Investigating Artist-Scientist-Educator Collaborations for Informal Science Learning and Environmental Decision Making

• In Event: Using Storytelling as an Approach to Researching, Teaching, and Learning About Complex Community-Based Socioscientific Problems

Abstract

Objectives or purposes
There is a need for evidence-based, innovative approaches to education for real-world problem- solving about issues related to environmental change and adaptation. Building and improving environmental resilience is important for populations at risk from impacts of environmental change - including increasingly intense and more frequent weather events (Caillouët et al. 2008). In addition, there is a need to engage people in educational dialogue about how sustainable decisions can be made in order to address the environmental problems which they face in their daily lives. Research indicates that some of the most successful strategies for adaptation and decision-making are learned through community participatory processes (Smit et al. 1999). This paper explores how a community participatory theater-based approach can enhance community members’ environmental decision-making processes.

Perspective(s) or theoretical framework
Arts-based informal science learning programs are often largely focused on learning through exposure to a product (i.e. a museum or science center exhibit), rather than on learning through the process of making art – especially within a collaborative environment (Adams et al. 2010; Anyfandi 2014; McCallie et al., 2009). In contrast, our project concept focused on investigating the informal science learning potential of the process of community– and arts–based collaboration (the learner as collaborator and maker of artwork). While participatory theater is not new, our research is innovative as it aims to measure its impact when created in service of informal science learning and applied to a particular scientific issue.

Methods, techniques, or modes of inquiry
Using interviews and participant observation methods, we examined two research questions: 1. How can artists, scientists and educators collaborate to engage general public understanding of a complex scientific problem, such as flooding in New Orleans?; and 2. How can a participatory performance enacted by the general public in collaboration with the artist, scientist and educator team impact learning and decision making?

Data sources, evidence, objects, or materials
We recruited a team of Artists (n=2), Scientists (n=2), and Educators (n=2) to understand each other’s processes, and to work in collaboration with 10 adult participants from a neighborhood dealing with the problem of flooding in order to script and perform a theater piece about this topic.

Results
Preliminary results drawn from observation and interviews show that: 1. The general public wants, but does not have easy access to, scientific information; and 2. The process of creating the participatory arts-based performance indicated that climate change learning cannot be addressed only by science, but requires the incorporation of social and policy issues as well.

Scientific or scholarly significance of the study or work
The outcomes from this project will enable the Arts, Science and Education fields to understand how to create interdisciplinary teams so as to engage the general public about pressing issues such as climate change. Outcomes also point to understanding what are innovative pedagogical approaches (theater) that can be used to engage and engender deep learning on complex climate-based issues among the general public.

Authors

• Amy E. Lesen, Tulane University

• Ama Rogan, Tulane University