Grant expands ‘science café’ events featuring science and technology scholars in Richmond

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The National Science Foundation has awarded a two-year, $288,273 grant to Virginia Commonwealth University’s Science, Technology and Society program to expand its collaboration with Science Pub RVA to host science café events in Richmond featuring leading scholars from the field of science and technology studies.

As part of an NSF Advancing Informal Science Learning Exploratory Pathways grant, the organizers will host eight public events headlined by Science, Technology and Society scholars, with several focusing specifically on science and technology topics that are of particular interest to underrepresented populations in science, technology, engineering and math learning, including African-Americans and people with disabilities.

It will build on the existing collaboration between the Science, Technology and Society program, also known as STS@VCU, in the College of Humanities and Sciences and Science Pub RVA, a long-running science café series that is now under the auspices of the Community Idea Stations’ local NPR and PBS affiliates’ “Science Matters” initiative.

“People are drawn to science cafes for many reasons,” said Karen Rader, Ph.D., director of STS@VCU, a professor in the Department of History and an affiliate faculty member of the Media Art & Text Ph.D. program. “Some come primarily for the social enjoyment, others for their interest in a specific topic, and a large portion of folks come because of the general enthusiasm for science. People who participate in our STS-Science Pub RVA partnered science cafes will have the experience of hearing about and discussing science in broader contexts — historical, ethical, and sociological dimensions. We hope to promote greater community engagement in that conversation, as well as increase the depth and breadth of life-long learning.”

The grant, "Science Cafes: Modeling and Assessing a Structured Adult Informal Science Education Program," will focus on developing and assessing adult informal learning about the nature of science and attitudes through science.

"The mission of the Community Idea Stations is to use the power or our media company to educate, entertain and inspire,” said Debbie Mickle, Science Matters project manager. “Through our educational program, Science Matters, which serves both children and adults, we inspire our community to value science and understand its importance to our future. This partnership with STS @VCU and Science Pub RVA sets the stage for us to broaden the dialogue about science topics and reach a wider and more diverse audience."

The project will involve working with a professional educational evaluator to develop an assessment tool for adult learners in the structured informal learning environment of a science café, specifically measuring whether or how STS content shapes informal STEM learning, with an initial focus on whether it is the same or different than how STS shapes formal K-12 and university STEM learning.

Ultimately, the researchers hope their assessment of Richmond’s public science café events will enable other communities across the country to host similar science cafés and suggest best practices for employing STS knowledge in adult informal science learning programs.

In early 2017, the project will hold focus groups to develop ideas and themes for the science cafés. 

“The purpose of this step is to gain insight on the public’s perspective around the theme and role of science in their lives and society, as well as inform our selection of specific topics,” Rader said. “The focus groups will take place in January or February, and the first of eight partnered science cafes will begin sometime between May and September and continue into the 2017-18 academic year.”

Rader said she hopes the science cafés will contextualize science topics that attract people who might not otherwise choose to attend a public talk about science. In an effort to broaden the audience diversity, the researchers are working with the Neighborhood Outreach program in the VCU Division of Community EngagementEast District Family Resource Center, the Partnership for People with Disabilities in the VCU School of Education, the Department of Rehabilitation Counseling in the VCU School of Allied Health ProfessionsVCU Health and a variety of other VCU departments.