science and technology content and what are their intentions and purposes for these videos? Another interesting question concerns the differences and similarities between professional, amateur, institutional and other actors who produce online videos about science and technology. We are going to discuss how the different creators of videos about science and technology legitimize themselves and what audiences they want to reach for what reasons. We also would like to know more about the differences in practices and intentions of journalists, YouTubers, scientists, scientific institutions and others when it comes to online video-sharing. Furthermore, we will discuss what kind of video formats, genres, videographic styles etc., are most successful, widespread and adequate for public science communication. Another point that will be discussed with the invited experts is how online videos on science and technology are perceived by various audiences and how these need to be addressed.

The author has not yet submitted a copy of the full paper.

Presentation type: Roundtable discussion
Theme: Technology

Science communication about the centenary of solar eclipse in Sobral, Brazil

Author: Laercio Ferracioli – Department of Innovation and Science Outreach/Federal University of Espirito Santo, Brazil

Co-authors:

  • Thiago Pereira – State Secretary of Education, Brazil

According to Einstein “The question my mind asked was answered by Brazil’s sunny sky”. On May 29, 1919 photographs of solar eclipse at Sobral, Brazil proved the 1915 Einstein’s General Relativity, stating massive bodies deform the fabric of space-time, causing a light beam deviation. It could only be observed through a total solar eclipse. The prediction of this eclipse led scientists to the ideal places: Sobral, Brazil and Príncipe Island, Africa. Africa observations were compromised by a storm.

Considering Sobral Solar Eclipse Centenary, recent publications about gravitational waves and black hole “photographs”, science communication events were organized in Brazil for promoting public understanding of Einstein’s ideas and the historical importance of Sobral Eclipse. In doing so, Einstein’s ideas will be natural to future generations who will grow up with them, as Bertrand Russel said, 1925.

This paper reports an activity promoted within Seminar on 100 Years of Sobral Solar Eclipse at Federal University of Espírito Santo, Brazil. Since high school students have only 2-hours-of-physics-per-week and there is a new full-time school politics being implemented with very broad guidelines, a theoretical-experimental elective-course was offered focusing on Science-as-human-enterprise; historical-scientific-chronological analysis of Einstein’s ideas; the impact of Sobral observations.

Among other tasks, students built PVC-circular-structures covered with elastane to simulate space-time curvature; light deflection simulators using cardboard-box, highlighter-pen, black-light-bulb; and Einstein’s-life-timeline.

Evaluation questionnaires answered at the end and four-month later students were asked to write 5-or-more-words expressing their course experience and to draw solar eclipse sketches. Analysis of the collected words with word-cloud-technique came up with citations such as “informative”, “cultured”, “science”. The solar eclipse sketches revealed distinct representations of space-time.

These results lend support for elective courses proposal for implementing full-time school politics based on Science Communication of recent outcomes for preparing citizens for Science and its impacts in their lives.

The author has not yet submitted a copy of the full paper.

Presentation type: Roundtable discussion
Theme: Technology

#ClimateStrike: Motivations, behaviours and media habits of environmental activist youth

Author: Hannah Feldman – The Australian National University, Australia

Co-authors:

  • Andrea Geipel – Technical University of Munich and Deutsches Museum Munich, Germany
  • Lê Nguyên Hoang – École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Switzerland
  • Craig Rosa – KQED, United States
  • Gianna Savoie – University of Otago, New Zealand

Political expression, the environment, and the way we communicate about these two topics is changing dramatically with the warming planet, particularly among teenage citizens. No event in history captures this better than the global School Strike for Climate, a protest movement for environmental action that has seen millions of school aged youth mobilising across events in over 150 countries since 2018.

But how and why have youth assembled in these numbers for such a politicised scientific topic? Who’s not attending, and why?

Through focus groups and surveys, this research documents the experiences of 16-18 year olds in urban and regional Australia, discussing with them motivations, behaviours and media habits surrounding their attendance at a local School Strike for Climate event. Where do they hear and talk about climate change and environmental activism? What enablers and barriers do they encounter before participating in a rally? And what motivates them to actually attend or boycott an event in the first place?

Drawing from social psychology, sociology and science communication methods, this talk gives the preliminary findings on factors that influence youth participation in School Strike for Climate. The results presented here are part of an ongoing project which seeks to understand the experiences of young people as they engage with environmental activism, and contributes insight into the shifting way youth make decisions on their political and environmental autonomy in an increasingly digital, warming age.

The author has not yet submitted a copy of the full paper.

Presentation type: Individual paper
Theme: Transformation

Success criteria of networks in science communication

Author: Danielle Martine Farrugia, Malta

Co-authors:

  • Alexander Gerber – Rhine-Waal University, Germany
  • Eric Jensen – Senior Research Fellow, ICORSA, Netherlands

What is the added value of analysing science communication networks? Manifold definitions and types of networks exist, depending for instance on epistemic interest, methodological focus, and scale of analysis. These network types are articulated based on their diverse functions. Since some of the main functions of science communication networks is to understand how to engage various stakeholders with science and share information and best practices, a study was conducted by Danielle Martine Farrugia (Science Communicator & lecturer, PhD student, University of Malta) as part of Work Package seven within the “RRING” project [http://www.rring.eu/] [led by Dr Gordon Dalton, supervised by Prof. Alexander Gerber] and her PhD research to understand how these networks are founded and grown, structured and governed.

Science communication is embedded in social structures and driven by forces that go well beyond science: gender, race, class, access to power and other factors. How do these professional networks ensure that their members are engaged? What motivates science communication professionals to join such a network? How relevant are these networks to their members, and why are certain people deciding not to join (or leave) a network? What are the success criteria for sustaining a network that keeps on serving its members and relevant to their members’ needs? While some networks seem to grow, other network perish or cease to exist.

This talk will explore networks with a focus or related to public engagement with science such as Public Communication with Science and Technology (PCST), World Federation of Science Journalists (WFSJ) and International government for science advise (INGSA) and the role these science communication networks serve to its members/potential members.

The author has not yet submitted a copy of the full paper.

Presentation type: Individual paper
Theme: Time

Science communication policies for societal change

Author: Danielle Martine Farrugia, Malta

Co-authors:

  • Alexander Gerber – Rhine-Waal University, Germany

Governments and other research-funders are increasingly describing formally what they expect, incentivise or even require Science Communication to achieve. Such policies and frameworks, as previously established in Australia, China, or South Africa, take the form of recommendations, regulations or even federal law.

The underlying policy rationale is often to ask to which extent research and innovation respond to societal needs and expectations. Research funding programmes such as “Horizon2020“ in the EU prioritise policies that require researchers to anticipate and address societal challenges through “Responsible Research and Innovation“ (RRI). How do funders expect research to be conducted, and what are the societal priorities? Policies set the tone for the researchers’ need to engage with various stakeholders in order for their projects to be funded. To this end, how are these societal and/or other priorities implemented? What are the different processes by which countries across the globe define how different stakeholders are to be engaged with science, and how is this reflected in the documents, policies, strategies? How do these processes differ internationally? Which impact have they showed?

Danielle M. Farrugia (Science Communicator, PhD student, University of Malta, co-supervised by Prof. Alexander Gerber, Rhine-Waal University) will present common patterns identified in policy documents across different countries (e.g. Australia, South Africa, United Kingdom). Interviews were furthermore conducted based on these common themes to better understand the process of creating these documents. In her PhD she investigates the above issues as part of the “SciComPass“ project. The aim is to compare the policies/strategies/frameworks about public engagement with science and how they require research institutions to respond to societal needs. This paper explores the role of stakeholder involvement in the process of creating these policy and strategy documents and potential risks these documents may entail for e.g. lowering the variety of science communication formats.

The author has not yet submitted a copy of the full paper.

Presentation type: Individual paper
Theme: Transformation

The Journalist as Philosopher of Technology: Nicholas Carr as Case Study

Author: Declan Fahy – Dublin City University, Ireland

This paper argues that American journalist and author Nicholas Carr has had an influential, but sometimes overlooked, role in contemporary communications about the social implications of technology. With his Pulitzer Prize-nominated book, The Shallows: What The Internet Is Doing to Our Brains (2010), Carr put forward an influential framework for understanding the impact of digital technologies on individual behaviour and cognition. And with his other books including The Big Switch (2008), The Glass Cage (2014), and Utopia Is Creepy (2016), he presented a strongly critical view of the impact of digital technologies on the intellectual formation of individuals and the collective richness of culture. These and other writings have made him an early and lastingly influential critic of the naïve technological utopianism that had emerged from Silicon Valley over the past several decades. This paper presents Carr as a case of a journalist who has been able to undertake such a culturally-important role because of his deep and ongoing engagement with scholarly ideas. His work is marked by a rich integration of ideas from the history and philosophy of technology, the economics and infrastructure of digital technologies, and media theory. Carr has integrated these ideas into a distinct perspective that established him as what The New Atlantis called “a philosopher of technology.” To show how and why he came to occupy this role, this paper takes a historical approach, combining a close reading of his works, interview evidence with Carr, and a rich contextualisation of his ideas within modern technoscientific culture.

The author has not yet submitted a copy of the full paper.

Presentation type: Individual paper
Theme: Technology

Navigating Negotiations in Starting Up and Supporting Living Labs

Author: Ferdoos Esrail – TU Delft, Netherlands

Co-authors:

  • Steven Flipse – TU Delft, Netherlands
  • Maarten Van Der Sanden – TU Delft, Netherlands

There is a policy call for widening participation of stakeholders in research and innovation to realise more collaborative research and innovation practices, particularly in terms of inclusion of end users and/or citizens. Part of the rationale for this lies in the prospect of the realisation of higher quality research, which is better in tune with societal demands, and economically more viable innovations.

As part of the European research and innovation policy agenda, EIT Health has launched various funding schemes to support the initiation, development and support of Living Labs (LLs). LLs are seen as promising instruments for achieving co-creative solutions for (complex) societal problems, thereby transforming the relationship between science/technology and society. Moreover, they present a new perspective for science communication, which is going deeper than public outreach or involvement: mutual engagement between the ‘general public’ and scientists from the very beginning of an innovation process.

In practice, we observe various kinds of LLs, ranging from (open) test beds for validation of (industrial) innovation to more open academic workplaces for ideation and knowledge co-creation. They also range from virtual LLs without any physical manifestations, to real-life settings in urban neighbourhoods for smart city solutions. While the motives to participate in LLs types of collaboration may seem evident (e.g. citizens who acquire better care through participation in the innovation process in medical technology), in reality actors struggle with, among other things, issues around money, intellectual property, personal/organisational commitment, enthusiasm and responsibilities.

In this presentation we will share insights from a case study revolving around the EIT Health Living Labs and Test Beds project. We will also discuss their relevance for the science communication community, focusing on transformations of science-society relations and the challenges related to realizing ‘research for all’.

The author has not yet submitted a copy of the full paper.

Presentation type: Visual presentation
Theme: Transformation

Scientific research in the contex of epistemology – Searching new practices for scientific research and public communication of science in Peru

Author: Nemesio Espinoza – Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos, Peru

Co-authors:

  • Andrea Geipel – Technical University of Munich and Deutsches Museum Munich, Germany
  • Lê Nguyên Hoang – École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Switzerland
  • Craig Rosa – KQED, United States
  • Gianna Savoie – University of Otago, New Zealand

Peru is a country of wealth in terms of natural resources and biodiversity. However, it is an immensely poor country. Under such conditions, the production and dissemination of science in the university, which should be priority activities, are still undeveloped. Considering that in the present times it is impossible to promote the development of societies without science and technology, this paper focuses on raising two binding policies for the university: 1) Scientific research, whose main purpose is the production of science and technology, are priority activities and should be carried out in the light of epistemology; and, 2) Public Communication of Science should be a mandatory activity.

The above approaches have validity considering that in the Peruvian university, highly professionalizing and unscientific, scientific research is not considered as an essential mission and the teaching of Epistemology is non-existent, for which reason science is not produced in the conditions and qualities that modernity demands. As evidence of the latter, the “automatic baccalaureate” culture, consisting in granting a bachelor’s degree without a thesis, that is, without research, is still in force for more than three decades. Furthermore, the Public Communication of Science is completely absent in the university. In Peru, of the top four universities in the national rankings of 150, none has a scientific dissemination unit.

Due to the considerations raised, it is necessary to seek new practices in terms of Scientific Research and Public Communication of Science in the framework of a university restructuring process, which should focus on claiming its main mission which is the production of scientific research in the context of epistemology.

The author has not yet submitted a copy of the full paper.

Presentation type: Visual presentation
Theme: Transformation

Communicate the science behind environmental issues. Identifying key messages (and other clues) from scientific papers

Author: Clementina Equihua – Instituto de Ecología, Mexico

I will present a methodology that may help journalists, science communicators or even scientists, to identify key messages within a peer reviewed scientific paper. Climate change, biodiversity loss and the wide diversity of today’s environmental problems pose an important challenge for science communicators when addressing scientific issues. Second to researchers, scientific papers are a primary source of information for journalists. A scientific communicator can use them as a first approach to identify key messages and then produce the narrative that engages audiences or obtain the needed information for interview planning. Scientific papers are also an invaluable tool since they remain as a legacy in history. Nevertheless, communicators relay mainly on scientists as a source of information. Relaying mostly on scientists may bias the communication process (i.e. some scientists are more open to accepting interviews than others or the communicated science is mainly what is already pretty much understood by the audiences). Then some issues can be left aside, for instance novel information or key issues that help understand better an environmental problem.

My suggested methodology can help overcome those problems and become a useful tool for identifying key messages (and other clues) that may help make science accessible to wider audiences. This methodology will also help to increase the different subjects that are published in the media. For instance, helping to obtain clues to understand papers with no direct relationship with society, but important to help the public to better understanding the acquisition of knowledge.

The author has not yet submitted a copy of the full paper.

Presentation type: Visual presentation
Theme: Transformation

Nothing in biology (communication) makes sense except in the light of evaluation – The evolution of the Darwin Day

Author: Carolin Enzigmüller – IPN Kiel, Germany

Co-authors:

  • Christina Claussen – IPN Kiel, Germany
  • Kerstin Kremer – Leibniz University Hannover, Germany
  • Ilka Parchmann – IPN Kiel, Germany
  • Hinrich Schulenburg – Kiel University, Germany

STEM university-led outreach is a key element of scientists’ effort to communicate their research. Yet, the question has been raised whether existing outreach initiatives are used to their full potential: Some argue that too little time is invested in examining, discussing, and deciding on what to communicate and why. Others say that even if goals are set, they are not transformed into actual design choices. Furthermore, effective outreach evaluations are still rare and scientists get no feedback concerning the adaption to the target group. We want to turn outreach into a more meaningful experience for scientists and accomplish better outcomes through interdisciplinary collaborations between scientists and educational researchers. In our project, scientists from the Kiel Evolution Center and science educators from the Kiel Science Outreach Campus joined forces to review and advance an outreach event at Kiel University, the Darwin Day. Every year, the Darwin Day attracts about 1200 secondary school students to get insights into innovative research on evolutionary biology. Evaluation results showed that the format is yet effective in informing about evolutionary biology research. In a further step, we now set the goal to improve the format´s effectiveness in raising students´ interest and affective attitudes towards science and scientists. To achieve this, we are conducting interviews with the scientists to specify our perceptions about their expectations and goals regarding the event and collect pre-and-post data on student outcomes. Furthermore, students will serve as “outreach reviewers”, providing feedback on how to improve the format and how to achieve the outreach goals. Based on the findings, we will discuss, how the format can be further developed, making it more interactive and engaging for participants. In addition to learning from the evaluation itself, our goal is to see if this project leads to a more reflective approach for university outreach events.

The author has not yet submitted a copy of the full paper.

Presentation type: Insight talk
Theme: Transformation

When Scicom meets Devcom Communicating science using the Devcom lens and what we can learn from it

Author: Garry Jay Montemayor РUniversity of the Philippines Los Ba̱os. Philippines

Development communication (devcom) as a concept and formal field of study was first articulated by Nora C. Quebral in 1971 during a symposium held at the University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB) (Quebral, 2006). In simplest sense, devcom’s aim is to look at how communication can improve human lives. To achieve that aim, devcom is guided by three different assumptions and approaches: information delivery, empowerment, and participation (Roman, 2005). Due to its strong leaning in practice than in theorizing, devcom has been applied in many contexts, resulting to different schools of devcom. Devcom Los Baños style is one of these (Manyozo, 2006).

Science communication scholarship in the Philippines started under the Devcom Los Baños in the early 1970s. The hybrid of two fields somewhat created a distinctive brand of “local” scicom that could be slightly different from “Western” scicom – one that aims to communicate the contents, products, and processes of science not just to inform but to improve human lives; is generally non-media centric; is closely related to the field of information science; acknowledges many different publics to work (and negotiate) with; and is participatory in nature.

Through historical document analysis and key informant interviews, the paper tries to articulate the devcom’s brand of scicom by tracing its historical roots vis-a-vis intellectual influences that shaped (and are shaping) the field. Cases of scicom projects will be discussed to highlight how scicom is practiced using the devcom lens. Finally, a reflection about its praxis will be done to extract some lessons learned from past experiences that might have implications in scicom theorizing and practice in the future.

It addresses the “Time” conference theme as we investigate the history of scicom scholarship in Devcom, UPLB, and how it can contribute to furthering scicom practice especially in developing countries.

The author has not yet submitted a copy of the full paper.

Presentation type: Individual paper
Theme: Time

Exploring Science where it is made An open air and digital museum in a Brazilian university

Author: Tárcio Minto Fabricio – Center for the Development of Functional Materials (CDMF) / Open Laboratory for Interactivity in S&T Public Communication (LAbI) / São Carlos Federal University (UFSCar), Brazil

Co-authors:

  • Adilson Jesus Aparecido de Oliveira – Physics Department / CDMF / LAbI / UFSCar, Brazil
  • Mariana Rodrigues Pezzo – Open Laboratory for Interactivity in S&T Public Communication (LAbI) / Sà£o Carlos Federal University, Brazil

The open air and concomitantly digital museum “Caminhos do Conhecimento” (Knowledge Paths), created by the Open Laboratory for Interactivity for Science and Technology (S&T) Public Communication at the Federal University of São Carlos, São Paulo, Brazil (LAbI – UFSCar), offers different possibilities of mediation in the dialogue between scientific knowledge and diverse audiences, other than those already consolidated in traditional museums and science centers. The conception of the project is anchored in the theoretical frameworks of Educating Cities and science education with STS (Science-Technology-Society) approach.

The project proposes itineraries on science to be followed on the University Campus. These itineraries are indicated by the project signposts that, besides presenting texts by famous scientists and other intellectuals, contain QR codes that allow access to video content and exclusive texts related to the scientific areas of the places where they are. Such itineraries can also be accessed on the web at www.caminhos.ufscar.br. In addition, the project will offer guided tours, in which participants will be able to visit the University’s laboratories, getting to know, together with where and how science is produced, who produces it.

The museum has two itineraries already operating. The first one, named “Epistemological Trail”, goes through 17 signposts narrating the history of the knowledge areas present at the University. The other, the “Light Trail”, goes through 6 signposts, presenting information about the nature of light aimed at children. Since its implementation, in 2015, the project has registered 2,790 spontaneous accesses through QR codes, with the largest number of accesses registered in 2019, what may be associated with increasing popularization of mobile internet access and, also, familiarity with the use of QR codes.

The author has not yet submitted a copy of the full paper.

Presentation type: Visual presentation
Theme: Technology

Public communication of research institutes compared across countries

Author: Marta Entradas – LSE, United Kingdom

Co-authors:

  • Martin Bauer – LSE, United Kingdom
  • John Besley – Michigan State University, United States
  • Asako Okamura – Senior Research Fellow, National Institute of Science and Technology Policy (NISTEP), Japan
  • Giuseppe Pellegrini – Observa Science in Society, Italy

Public communication of research institutes compared across countries

In recent years, we have witnessed a growing tendency within academic and research organisations to turn to the public; and it is surprising how little systematic research exists on how this change is taking place. With a few studies that have looked at PR communications offices in German universities, and their influence in scientists’ visibility in the media, less is known about what is happening at other levels within organisations; not to mention how the activity is developing across countries with very different traditions, commitments and resources for science and science communication.

In this linked session, a group of science communication researchers, will present first hand empirical evidence on the communication function of institutes/units in eight countries (within research universities and large research organisations), and discuss tensions and challenges for science communication. The findings presented here result from the international study ‘MORE-PE- Mobilisation of REsources for Public Engagement’ carried out in Portugal, Germany, the UK, the Netherlands, Italy, the USA, Brazil, Japan, and China. This will be the first presentation of the results on a comparative level.

The speakers are:

Paper 1 – Marta Entradas –ISCTE- University Lisbon Institute/Visiting Fellow at LSE

Paper 2 – Martin Bauer – London School of Economics (LSE)

Paper 3 – Giuseppe Pellegrini – Italy, OBSERVA Science in Society

Paper 4 – John Besley/Anthony Dudo – USA, Michigan University/ Texas University

Paper 5 – Asako Akamura – National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies, Japan

The author has not yet submitted a copy of the full paper.

Presentation type: Linked papers
Theme: Time

Soap Bubbles and Vanitas: Mathematicians at the Time of Virus

Author: Michele Emmer – Univ Rome Sapienza & IVSLA, Venice, Italy

Co-authors:

  • Michele Emmer – Universita Sapienza, Rome

Communicating mathematics to the non-experts has proven to be particularly complex, frequently resulting either trivial or non-understandable to most audiences. Soap bubbles provide a unique opportunity, as they are capable of grasping the imagination throughout different age groups and eliciting their interest in mathematics, given that they are at the origin of one of mathematics’ contemporary areas, minimal surfaces. They have been studied by physicists and mathematicians. Their structure has caught the interest of biologists and architects throughout the last 100 years. Artists have been fascinated by them since the Sixteenth Century, depicting them as a symbol of Vanitas, reminding the ephemeral nature of human life and the inevitability of death.

The COVID19-caused lockdown prompted an initiative by mathematicians wishing to communicate among themselves and the general public on Maths at the time of corona (Springer-Nature, 2020). This is a reflection on the role of mathematics, the role of purely abstract research and how mathematicians can play a role in communicating their interests and their roles in this dramatic period. Soap bubbles are a stimulating example in this reflection, remembering their link to the theme of Vanitas, symbol of the fragility of human life and their links to scientific research, their stability as surfaces in mathematics, even their being a game for children. In this presentation, I will build on my career-long experience with soap bubbles and soap film, initially from a purely mathematical perspective and subsequently from the perspective of art, cinema (I made a film that was shown at the Venice Art Biennale), architecture, theatre and literature, including courses for future scientific journalists. I will also build on a recent experience in which I curated an exhibition Soap Bubbles, Forms of Utopia Between Vanitas, Art and Science. (March-June 2019). Is it all simply Vanitas at the end of 2020?

The author has not yet submitted a copy of the full paper.

Presentation type: Visual presentation
Theme: Time

Understanding Brazilian Scientists’ motivation towards Public Communication of Science

Author: Tárcio Minto Fabricio – Center for the Development of Functional Materials (CDMF) / Open Laboratory for Interactivity in S&T Public Communication (LAbI) / São Carlos Federal University (UFSCar), Brazil

Co-authors:

  • Adilson Jesus Aparecido de Oliveira – Physics Department / CDMF / LAbI / UFSCar, Brazil
  • Mariana Rodrigues Pezzo – Open Laboratory for Interactivity in S&T Public Communication (LAbI) / Sà£o Carlos Federal University, Brazil

Brazilian Science has been going through a deep crisis, especially since the beginning, in January 2019, of a new federal government, whose President and Ministers systematically insult scientific evidences – as in the matters of the Amazon rainforest and climate change. That, together with successive and dramatic cuts in the Science budget, has brought the scientific community to the public arena, claiming for support and highlighting the relevance of increasing Public Communication of Science efforts. Spotting the moment as an opportunity to better understand how this community sees the goals of such efforts and how to transform this motivation into actions closer to the Public Engagement with Science and Technology model than with traditional diffusionist approaches, this paper reports a theoretical reflection and derived research directed to such comprehension and intervention objectives.

The Public Engagement model is still foreign to most of the research and practice in Public Communication of Science carried on in Brazil and, aiming to increase its presence, we’ve done an extensive review of the literature on the topic; therefrom, we’ve built a set of categories concomitantly designed as analysis tools to characterize and understand discourses and practices already underway within the country and as a framework to, considering such diagnostics, encourage and support policies and practices steered to more dialogic and democratic processes.

To experiment, improve and validate those categories, we’ve applied them to a sample of news and opinion texts published in the first six months of 2019, in the daily newsletter JCNotícias, clipping from various media outlets. Our analysis – of scientists’ statements on Public Communication of Science and/or interaction between Science and Society – evidenced factors favoring or hindering the Public Engagement model, as well as the strength of the proposed categories.

The author has not yet submitted a copy of the full paper.

Presentation type: Visual presentation
Theme: Transformation

Community Learning and Development. What’s STEM got to do with it?

Author: Konstantinos Minas – Aberdeen Science Centre, United Kingdom

Co-authors:

  • Sue Briggs – Community Learning and Development, Aberdeenshire Council, United Kingdom
  • Linda Clark – Aberdeen City Council, United Kingdom
  • Avril Morrison – Community Learning and Development, Aberdeenshire Council, United Kingdom
  • Craig Singer – Aberdeen City Council, United Kingdom

Inspiring “hard to reach” communities to engage with STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) is a challenge our team has faced since our opening in 1989. Interactive, fun and educational science engagements are a good start, but they still don’t change the opinions of people that do not associate themselves with Aberdeen Science Centre, or STEM in general. Our recent partnership with the CLD (Community Learning and Development) teams of Aberdeen City and Aberdeenshire appears to be changing this trend. We started by increasing the confidence of practitioners to engage with STEM, in a way relevant to their attitudes and aspirations. By empowering practitioners, we witnessed STEM being proactively incorporated in their practice, and in turn, community interest heightened. It is only through influencing the influencers that this change was possible, and through longitudinal evaluations, we now see evidence of science spreading in Aberdeen City and Shire and inspiring communities. These observations were only made possible by collaborative working, and the lessons learnt now shape STEM delivery in our local area. Together, we have facilitated a change where community leaders are empowered to implement science learning in their practice, in a way that makes it relevant, interesting, and ultimately fun for their learners. It is only through meaningful engagements with STEM that we make the best personal choices and become greener, smarter, more responsible citizens. Aberdeen Science Centre’s team in turn, is now better equipped to engage local communities in learning, and to bring about positive change to people and communities. The lessons learnt from this collaboration were many, and we are now looking into the future and all the positive changes that this collaboration can bring in our local area and in the sector of science communication as a whole.

The author has not yet submitted a copy of the full paper.

Presentation type: Visual presentation
Theme: Transformation

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