The British Science Association Leicestershire and Rutland Branch decided to hold the first Leicester Science Festival in 2010 during summer 2009 as part of the Branches event commitment. While the festival concept was introduced by the British Science Association Leicestershire and Rutland Branch, other partners came onboard for the project.
De Montfort University
University of Leicester
Through Leicester Education based at Snibston, emda.
The National Space Centre and Twycross Zoo donated family tickets as prizes.
Conclusions
The festival was held on the 12th and 13th March 2010 and the evaluation suggests that the festival successfully met the following primary British Science Association and branches aims:
- affirm science as a prime cultural force by engaging and inspiring adults and young people directly with science and technology, and their implications (primary British Science Association)
- The contributors were a mixture of academics, postgraduates and individuals who work with science on a daily basis. During the festival they spoke to the visitors about their subject and the positive feedback from all of the visitors suggests that they were successful at inspiring interest.
- to engage and inspire local audiences through the organisation of programmes of events of all types
- All schools were from Leicestershire and Northamptonshire. Visitors were not asked where they lived, but most of the IP addresses that tickets were ordered from were East Midlands. The festival encompassed a variety of sessions including lectures, workshops and hands-on stands.
- to promote the vision and aims of the British Science Association and to help build upon the British Science Association’s supporter base
- There was a British Science Association stand where visitors could sign up to the Association, and all contributors were asked if they would like to join on their application forms.
British Science Association Branches Handbook 2009 page 4
The remaining aims centre on provoking informed discussion. It is likely that the activities sparked informed discussion between the participants, which would fulfil these aims, but we have no solid evidence for this. In a future festival the activities could be expanded to include more discussion elements to fully meet all aims.
From feedback obtained on the day, both school students and general public visitors enjoyed their visit and the latter expressed an interest in coming to a future festival.
Several elements of the festival worked particularly well:
- A large exhibition room with stands to browse (with the school groups ~60 students were better in that space than 30).
- Having guides with the school groups was definitely helpful.
- Full day of activities, with variety between sessions, good for schools.
- Guides outside the buildings on Saturday were useful, and commented on positively.
Recommendations
There were two main improvements suggested by the visitors:
- More signposting on the day, a large banner in front of the Campus Centre was suggested by several people.
- More publicity before the event
If there was a definite cut-off for contributors, that we abide by, then programmes and maps can be produced in advance. These would help with directing individuals on the day.
Observation suggests that we were fortunate that the weather was fine; the walk between the buildings would have been too long if it was raining. If held at DMU again it may be better to hold workshops in more open spaces, like the food court space, to keep everything in the same building. If the festival is a lot bigger then the rooms in Queens could provide a better option, they are easier to find than the Hawthorn rooms.
Advance bookings for sessions would help avoid the empty early sessions and crowed mid-day sessions.
On the school day gaps between sessions would help facilitate movement between session, as would time at the beginning and end of the day for orientation, and to gather together the separate groups from each school at the end. Allowing reasonable time for this (at least 30minutes at the end of the day) and a specific location would also permit better evaluation of the students experience.
Contributors that did both lectures and stands struggled to balance their time, particularly as the lecture rooms were so far from the exhibition space.
Detailed evaluation
Friday 12th March
150 school students attended from three schools
- Outwoods Edge Primary, Loughborough
- Welland Park Community College, Market Harborough
- Kettering Science Academy, Kettering
The students were accompanied by 9 adults
All students asked enjoyed the festival.
All teachers asked believed that their students enjoyed the festival, that it met their expectations (one teacher explicitly stated that it exceeded her expectations) and that the sessions were appropriate for their students.
The favourite activities for the students (more than one mention) were:
- Twycross Zoo workshop
- Segways workshop
- StarDome
- Sublime Science stand
- IOP physics stand
- Archaeology stand
Two activities were mentioned negatively, the StarDome was too hot at the end of the day and some of the students did not enjoy sitting still for the lecture.
The lecture would probably have been better as a shorter session given the more interactive other activities it was compared to.
Saturday 13th March
Information gathered through registration and short interviews.
145 visitors were registered, it is believed that a small number of additional visitors took part but are absent from our numbers.
As is typical of science festivals there was a bias towards males 49% compared to 37%. However, the degree of bias is obscured by the 14% of visitors for whom no gender was recorded. Although no data was specifically collected for this purpose, it was apparent through observation that a third to half of the visitors were from ethnic minority groups. This is atypical for science festivals, but undoubtedly reflects the diverse communities living in the city of Leicester.
Most visitors came as a family, only 6% of the adults attended without children.
All visitors interviewed enjoyed or were enjoying the festival. The main reasons given were (in order of popularity)
- Hands-on activities
- Exhibits interesting
- Contributors are enthusiastic about their subjects
- Variety of activities
All visitors also stated that they would come to a future science festival in Leicester.
Several activities were mentioned positively, none negatively. The Van de Graaf generator, StarDome and IOP physics busking were mentioned by multiple visitors.
Four reasons for attending stood out, stated by approximately a quarter of respondents:
- Child is interested in science
- Family is interested in science
- Family day out
- Learning about science is useful
Individuals heard about the festival from a wide range of sources but only word-of mouth, the Leicester Mercury and Leaflets were mentioned more than once.
None of the visitors had a negative view of science, though some were neutral, and this is supported by the high level of “other” science activities they had participated in since January 2010:
94% had watched a science television programme
88% had read a science article in a newspaper or magazine
66% had visited a science centre, zoo or museum
66% had used a science website
The interview used a small sample of statements from the Public Attitudes to Science 2008 (chart below) to look at the general attitudes towards science of the festival visitors.
(SA=Strongly Agree, A=Agree, N=Neither agree nor disagree, D=Disagree, SD=Strongly Disagree)
The results show that none of the visitors had a negative attitude towards science, not a particular surprise given the self-selecting audience of a science festival, but that only half feel sufficiently informed about science. This suggests, along with the positive interest in a future festival, that there is a market for this type of public free-choice learning event. There was also a clear majority view that scientists should communicate more and this type of venue gives local scientists an opportunity to do so, without organising their own event.
References
British Science Association (2009) British Science Association Branches Handbook 2009, British Science Association.
People Science and Policy Ltd and TNS (2008) Public Attitudes to Science 2008 A Survey, Research Councils UK and Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills.
List of Contributors
| Nicole Gibson and Richard Buttinger |
Delisle School |
| Tom Carter |
Crown Hills School |
| Peter Bodily |
Uppingham School |
| Debbie Miles-Williams |
UniLeics Archaeology |
| Tracey Dickens |
UniLeics Physics |
| Alice Barkwell and Louise Haste |
UniLeics biochem postgrad |
| Sandip Badyal |
UniLeics biochem postgrad |
| Mark Bradshaw |
DMU mouse mat printing |
|
DMU Forensics |
| Liz |
DMU Geiger counter |
|
DMU cosmetics |
| Lara Thomas |
DMU segways (Paul Dean) |
| Glyn Derrick |
LboroUni Colour of Money |
| Sophie Glover |
Leicester Council Recycling |
| Stuart Brown |
Leicester Crime Scene Officers |
| David Wilkinson |
IOP |
| Marc Wileman |
Sublime Science |
| Cathy Brown and Bruce Rogers |
Lab in a Lorry |
| Jo Hardy |
Twycross Zoo |
| Audrey Matthews |
DMU Science of Chocolate and Science of Underwear and WI contact |
| Phil Brown |
Walk through the Solar System posters |
| Nick Barker |
University of Warwick |
| Brian Kennedy |
Snibston |
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