| Summary: | <p class="first" id="d81e87">
Science shows as a medium for communicating science are used widely across the UK,
yet there is little literature about the long-term impact they may have. This longitudinal
study looks at the short-term and long-term impact of the science show
<i>Music to Your Ears</i>, which was initially performed throughout the UK on behalf of the Institute of Physics
in 2002, and which has since been offered at schools and events through the enterprise
Science Made Simple. The impact was measured using the immediate reaction to the show,
the number (and type) of demonstrations (demos) recalled over the long term, and the
applied use of any memories from the show. Quantitative and qualitative data were
gathered using questionnaires immediately after the show and focus groups held two
and a half years later. To enrich the data, and minimize bias, interviews with professional
science presenters were also included in the data analysis. Data from the questionnaires
were used to develop a framework of five demonstration categories to describe their
essence, or main purpose. The categories used in this study were: curiosity (C), human
(H), analogy (A), mechanics (M) and phenomena (P). It was found that even after two
and a half years, almost 25 per cent of demos from the show could be recalled without
prompting. When prompted with verbal and visual clues, over 50 per cent of the demos
from the show could be recalled by the group tested. In addition, around 9 per cent
of the demos were recalled and related to an alternative context to the show, suggesting
that some cognitive processing may have happened with the most memorable elements
of the show. The ‘curiosity’ type of demo was found to be the most memorable in both
the short term and long term.
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