Science communication by laypersons for laypersons

Context

What would science communication look like if the people who have so far 'only' been its recipients could shape it actively as 'producers'?

To answer this question, this project cooperated with the Swiss Science Center Technorama, which pursues the goal of getting its visitors in touch with science via direct sensual encounters with natural phenomena. Even though the visitors play an active role here when compared to other museums, communication in the exhibition remains largely a one-way street: The text which accompany the hands-on exhibits at the Technorama describe and explain the experienced phenomena from a scientific perspective.

About the project

This project intended to open up this one-sided form of communication. For this purpose, visitor workshops of about 45 minutes were developed in which participants were able to experience a specific natural phenomenon by means of a hands-on exhibit. Afterwards, they were asked to draft texts in which they shared their experience with other visitors. These texts were later integrated into the exhibition at the Technorama.

In addition, video material created in these workshops reconstructed the strategies visitors use to communicate about scientific phenomena by conversation analytic means. Finally, all workshop participants were invited to a half day event on a weekend.

Based on this input and the teams conversation analytic expertise, the following questions were answered empirically:

• Which linguistic and bodily strategies do visitors use to communicate their experiences with scientific phenomena?
• Which scientific topics are important to them? How exactly do they relate science to themselves, their identities and their every-day lives?
• Which image of science grounds the didactic activities of the workshop participants?
• Are there any differences between the explicit conceptions of science the participants express during the workshop and the implicit conceptions that can be reconstructed from their didactic efforts during the 45 minute workshops?

In addition, the participants of the weekend workshop had the possibility of being involved in the development of a second phase of short workshops. This way, the short workshops could be adapted towards the real needs and wishes of the visitors.

Involvement of citizen scientists

This project radicalised a current trend in the research on science communication by treating lay persons as people who can be active communicators in science communication instead of people who must first be educated ('from deficit to dialogue'). In doing so, visibility of linguistics in this research area was increased and contributed to an emerging field of linguistic research.

At the same time, this project enabled citizens to get involved in science communication based on their individual experience. This also opened up new possibilities for the Technorama to radically rethink its role as an institution of science communication.