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Description

These events involve experts giving a practical demonstration of some aspect of science or how something works. For instance, where scientific experiments are too dangerous to be conducted by the audience themselves, they should be demonstrated by the scientist presenting the activity. Here, the visitor merely observes what is going on, or take part under very controlled conditions, under expert supervision. Demonstrations are like shows but are on a smaller scale and less complicated.

Target Audience
  • Adult citizens
  • Children 3-6
  • Children 7-12
  • Families
  • Policymakers
  • Stakeholders
  • Teenagers

You can do it with all those groups, but we did it with professionals from different fields like public engagement or the cultural and creative sector.

Benefits

Benefits

Although most of the visitors only observe what is going on, it is much more real and will give more lasting impressions than a film or audio-visual presentation of the experiment or process.

Preparations

  • Find suitable researchers
  • Decide on the topic and on what you want to demonstrate
  • Choose a venue and time
  • Promote your activity
  • Consider health and safety measures.

Notes

If the demonstration allows, it might sometimes be possible to distribute some aspect of the demonstration to the audience members, which they can either take home with them, increasing the possibility that they will remember the activity, or use it as part of some active questioning.