``PubScience-The Long Night of Experiments'': Students Present Chemical Experiments in Dining Facilities

Abstract

Experiments in pubs? Teaching chemical associations between beer and cola and arousing interest in science? Such a thing is possible in a place that at first sight seems very unorthodox as an out-of-school learning and teaching location. With the innovative scientific communication format ``PubScience-The Long Night of Experiments'', students from grades 10-12 present exciting chemical experiments in front of a large audience in various pubs throughout the evening and discuss the theoretical background behind them with the visitors. This article first provides an insight into current developments and projects in the fields of scientific communication and out-of-school learning before the project-relevant theoretical foundations on scientific communication are presented in more detail. Subsequently, the program of PubScience, which was implemented in the summer of 2016 in the German city of Osnabruck, is described in detail before the empirical study accompanying the project will be presented. In this study, the students participating in PubScience as well as a selection of the visitors were interviewed in a quantitative questionnaire study at different survey times. The results show, among other things, that the event format is highly suitable to arouse and deepen motivational attitudes among the students and to provide the visitors with positive attitudes toward the scientific ability of the students. It is also possible to significantly improve the student's self-concept with regard to their own experiments due to the setting of the PubScience campaign. It was shown that the project is a useful supplement to traditional science education and gives the students the opportunity to present their knowledge and skills in chemistry to a large audience.