Science communicators have been having this pseudo-debate for as long as .. err ... there have been science communicators.

As in this case, most people end up in violent agreement when they realise they all meant different things by "fun" - it is something that is superficial, fleeting, juvenile, easy and vacuous or is it anything that is pleasurable? 

In my head, "fun" simply means "pleasure". 

In science, this pleasure though can come from many different aspects that people have raised here - curiosity and intrigue; interest; awe; surprise; visceral explosions and spectacle; *and* the joy of discovery and understanding. 

But pleasure has little to do with being easy. It turns out that easy computer games didn't sell. "Hard fun" is what computer game designers call the vital challenge element of all truly engaging experiences - they are fun, *because* they are hard.

Doing and understanding the science that researchers study is *not* easy.  In fact, for *certain* audiences, this can be a compelling case for choosing to study science further. Learning and fun/pleasure are not polar opposites along some imagined scale. 
  

However, Erik's provocative blog* which started this discussion, appears to not to be criticising "fun" as a word we use explicitly with our audiences (in which case it is their interpretation of the word which matters more than our own), but rather as an *approach* to science communication. (Albeit I *suspect* he is condemning the "superficial" interpretation above.)


Humans are pleasure-seeking animals. If one's goal is to create interest among people currently disengaged with science (and there are of course other legitimate goals to science communication), it would seem perverse not to emphasise the parts of science which are most likely to give pleasure to the largest proportion of your target audience. 

And the distracting, brief, free-choice interactions in which science communication normally takes place means that communicators are fighting to get attention and land a single, big message. It's usually not the time for nuance (eg "actually doing scientific research can be tedious, repetitive and frustrating *at times*.") Informal learning is the starting point to a journey, rarely the destination. 

But, despite these constraints, most of the professional science communicators I observe care about demonstrating the wide range of sources of pleasure in science. They do this through tone, intention, body language and self-disclosure as much as through adjectives. 


For me, the real question in science communication is not whether we should be using pleasure as a hook, but does the source of this pleasure come from:
- within science ("letting the fun in science out" - internal hooks) 
or 
- from outside science (artificially "making science fun" - external hooks)? 

In practice, science communication usually depends on a strategic mix of these types of hook, but the external hooks are dangerously seductive and can distract, or even damage *if* they are used unwisely. 

If any of this makes sense and you want to find out more about my take on using "fun" (code - pleasure and emotional engagement) and hooks in science education here's a draft version of a chapter I wrote for an ASE publication:
http://learn-differently.com/teachers/resources

    
Keep having fun! :-)

All the best

Paul


*Whilst I know and respect Erik, I'm not sure that his apparent criticism of the medium of science centre *exhibits* for a failure to facilitate a "*dialogue* between science and society" is a particularly fruitful argument. Always match the affordances of your medium to your message. (The well-expressed blog response by Ian Simmons is well worth a read for those interested.)


-- 
Dr Paul McCrory

learn differently ltd

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