Let’s get virtual! Reinventing a science festival during a pandemic: limitations and insights

Figures & data

Table 1. Main activities in the online Science Bazaar 2021 and how they were adapted from physical to live Science Bazaar.

Activity name	Description	Activity type	Adaptation
Electric racing cars	One live event describing the history of electric cars.	Lecture	Moved from a virtual reality use of a racing car to a lecture by a young charismatic speaker.
Rocket cars	Demonstration of how to build own rocket car from straws, cardboard wheels and a balloon	Hands-on	Packs sent to schools and homes rather than face to face. It was also accessible to those who did not receive the packs as alternative materials were suggested.
Crocodiles of the World Ltd	Talks on the behaviour and ecology of crocodiles with live animals. Virtual tour of crocodiles of the world with a focus on conservation.	Virtual tour	Video of the presenter in the zoo rather than live interaction with animals.
Jungle explorer	Scientist reveals the lives of Borneo’s animals through camera traps.	Virtual tour	Moved from presenter at a table to online showing of films with integrated questions.
Augmented reality (AR)	Looking through an AR vision tool to learn about AR.	Lecture	Moved from hands-on to a pure lecture.
Bright Sparks Science CIC	Interactive science show with experiments that can be performed at home	Hands-on	Hands-on kitchen science that can be done at home alongside presenter.
Physiotherapy	Learning the parts of the body and how physiotherapists can help with health.	Lecture	Moved from hands-on to a pure lecture.
Chinese handicraft	Video with instructions on how to make origami animals.	Hands-on	Video instruction rather than face-to-face instruction; children needed own supplies.
Merlin the Electron Microscope!	Demonstration on how an electron microscope work, and creation of 3D models of cells.	Demonstration	Demonstration only rather than demonstration and hands-on (children were able to look into the microscope).
Wildlife friendly coffee	The story of coffee production and how it helps wildlife.	Game	Video game rather than live interaction with scientist explaining about coffee production.

Figure 1. Box plots embedded in violin plots showing the predicted number of unique viewers per resource used, divided by resource type, in the online Science Bazaar 2021. Predictions are based on a generalised linear mixed model.

Table 2. Pairwise comparisons following a generalised linear mixed model to estimate the influence of the activity type on the number of unique viewers who accessed the resources used in the online Science Bazaar 2021.

Pairwise comparison	Ratio
	Mean	95%CI
Demonstration/game introduction	1.36	0.88–2.11
Demonstration/ hands-on	0.88	0.68–1.13
Demonstration/lecture	1.33	1.04–1.70*
Demonstration/podcast	1.49	0.84–2.66
Demonstration/virtual tour	0.77	0.48–1.22
Game introduction/hands-on	0.65	0.44–0.96*
Game introduction/lecture	0.98	0.67–1.41
Game introduction/podcast	1.10	0.66–1.84
Game introduction/virtual tour	0.57	0.31–0.98*
Hands-on/lecture	1.51	1.30–1.76**
Hands-on/podcast	1.70	1.02–2.94*
Hands-on/virtual tour	0.87	0.54–1.41
Lecture/podcast	1.13	0.67–1.90
Lecture/virtual tour	0.58	0.36–0.92*
Podcast/virtual tour	0.51	0.25–0.97*

*p < 0.05 based on Bonferroni-Holm pairwise comparisons.

Table 3. Comparison between physical and online Science Bazaars.

	Physical			Online
	2018	2019	2020	2021
N activities	23	20	36	28 recorded + 12 live
Estimated N participants	2000–2200	1200–1500	1200–1500	700–1000
Participants who filled the feedback form (%)	16.4–18.0	15.2–19.0	15.0–18.8	3.3–4.7
New participants (%)^a	76.4	58.2	38.7	52.4
Holding time (mean ± SD in h)^a	2.9 ± 1.2	3.1 ± 1.4	2.8 ± 1.1	2.2 ± 1.4*
N people in the group^a	4.0 ± 1.7	3.8 ± 1.5	3.7 ± 1.3	2.4 ± 0.9*

^a Data based on feedback forms.

*p < 0.05 based on Mann–Whitney test between online and physical events.

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author, KAIN, upon reasonable request.