Public science is a term for research that is conducted amongst, or includes, the

public In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociological concept of the ''Öffentlichkei ...

. Two traditions of public science have emerged, one based on participatory action research and another based on

science outreach Science outreach, also called Education and Public Outreach (EPO or E/PO) or simply public outreach, is an umbrella term for a variety of activities by research institutes, universities, and institutions such as science museums, aimed at promoting ...

Participatory action research

The participatory action research approach seeks to develop a critical framework for making systematic inquiry and analysis a public enterprise. It is committed to valuing knowledges that have been historically marginalized and delegitimized (i.e., youth, prisoner, immigrant, farmer) alongside traditionally recognized knowledges (i.e., scholarly). Through the formation of research collectives, it aims to share the various knowledges and resources held by its individual members so members can participate as equally as possible. The choice of appropriate research questions, design, methods and analysis as well as useful research products are decided collectively. Institutions for this form of public science include the Public Science Project. Examples of public science projects in the participatory action research tradition include the Morris Justice Project.

Science outreach

Man with a telescope in Prospect Park (92556)

The

approach has some similarities to

citizen science Citizen science (CS) (similar to community science, crowd science, crowd-sourced science, civic science, participatory monitoring, or volunteer monitoring) is scientific research conducted with participation from the public (who are sometimes re ...

but typically describes projects that are conducted outdoors or in another type of public or accessible space such as a public park, metro stop, library, university campus, etc. Similar to

public art Public art is art in any Media (arts), media whose form, function and meaning are created for the general public through a public process. It is a specific art genre with its own professional and critical discourse. Public art is visually and phy ...

, it includes aspects of collaboration, community support and involvement, and site specificity. Public science efforts in the

tradition include Science on the Buses, in which city buses in many major European Union cities were decorated with large informational science posters in November 2002. Likewise, a project in Toronto placed "advertisements" with science facts on buses in Toronto during July 2009. Science City was a public science initiative that ran from June 1994 through May 1995. Created by staff and consultants from the

New York Hall of Science The New York Hall of Science, also known as NYSCI, is a science museum located in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park in the New York City borough of Queens, in the section of the park that is in Corona. It occupies one of the few remaining structures fr ...

, Science City was an outdoor exhibition that utilized the street, fences, buildings and other public structures in New York City to attract the "non-museum-going" public to the science in everyday life. The exhibition asked questions such as "Why is it warmer in the city?", "What pulses under the street?" and "What's under the sidewalk?" to help increase public awareness about the science and technology that runs invisibly underneath modern urban life.

Science Café Science is a systematic endeavor that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe. Science may be as old as the human species, and some of the earliest archeological evidence for ...

s, founded by the public science pioneer Duncan Dallas, are public science events that initiate a discussion on a science topic in pubs or cafes, usually with a local researcher in attendance to answer questions and present information.

Science festival A science festival is a festival that showcases science and technology with the same freshness and flair that would be expected from an arts or music festival and primarily targets the general public. These public engagement events can be varied ...

s can also be grouped into this category of public science efforts, with modern incarnations of festivals including a range of learner-centered activities and events conducted in public spaces. Public science initiatives often attempt to reach new audiences (particularly, non-experts who might not actively seek out science), in addition to existing science outreach audiences, by hosting events in alternative

informal learning Informal learning is characterized "by a low degree of planning and organizing in terms of the learning context, learning support, learning time, and learning objectives". It differs from formal learning, non-formal learning, and self-regulated l ...

environments. By definition, such public science projects are outside the walls of the

science centre A science museum is a museum devoted primarily to science. Older science museums tended to concentrate on static displays of objects related to natural history, paleontology, geology, industry and industrial machinery, etc. Modern trends in mu ...

science museum A science museum is a museum devoted primarily to science. Older science museums tended to concentrate on static displays of objects related to natural history, paleontology, geology, industry and industrial machinery, etc. Modern trends in mu ...

, where the main focus of the particular space is not typically science outreach. An example of a specific public science initiative in astronomy is From Earth to the Universe (FETTU), a project of the

International Year of Astronomy The International Year of Astronomy (IYA2009) was a year-long celebration of astronomy that took place in 2009 to coincide with the 400th anniversary of the first recorded astronomical observations with a telescope by Galileo Galilei and the pu ...

2009 (IYA2009). FETTU displayed large-scale images of astronomical objects with contextual information and supplementary materials and activities in non-traditional and mostly public locations such as parks, airports, art festivals, and shopping malls. By 2011, FETTU had been exhibited at about 1000 sites worldwide, with 50 sites in the United States. One result from FETTU demonstrated a trend towards more non-self-selective audiences for science communications in these public spaces.

References

Science Science is a systematic endeavor that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe. Science may be as old as the human species, and some of the earliest archeological evidence for ...

Participatory action research

Science outreach

References

External links