Assessment of dissemination activities of Chemistry and Physics performed during the Week of Science and Technology

Abstract

In Murcia, every year, science comes closer to the citizens during the Science and Technology Week (SeCyT), an event that lasts for a weekend, in which scientists from all fields try to involve general population in science. The scientific level of the audience must be taken into account to develop activities in which they are interested and that motivate them to get involved. At the same time, it is useful to assess the impact of the SeCyT activities on the scientific knowledge of the attending audience. To face both objectives, this year, we have designed a questionnaire composed of 20 questions, from which 35 % related to the activities carried out in our stand and 65 % related to basic scientific knowledge. The questionnaire was offered as a Wooclap to the audience once they had completed the activities. The analysis of the answers offered by the 69 participants that completed the questionnaire revealed that the general population answered correctly to 69 % of the questions related to basic scientific knowledge, whereas only 60 % of the questions related to the scientific activities developed in our stand were answered correctly. These results indicate that we should look for more efficient ways to get science closer to general population. Deepening our analysis, general population answered correctly to more chemistry related questions than to physics related ones. We could use this information to motivate and challenge the audience beyond their scientific knowledge in future dissemination events.