Standard Indicators for the Social Appropriation of Science Persist Eu
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STANDARD INDICATORS FOR THE SOCIAL APPROPRIATION OF SCIENCE PERSIST_EU ERASMUS+ PROJECT Lessons learned Standard indicators for the social appropriation of science. Lessons learned First published: March 2021 ScienceFlows Research Data Collection © Book: Coordinators, authors and contributors © Images: Coordinators, authors and contributors © Edition: ScienceFlows and FyG consultores The Research Institute on Social Welfare Policy (Polibienestar) Campus de Tarongers C/ Serpis, 29. 46009. Valencia [email protected] How to cite: PERSIST_EU (2021). Standard indicators for the social appropriation of science: Lessons learned. Valencia (Spain): ScienceFlows & Science Culture and Innovation Unit of University of Valencia ISBN: 978-84-09-30199-7 This project has been funded with support from the European Commission under agreements 2018-1-ES01-KA0203-050827. This publication reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein. PERSIST_EU PROJECT Project number: 2018-1-ESO1-KA0203-050827 Project coordinator: Carolina Moreno-Castro (University of Valencia) COORDINATING PARTNER ScienceFlows- Universitat de València. Spain Carolina Moreno-Castro Empar Vengut-Climent Isabel Mendoza-Poudereux Ana Serra-Perales Amaia Crespo-Costa PARTICIPATING PARTNERS Instituto de Ciências Sociais da Universidade de Lisboa (ICS) Trnavská univerzita v Trnave Portugal Slovakia Ana Delicado Martin Fero Helena Vicente Lenka Diener João Estevens Peter Guran Jussara Rowland Karlsruher Institut Fuer Technology Danmar Computers (KIT) Poland Germany Margaret Miklosz Annette Leßmöllmann Chris Ciapala André Weiß Łukasz Kłapa Observa Science in Society FyG Consultores Italy Spain Giuseppe Pellegrini Fabián Gómez Andrea Rubin Aleksandra Staszynka Nieves Verdejo INDEX About the project and the book• 6 1. Cosmovision and worldviews of the university European students• 9 2. PERSIST_EU ICT tool• 14 2.1 What is the PERSIST tool• 15 3. Science Camps as an activity to use the tool• 20 3.1 Insights into the ScienceCamps 3.2 Results from the ScienceCamps 4. Common questions posed by participants on each topic• 35 4.1 Climate change• 36 4.2 Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO)• 42 4.3 Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM)• 47 4.4 Vaccines• 50 Annexes• 56 Annex 1. How to create and manage a questionnaire• 57 Annex 2. How to create personalized e-mails• 66 Annex 3. Activities to use the ICT platform• 67 Annex 4. Examples of sources for the questionnaires• 74 About the project and the book This book is the result of a two-and-a-half- the pandemic situation and the particular year close collaboration between the seven circumstances of COVID-19, the final number partners of the Erasmus+ KA203 project of participants was reduced, and the Science “Knowledge, beliefs, perceptions about the camps had to be held online (Teams, Zoom, science of European students (Persist_EU)”. Blackboard Collaborate) and not in person, during the spring of 2020, as originally planned. One of the project’s main objectives was to In any case, being online, we had an advantage, develop a tool to evaluate European students’ and that is that students from other universities initial knowledge when configuring their beliefs participated, and therefore the plurality of and perceptions about different science topics. participants increased. The Science Camps with Once the tool (platform) had been designed, the students of the five European universities the next step consisted of carrying out activities allowed us to know the modifications in the (Science camps), which would allow validating response scales, before and after the training, the platform and identifying changes in in the four blocks of questions on knowledge, perception (through questionnaires with Likert belief, trust and perception. All the results of scales), which students experienced during the five activities are collected in this book and their participation in training activities, organised guides to replicate the activities in other areas. within the framework of the project. For this, five From the project consortium, we hope that Science camps were organised in five European the results obtained will serve to support the universities, two in central Europe (Germany, platform’s use to make evaluations of specific Slovakia), and three nations in southern topics or other science dissemination activities Europe (Portugal, Spain and Italy). Therefore, and incorporate the research results into public we make sure to cover differences related to health or environmental programs. In short, it socio-geopolitical issues. The topics that were helps improve science communication. chosen for the debate were climate change, genetically-modified organisms (GMOs), The project had two central objectives linked complementary and alternative medicines to two intellectual outputs. The first intellectual (CAM) and vaccines, and it was expected product that we developed was an evaluation that around 100 students would participate in method, based on an open, online platform each of the universities of the PERSIST_EU so that in the future, any teaching activity consortium (Valencia, Karlsruhe Institute of and potentially at any educational level Technology, Trnava, Lisbon, and Vicenza). could evaluate whether students modify their worldview once they would acquire The original idea of the project was to have knowledge and training on a subject or, if the opinions of 500 students, 100 from each despite knowledge, the lack of confidence in of the participating universities, but due to science, or in a particular subject, continues Persist_EU 5 to persist. Therefore, launching the open- in terms of their social science. Besides, these access platform for everyone was the first scales can also measure when fundamentalist challenge. Subsequently, hard work was done positions are due to ideological or religious to incorporate a questionnaire into the platform issues. It can be identified when the responses to measure how the responses would be did not move. For this reason, we believe modified, through questionnaires with Likert’s that this type of platform can measure over scales, to be answered before and after time the profiles of students who have a more carrying out training activities. For example, inclined tendency to increase or decrease the how does the scale vary between the answer scale depending on how the debate presented to questionnaire 1, sent a week before the and how the expert defended their topic. training activity, and questionnaire 2, sent after attending the training activity, on topics such as The book, which is published in Open Access, vaccines? Probably, a student, before knowing consists of five chapters. In the first chapter, the risks that not being vaccinated can produce the state of the art is presented. In the second on public health, could have a different level of chapter, the design of the platform is explained. perception than after attending a formative talk Besides, a detailed description of the platform and a Socratic debate. That is the question that is made and how the questionnaires and we were seeking to identify with the project. questions were entered and how they must be used correctly. In the third chapter, it is The second intellectual output derived from explained how the Science Camps were PERSIST_EU is this book. This publication carried out in each university and the main includes the processes and steps that we results that were obtained. In the fourth carried out for the project’s execution and chapter, the main questions students posed, collects both the technical point of view and the the answers the experts provided, as well as a research results (through the activities). Once list of trustworthy online resources for the four the science camps have been held, we assess topics are presented, so they can be used for the weight that the activities have had in each support in different activities related to these participating country. The science camps helped topics. And, in the fifth and last chapter, the us verify the platform’s usability and validate annexes, including a detailed guide to using it as an evaluation instrument. Likewise, the the platform, and other included activities are questionnaires’ results, by checking how the detailed, as well as suggestions and proposals scales have moved, once the training activities for other activities that could be carried out to and debates were held, allowed us to analyse improve the experience. the differences between countries, gender and cultural differences among university students All the members of the PERSIST consortium have Persist_EU 6 participated in the book: Danmar Computers contributing authors, I would like to thank (Poland), FyG Consultores (Spain), Karlsruhe European students, experts, professors, and all Institute of Technology (Germany), Instituto de people who were deeply involved in managing Ciências Sociais (Portugal), Observa Science the development of the different Science in Society (Italy), Trnava University (Slovakia), Camps and the implication of this publication. and University of Valencia (Spain). The overall Also, a very special thanks to each partner’s work presented in this book was carried out leaders for providing editors with a trusting as part of the project PERSIST_EU, funded environment to prepare this publication. by the European Commission (Erasmus+ program 2018-1-ES01-KA0203-050827). Besides, this book’s publication