How are you a scientist? There is a quiz for that

If you are sitting at the pub with your Trivia team and a pint of beer, are you the type of person to simply swallow your drink? Or are you more likely to study the glass and try to measure its focal distance?

If you are in this last group, it is likely that you have high scientific capital – and you may not even know.

So … What does that mean?

“I like to think of Science Capital in the same way as we think you are what you eat,” says Shanii Phillips.

Shanii is responsible for the audience research at Scitech, a non -profit scientific learning center in Perth. “You are the sum of your scientific capital,” she said.

Science Capital is a relatively new measure developed to understand people’s commitment with the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM).

Shanii notes that it was designed by a group of researchers in the United Kingdom about ten years ago and helps to provide a framework to think about how “scientific” people are.

Scientific capital is not a measure of intelligence or a judgment. It is rather a way of understanding how science fits into your daily life, whether by making advertising anecdotes, walking along the beach or by visiting a scientific center like Scitech.

“It is not only how intelligent you are or how much you know science. This is how you think, what you do and that you know. It is binding cultural and social,” explains Shanii.

“I think that sums up beautifully the point of everything we do scientific communication. “”

In a recent reportShanii and researchers from the University of Australia-Western used scientific capital to measure the social impact on the community of Western Australia of the work carried out at the Scitech.

The report had two objectives.

It was an attempt to assess how Australians in the West engaged with Scitech and Stem through the objective of the scientific capital. He also worked as a pilot study Evaluate the usefulness of scientific capital as a tool to assess the social impacts of scientific centers.

Preach it

Alongside his collaborators, the Dre Heather Bray and Tarryn Basden in Uwa, Shanii questioned more than 650 people aged 18 to 85, asking questions such as “how often do you talk about science with other people?” And “do you know someone who works as a scientist or in a work that uses science?”

Interviews were also conducted with six respondents in the categories of low and medium -sized scientific capital and five who were deemed to have high scientific capital. The interviews have enabled a more in-depth question of how respondents saw their science-any.

By assessing the scientific capital of respondents and interviewed, Shanii and his colleagues were able to generate information about how they engage with science and scitech.

“The scientific capital, for me, is another way of better understanding people and where they come from,” she said.

For example, one could assume that those who frequent a scientific center like Scitech are all equipped with high scientific capital and constantly engaged with STEM subjects.

Shanii’s research shows that this is not necessarily the case – for respondents with low scientific capital, going to the Scitech is also precious. They consider it a safe space.

“People who regularly engage with Scitech have a wide range of scientific capital levels,” she said. “We are not only preaching to converts.”

This highlights the value of scientific centers to engage the community, whatever the science they might think.

Capital

The report concludes that Science Capital can be a useful framework for understanding the impact of scientific centers on the community.

Other research used the scientific capital framework to try to understand the aspirations of young people and how scientific capital could influence their career paths and their objectives.

Shanii sees scientific capital as a precious tool For scientific communicators and educators, who can also help scientific centers adapt experiences for their audience.

And understand a person’s scientific capital opens up possibilities to enable him to make informed decisions about the future.

“We know that there will be important socio -scientific problems in the 21st century that we must approach – and we need diversity of thought,” explains Shanii.

In practice, this means that we need people with different levels of scientific capital as well as different socioeconomic and migrants and beyond.

It doesn’t matter that you are interested in the focal length Of your glass of beer or not, the tension of these challenges is supported by these differences.

“From the diversity of thought, we will offer the best solutions,” explains Shanii.