What science is like and what science is – non-professionally executed science

1. What science is like and what science is – non-professionally executed science Paul Murdin Institute of Astronomy Cambridge

2. Dialogue • The interaction between the scientist and the public usually takes the form of a dialogue • The scientist: • This is what I have done and discovered • The member of the public • These are my concerns about your work

3. Asymmetric role exchange • The scientist readily has the opportunity to exchange roles in the dialogue • In his laboratory: a scientist • In his home and in the street: he is a member of the public • Opportunities for lay people to taste being a scientist most often are the following • The lay person learns about science in the media • The lay person hears the scientist lecture • The lay person simulates scientific enquiry • The lay person learns what science is like

4. Busy people can speak to a wide public Science is presented by skilled interpreters Science is culled from the whole world The science is selected as a ‘story’ and has a beginning and an end ‘news value’ ‘importance’ May be ‘too neat’ Science in the media Positive Negative > Science as portrayed in the media may often be a distorted version of the real thing

5. Lecture describes an authentic experience ‘Right from the horse’s mouth’ Lecture is edited Just as with a scientific paper, history is rewritten (for reasons of logic) The context is selected Like a scientific paper, the lecture is too neat Hearing the lecture > Lectures teach (but experience teaches better) Joseph Wright of Derby (1766) The Orrery

6. E.g. a class-room learning experience Conduct an experiment Plot this against that ‘Prove Ohm’s Law’ This teaches the methodology The class room is not the laboratory The activity is ‘like’ science, it is not ‘real’ science As students know, it may be boring Simulated science > Simulated science is incomplete and may be dissatisfying

7. Science in education • An authoritarian structure • Books • Laws • Right answers • Proofs

8. What science is • The ‘answer’ is unknown but the working hypothesis comes before the results • The method of the study is defined by the scientist’s anticipation of the results • The scientist makes a conclusion about the result on the basis of incomplete data > The science is post-validated by reframing it according to rules of ‘scientific method’

9. Students may expect science to be Difficult Mathematical A long haul Impersonal Cautious Certain Teachers may teach science as Fun Visual Snappy Biographic Eureka moments Correct Students’ expectation and the teaching response > Real science appears unattractive, taught science is false

10. Uncertainty and human interaction in science • The reality of scientific enquiry is at odds with society’s perception • It is not certain, or completely reliable • It is constructed by people (who have, however, tried to remove themselves from it) • To view science as infallible or certain is to mis-understand science > How can mediators offer a more realistic scientific experience to the lay public?

11. Experiencing science • Observation was/is often a feature of non-professionally conducted natural history • E.g. look through this microscope/telescope and see amœbae/lunar craters • Record them • Robert Hooke Flea • James Nasmyth Lunar Mountains

12. But being a spectator may not be enough: What crowd is this? what have we here! we must not pass it by: A Telescope upon its frame, and pointed to the sky: … The Show-man chooses well his place, 'tis Leicester's busy Square; And is as happy in his night, for the heavens are blue and fair; Calm, though impatient, is the crowd; each stands ready with the fee, And envies him that's looking; what an insight must it be! … Whatever be the cause, 'tis sure that they who pry and pore Seem to meet with little gain, seem less happy than before: One after One they take their turn, nor have I one espied That did not slackly go away, as if dissatisfied William Wordsworth (1806) Star gazers > The crowd experienced the wonder but did not understand

13. Amateur astronomy • Individual astronomical research • the great amateurs • The Herschels, Carrington, Rosse, W.H.Smyth, Lassell, Nasmyth, Huggins… • The societies • Royal Astronomical Society • British Astronomical Association • AAVSO, etc

14. Some astronomy projects to offer real science opportunities 3C454.3 in June 2005 • Virtual Observatory • Professionally obtained data from the archives • AAVSO and BAA variable star photometry, e.g. eclipsing binaries, AGN • The Global Telescope Network • Optical backup for gamma ray astronomy by satellite • Small Telescope Science Program (STSP) • Comet photometry for Deep Impact mission • National School Observatory • Images taken to order by 2 metre telescope on La Palma • Faulkes Telescopes • Time on 2m telescopes on Maui and Siding Spring offered with coordinated scientific/educational projects

15. Images courtesy of the Faulkes Telescope Project

16. Example FT/NSO projects • Light curve of a BL Lac object • Sampling frequency important • Determine the size of an extrasolar planet from the light curve of its transit across its parent star • the opportunities are rare and localised • Measure and classify galaxies for a catalogue • there are so many that professionals cannot measure them all • Determine the orbit of an asteroid to see if it will crash into the Earth or observe a gamma ray burster • they are in the sky only briefly and you might be the lucky person with the telescope at the right time > Somewhere, some time: democratic science

17. Teacher training is pretty serious • E.g. Faulkes Telescope course • Waves, optics, refraction, reflection, electromagnetic spectrum • Colour imaging, human eye, colour pictures • Photons, electrons, CCDs • Mathematics, coordinate systems • Robotics, weather, sensors, IT systems • The scientific process

18. The system for communicating what science is • A facility • As few nerdy astronomy techniques as possible • As much cool astronomy science as possible • Some scientific principles • A scientific programme that matches on to ability-related educational objectives • Knowledgeable and confident teachers • Enthusiastic students, young or young at heart > Only the last is guaranteed

19. Conclusion • The essential characteristic of science is not to learn what is known, it is to enquire • The purpose of science education is not to teach facts or ‘laws’, it is to change heads • Coming to terms with what science is, not what it is like, is one of the biggest issues in science education • It is a key to the public development of a realistic attitude to science • The challenge is to put in place entire systems to communicate science in this way