Science festivals and the cultivation of science capital: a retrospective study of science capital

ABSTRACT

This article presents findings from a secondary study of science capital within the context of U.S. science festivals. Drawing on attendee survey data from eleven science festivals across the United States (n = 1,645) and evaluation surveys from a statewide school-based festival program (n = 2,320), we explore the concept of science capital (i.e. science-related cultural capital, science-related social capital, and science-related behavior and practices) within science festival programs. Using linear regression, we utilize attendee demographics and event characteristics to predict shifts in science capital. Our results indicate that members of STEM minority groups (i.e. girls and women; Black/African Americans, Latino/Hispanic/Latinx, Native Americans, Native Hawaiians and Other Pacific Islanders) report greater shifts in science capital scores. Time at event and scientist interactions at the event are also associated with greater shifts in scientific cultural capital. We interpret these findings in light of Philip and Azevedo's work (2017) on out-of-school science learning and equity. As a concept, science capital offers a useful lens through which to view informal science learning, science communication, and how public science events (e.g. science festivals) play an important role in contributing to the local STEM learning ecosystem.

KEYWORDS:

• Science capital
• science festivals
• informal learning
• family science
• informal science learning
• out-of-school learning

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank Todd Boyette and Katherine Nielson for support of this work and their contributions in helping to lead EvalFest. We would also like to thank our EvalFest partners for the time and energy they devoted to collecting the data included in this article.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

Participants of this study did not agree for their data to be shared publicly thus supporting data are not available.

Notes

1 Research on festival audiences to date has focused exclusively on Expo-style events (Kennedy et al., 2018; Nielsen et al., 2019).

2 ‘Our main concern is that introducing ‘science capital’ may undermine a focus on the ways in which inequalities and injustice in science education are coterminous with other forms of systematic inequality’ (1,143–1,144).

3 Although the EvalFest community is comprised of 25 festival partners across the U.S., only eleven partners collected intercept survey data during Expos in 2018.

4 Research shows that positive experiences with science learning are important predictors of future aspirations (Ainley & Ainley, 2011).

5 Median income was not statistically significant in previous models, thus not included here.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Science Foundation under grant #1423004. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.