Public Science: science outreach that has been conducted outdoors or in another type of public or accessible space such as a public park, metro stop, library etc. with the intention of engaging the public
We all have heard of public art and have seen it many times. Some of the most famous examples around the world include …
Using this definition, we can go back and identify many projects that could arguably be considered public science. Here are some of our favorites. SC: ran from June 1994 through May 1995. Created by organizers from the New York Hall of Science, "Science City" was an outdoor exhibition that utilized the street, fences, buildings and other public structures in New York City to attract the "non-museum-going" public to the science in everyday life; For SB, city buses were decorated with large informational science posters inside or outside, taking science concepts outside museum and planetarium walls; Other sci festivals include San Diego, Philadelphia, SF
Music: a NASA-funded that supports astronomy programs at outdoor music festivals; VSS: a project from the National Center for Earth and Space Science Education (NCESSE), has installed scaled replicas of the major bodies of the Solar System in several U.S. cities (including Washington, D.C., and Houston, TX) with others planned (Des Moines, IA, Orlando, FL, and Baltimore, MD, for example).
This is how KKA and I got started in this area. FETTU was a grassroots project that created a digital repository of astronomical images that local organizers were then encouraged to use to make their own exhibits. The results were inspiring.
Chicago and Atlanta airports: millions of people saw the images – they are still there. Scores of versions of FETTU in Brazil. Here in China, featured outside the Beijing Planetarium (?).
FETTSS is tied to NASA’s Year of the Solar System that runs from October 2010 through August 2012.
FETTSS is tied to NASA’s Year of the Solar System that runs from October 2010 through August 2012.