70 adults answered our questionnaire at the Otley Science Fair last Saturday. All ages (though mostly 26 – 50) and roughly equal numbers of men and women.
We wanted to find out more about people’s science education, what they are interested in, and how they like to find out about science.
So what did we find? Well, most people said they last studied science in a formal way more than 20 years ago. Despite this, people seemed quite well informed – just over half said they knew a fair amount or a lot about science. But the rest felt they knew only a bit or the basics.
Most people said they learned about science in various ways. Lots (52) said ‘at science festivals and events’ – no surprise there, as we were at a science festival. 45 said science museums, and 45 said TV. 36 said books, and 35 websites. I won’t go through the whole list, though 24 people said they learned about science from their children or grandchildren.
The science issues of most concern to the people in Otley were global warming and renewable sources of energy, followed by eliminating incurable diseases. We asked people, ‘if science could solve one problem, which problem would you choose?’ and the same concerns came up again, with 28 people naming global warming/renewable energy, and seven illness and disease. Solving ageing, population and poverty were named a few times, and then there was a long list of ideas each proposed by one person only. Several of these related to the environment but there was also getting rid of death, helping people to live their dreams, finding life on other planets, removing greed, stopping the world from ending and more …. lots of ideas to keep scientists busy for a long time to come.
The next question was surprisingly difficult. Can you name a famous living scientist. Most people were blank at first, but 58 said yes (though three then came up with someone dead). Stephen Hawking was named most often (24 people) with Robert Winston and Otley-based scientist (and S Factor member) Marty Jopson coming equal second, each named by five people. A total of 15 male scientists were named, and just three women: Susan Greenfield, Emily Cummins and Lisa Lilley.
Nearly everyone said they wanted to learn more about science and, very helpfully for us, a lot of people told us how best to make science interesting. Making it interactive, fun, experimental and practical appealed to lots of people. Making it relevant to current social and political issues was also important. ‘Everything it wasn’t at school,’ said one person.
The questionnaire gave us lots of useful information to help us plan and present the S Factor activities over the coming months. We’ll run it online and at other activities to see what others have to say.
The S Factor 