Taking the Astronomy on Tap Seattle show on the road!

After 10 years of giving science talks to audiences across Seattle, we’re bringing the AoT Seattle show on the road! We’re looking for partners around Washington state that are interested in hosting a night of fun and engaging science talks and triva. Our goal is to put on 3-4 shows per year around WA. While we’re in town, we might also organize other outreach type events, such as bringing our mobile planetarium, or giving talks to local schools or astronomy clubs. We want to partner with local astronomers and astronomy clubs. If you have location recommendations, venue suggestions, or general inquiries, please reach out to Prof. James Davenport.

Logistics

Motivation

Adapted from NSF Broader Impact proposals

Since 2013, Astronomy on Tap (AoT) has been an effective and celebrated form of science outreach, bringing engaging speakers to local bars to give free science talks to the public. AoT reaches over 10,000 people per year within the US, providing entertaining and publicly accessible talks about cutting-edge astronomy research by real scientists (Rice+2016). Events are typically held in pubs, bars, or breweries that may also host triva nights or similar “edutainment” events, but also have been organized in other public spaces and performance venues.

AoT events are typically organized by students and faculty within astronomy and physics departments, primarily at large research-focused universities. Indeed, AoT Seattle was started by graduate students at the University of Washington in 2015, and continues to draw crowds between 75 and 300 people at monthly events. AoT events are found in both major metropolitan areas (e.g. New York, Austin and Seattle), and smaller “college towns” (e.g. New Haven, CT and Lansing, MI) with active research astronomy departments. As a result, these highly engaging and successful events don’t reach rural audiences.

Though Washington State is home to several large urban city centers and 4-year institutions that offer astronomy and physics degrees, nearly 20% of the state’s population live in rural areas, and a larger fraction live within an “education desert” where there are few or no nearby institutions of higher education (Hillman 2019). Along with higher education deserts, rural communities don’t have access to as many informal science engagement experiences. This in turn impacts how e.g. youth shape their views of science and careers (Hill+2018). Most STEM outreach efforts in rural areas are understandably focused on youth, and recent success of school science festivals in Yakima demonstrate the interest for these events in rural WA (Munn+2018).

The AoT Seattle Roadshow is different from typical AoT shows, by directly targeting rural communities that don’t typically host these types of informal science events. “Third places” in society (i.e. those besides work and home), such as cafes and pubs, contribute to positive senses of community and quality of life (Jeffres+2009), and in rural areas third places can have an out-sized impact on social cohesion (Cabras+2010). As such, our program is ideally matched to bring science outreach to venues that often already host engaging events like trivia nights, and which play a crucial role in connecting their local community. By bringing regional scientists and students to give engaging science talks, we aim to encourage public trust in science as a human discipline. This helps dispel myths of the “lone genius”, and makes our outreach more effective (Varner 2014).