Scicomm with museums – make it work for you
Communication work, sometimes seen by scientists as a sideline, can become a skill that is useful to the research practice itself. Citizens' questions, views, doubts and misconceptions can constructively feed the researchers’ professional practice. It is also vital to the process of explaining the deep implication of science in the daily life of "normal citizens". In parallel, scientists can spark interest and curiosity about new areas of scientific knowledge - within a socially stimulating and enjoyable setting.
The public wants to meet you!
A study based on experience in UK showed that visitors value the opportunities science festivals afford to both interact with researchers and to encounter different types of science activities aimed at adults, children and families. Events that give people the opportunity to get in direct touch with researchers allow them to discover "the human face of research". Such activities can attract a public that could be qualified as "science-reluctant" - those who never would have thought of taking part in a science-linked event. They also help break down the idea that science is a mysterious domain reserved to some very “special” people.
Outreach via museums could be the answer
Catherine Franche, Executive Director, Ecsite . Watching this video you are accepting Youtube cookies policy
So how can museums and other science engamente venues help researchers share their work with the public? Exhibitions at science museums can be too expensive for many researchers, in addition to the long lead time that must also be taken into account. Instead, many museums now propose to take events and programmes out of an institutional venue, into settings where audiences who aren’t typical museum goers can be encountered.
"Working with a museum or science centre doesn’t necessarily mean collaborating on an exhibition – and it doesn’t even mean holding an activity at the museum". Julie Becker, Communications and Events Manager, Ecsite
Science events now encompass all sorts of formats ranging from science shows to exhibitions, role-playing games, talk shows, theatre performances, conferences, movie projections, workshops, maker spaces, science cafés, public debates, and so on. They now also relate to fields other than the purely scientific ones, although remaining linked to it: topics such as music, painting, cooking, drawing, literature, sport.
Ecsite-ing activities
During the ERC=Science² communication campaign, the ERC worked with the European network of science centres and museums (Ecsite) to explore the possibilities of this type of engagement. More than twenty events were organized across Europe, during science festivals, established annual science nights, as well as standalone events and those linked to regular fixtures of science museums and centres.
For example, in Estonia, the AHHAA science centre of Tartu ran events on two themes central to the ERC=Science² campaign, Music and Cities. Initially they organised a music week during which participants could learn the science behind music through hands-on activities and science theatre shows. Visitors were given an opportunity to make cup phones, examine how to get different pitches out of an ordinary drinking straw and discover the musical side of physics in their Science Theatre. An interactive science tent offered the possibility to examine the music-related scientific research that is currently being developed in Europe and to show the important discoveries that have been made.
For the Cities theme, the science centre took ERC funded researchers out of the museum: together, they went to a more everyday life setting, a library located in a shopping centre and a pub. ERC grantee Ülo Niinemets, plant physiologist and leader of the Centre of Excellence EcolChange at the Estonian University of Life Sciences, spoke about his work during a “science café” which led to inspiring conversations between the researcher and the audience.
Fellow ERC grantee Mart Loog, professor of molecular systems biology at the University of Tartu, developer of its synthetic biology centre of excellence, also hosted a science café. He discussed synthetic biology in general, its possibilities in the future, biohacking, bio-pirates, and genetic engineering.
The overall intention of this collaboration between the ERC and Ecsite is to combine the solid experience, tradition and culture of science communication actors such as museums and science centres with that of the research institutions and universities that aim at generating “researchers-communicators” - promoting new initiatives to increase public engagement and placing science research in its proper place in our society.
Why should researchers work with museums? Catherine Franche, Executive Director, Ecsite
Watching this video you are accepting Youtube cookies policy
“Science mediators and (communication) professionals can and want to work with scientists. Knock at their door!” Catherine Franche, Executive Director, Ecsite
This article is partly adapted from content first published by the Ecsite magazine Spokes, namely the articles:
The researcher as communicator: A competitor or an ally?
The Night as testing Lab
Rush hour