Although it’s hard to quantify, says Ken Skeldon

When it comes to inspiring and enthusing people about science, particularly the young, then the high-impact science show remains a most valuable asset. Justifying this, however, can be somewhat difficult. Evaluations and questionnaires tend to capture snapshot opinion, leaving the question of whether one-off science events really leave a lasting impact.

To help shed some light on this, I’d like to share my experiences from the Moray Science Festival, now in its fifteenth year, held at Moray College in Elgin. The Moray Festival has that rarest of things in the world of science outreach – a repeat audience accessed by repeat presenters. This allows show presenters to experience first-hand a rather interesting year-by-year follow-through of visitors, particularly school children.

Feedback

Moira Currie, Curriculum Leader for Science at Moray College, and the Festival’s Director, opens out the Festival to all children aged between 9 – 12 across the participating schools, and to some aged 8 – 10 in smaller schools. The result is that many pupils will attend the festival at least twice, if not three times, over a three-year period.

I have been taking my electricity show, Arcs & Sparks, to Moray since 2003, and on average I’d say about 20 per cent of the audiences have seen the show before. This, combined with the interactive nature of the show lending itself well to on-the-fly Q&A evaluation, has led to my picking up on interesting trends. It’s fair to say such feedback is largely anecdotal, but then it’s directly from the very same children you presented the science to first-time around and, in my view, that makes it invaluable.

What is encouraging about the feedback received at Moray, is that the kids remember not just the more spectacular demos but also quite intricate principles behind the science. It is difficult to quantify, but I am sure that some of the kids are being turned onto science as a result of the events. This is supported by teachers’ evaluations in Moray who regularly cite support and motivation for ongoing classroom activity as the reason for attending the festival.

Evaluation

The festival also has a public day after the shows in the schools. In this way, the school events act as an advertising platform for encouraging families back at the weekend. An interesting pattern has emerged. I now recognise people at the Families Day, both from having seen them in previous years, but also because they’ve been with their school and have returned bringing adults!

Whatever the evaluations contain about lasting impact with regard to young people and science, one thing that is sure to help is a familial environment where curiosity and interest is encouraged or, at the very least, free to grow. I am seeing that among the visitors to the festival in Moray. Indeed, the repeat visitor aspect of the festival is one which is now leading the organisers to modify their evaluation strategy so as to include more follow-through feedback in addition to the follow-up feedback presently requested. Specifically, the introduction of children enrollment forms will allow repeat visitors to be identified while teachers who follow the advance of their class over two years will be asked to comment on any impact the festival might be having on science in the classroom.

Whether the festival filters through to higher stages of the education system, is more difficult to guage. A long-term evaluation is certainly required.

The ‘Aah!’ factor

It is absolutely key to inspire kids at an early age when so many things are competing for their interest and attention. Moira Currie, the Festival Director, always says of her teaching that the best feedback is seeing the transition between ‘Eh?’ and ‘Aah!’ I would say from my own perspective as a Moray Festival presenter, that I am seeing many kids where the ‘Aah!’ factor has been retained from one year to the next.

On this basis alone, I’m satisfied that the science show approach is achieving a measured impact for at least some of the kids. And, as I always have at the back of my mind, if even one child is turned on to science long term as the result of an outreach event, that’s good enough for me.

Dr Ken Skeldon is Development Coordinator for Public Engagement, University of Aberdeen