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Dear All On 22 Jan 2011, at 07:59, Frank Burnet wrote: (edited) > Science Festivals, which are now increasing in number sharply > around the world, do tend to project a strong impression that they > are fun outings for kids and their families designed principally to > recruit more scientists rather than opportunity for adults to > engage with science and scientists, and the same has been said of > Science Centres. Given that these are two of the major ways in > which the image of science is projected to citizens, including the > gatekeepers of the cultural domain, It is not I think surprising > that the cultural dimensions of science /engineering are > overshadowed by its image as being principally interested in > promoting itself to a specific audience for a particular purpose. Does this not also feed the unfortunate misperception that science is something for kids, that sensible people 'grow out of'? And doesn't a lot of the 'grownup' science engagement we see talk about scary things such as Climate Change, GM Crops and so on? So science may be perceived as being either infantile or frightening, and not something sensible people want to let into their lives. Yet there are lots of non threatening and 'adult' approaches we could take to engaging gronwups with science. One possibility may be to focus on the history of science, and particularly the way that scientific and technical ideas have influenced 'general' history. People like history, and are generally comfortable with it, but much presentation of history lacks technical or scientific insight where this is relevant. Maybe this is another way to bridge the cultural gap, if it exists, and to get some money from the Arts crowd. too? Hope this helps Richard Ellam Richard Ellam L M Interactive Science Shows and Hands-On Stuff [log in to unmask] ********************************************************************** Further information about the psci-com discussion list, including list archive, can be found at the list web site: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/psci-com.html You may also change your settings and subscribe/unsubscribe to psci-com from the web site. Psci-com is part of the National Academic Mailing List Service, known as 'JISCMail'. It adheres to the JISCMail Acceptible Use Policy: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/policyandsecurity/acceptableuse.html and to the JISCMail guidelines for etiquette: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/policyandsecurity/etiquette.html Email commands: 1. To suspend yourself from the list, whilst on leave, for example, send an email to mailto:[log in to unmask] with the following message: set psci-com nomail -- [include hyphens] 2. To resume email from the list, send an email to [log in to unmask] with the message: set psci-com mail -- [include hyphens] 3. To leave psci-com, send an email to [log in to unmask] with the message: leave psci-com -- [include hyphens] Please allow up to 24 hours for these commands to activate. Remember that you will need to send commands using the same email address that you used to register on psci-com. To contact the Psci-com list owner, please send an email to: [log in to unmask] **********************************************************************