Undergraduates Learning Public Engagement through Designing and Sharing Games: Undergraduate Research Engineers Enacting the Roles of Public Engagement with Science
2020
This study is a qualitative exploration into the roles
and social identities that Research Engineering Undergraduates
(REU) enacted while engaging the public through designing serious
games. At present, the science communication field is searching for
ways to train the next generation of scientists to practice public
engagement with science in a way that fosters dialogue with the
public, however, little research has been done on training
undergraduates in this regard. This exploratory study seeks to
determine what opportunities a game design project in a summer
program in solar energy engineering research provides
undergraduates to that end. The project includes REUs designing
games through a facilitated design process and then sharing them
with the public at arts festivals. Through discourse analysis, data
was analyzed through the lens of cohesion in order to interpret
what roles and social identities REUs enacted as well as members of
the public who play the games. Based on the analysis of 12 REUs and
39 player participants, findings indicate REUs most often enacted
the science game designer social identity and science educator role
during the public event. Less often, REUs enacted a sociotechnical
role to determine the player's relationship to science/solar
energy. Also, less often did they position themselves directly as
scientists. For the most part, REUs reproduced the dissemination
model of science communication in an interactive way and with an
element of reflexivity. However, during public engagement events,
dialogue with the public occurred when REUs enacted open-ended
roles that enabled members of the public to contribute to the
conversation by assuming a range of roles and social identities
rather than positioning them into a single role. Dialogue was also
supported when REUs were responsive and shifted their role/ social
identity to correspond with the public’s enactment. Some players
enacted a local Arizonan social identity in response to the
open-ended role and game content about Arizona’s solar energy. The
project afforded REUs the opportunity to learn illustration and
reformulation to communicate science concepts. Also, REUs
referenced their game during illustration and reformulation, using
it as a tool to teach science, be a science game designer, and
other enactments. More research is needed to determine how science,
technology, engineering, and math (STEM) undergraduates learning
science communication can design serious games and conduct player
reflections in such a way to promote dialogue to a greater degree
than observed in this study.
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