Hierarchy+of+Questions+Foster


 * MEMO: Hierarchy of Questions **


 * Research Questions and Analytic Goals **

v How does the public engagement of science manifest within local communities? v How has technological change transformed public engagement of science?
 * How do community members from diverse backgrounds interface with educational and science engagement venues such as community centers, science museums, and makerspaces?
 * What are the demographics of people that are part of your program? How do you try to reach out to a diverse group of people? How and where do you promote your space or program?
 * How can and does the public engagement of science highlight economic, political and social issues that are relevant to a particular community, such as workshops to study and consider the importance of local ecosystems and issues with power creation and usage?
 * What kind of community groups do you have that address local concerns?
 * How do different spaces of engagement speak to particular issues within the community, such as science museums, community centers, skill-sharing spaces, shared art spaces, and maker labs? Do they truly engage the particular problems of the community?
 * When you think of science within your community and its particular availability to you, where can you find scientific knowledge that is engaging and relates to you on a personal or social level?
 * How has the move from analog “hands-on” technologies to digital technologies affected the way people interface with technology and their exposures to different types of technology and science? Has this move helped to further mystify or demystify science?
 * When you go to science museums, do you enjoy the hands-on exhibits that give you scientific information, or do you more enjoy digital kiosks that give you information and explain issues but does not give you hands-on demonstrations? Do you ever try to manipulate or change the technology you won to better suite your needs? Is it too complicated?
 * How have issues of open and available physical space for citizen science and public engagement been affected or subverted by online communities such as “instructables.com” which shares DIY information mediated by digital platforms as well as publiclaboratory.org which creates an online community of citizen scientists who critically design and make fact gathering workshops?
 * Do you like having a place to physically go share materials, knowledge and instructions for doing projects or do you prefer to find instructions online and do things in the comfort of your own home?
 * How has a resurgence of DIY culture and an insurgence of makerspaces affected the public engagement of science in relation to the greater overarching increase in digital mediation of information?
 * What is your relation to making and DIY culture? Do you feel more of an affinity for “making” and doing hands-on tasks as opposed to interfacing with information and material online? How do you find or interface with scientific information? Do you enjoy thinking about scientific inquiry through a hands-on approach? Or do you prefer to read articles online from reliable sources?