THE POTENTIAL OF ONLINE SCIENCE CAFÉS TO FACILITATE INFORMAL SCIENCE COMMUNICATION

Science cafés are among the informal learning opportunities offered in science and technology. There are many lectures and workshops with the title of “science café” in Japan. According to the Science Café Portal, there were nearly 1,300 “science cafés” held in 2019 in Japan. However, Masaki Nakamura (2008), who reviewed science cafés in Japan, stated that a considerable number of them were mainly lectures, while others comprised discussions that required participants’ commitment.The author and her laboratory members have been studying the factors that influence science communication in informal learning by conducting field experiments on interactive science cafés for citizens. Because it has been pointed out that most Japanese are not accustomed to exchanging opinions with other participants, Western-style science cafés may need to be modified (Konya, 2008). Konya (2008) proposed to introduce hands-on materials and manufacturing workshops to promote communication among the participants.In 2020, due to the COVID-19 worldwide pandemic, it became difficult to hold face-to-face science cafés in Japan. Online science cafés have therefore become more important. However, there is a concern that the two-way communication of science cafés will be weakened.The authors held an online science workshop in October 2020. In this paper, the outline and its meaning are introduced based on Otsuka and Nakamura (2021). This workshop had three aims: improvement of critical thinking ability, which underlies scientific literacy; an increased interest in science; and behavioral change based on scientific knowledge.According to the results of Hataida and Nakamura (2019) and other science cafés, an effort was made to increase the degree of participation in the workshop. The topic of the workshop was sleep. The program consisted of icebreakers, such as quizzes on sleep, followed by an expert’s short lecture, group discussions, and presentations.Undergraduate students were recruited for the field experiment. As it was conducted online, and the information was announced not only on the university portal site, but also on the webpage of the nationwide Science Café Portal, remote participants could be expected. The participants were 17 students invited from within the university or through personal networks of the laboratory. Zoom was used as the online tool. In the group discussion, they used Zoom's breakout function, and all participants were capable of using it without any problems.As a result, although there was no clear improvement in critical thinking, or in the degree of interest in science, based on the discussions, all 17 participants took some action with respect to behavioral changes to improve sleep. Moreover, at least seven participants were continuing these actions by the time of the follow-up two weeks later.As it will take some time to overcome the COVID-19 pandemic, online science cafés will continue to be important. Not only do they represent an unavoidable measure to replace face-to-face meetings, but they also enable people with mobility issues or those who are far away to participate in scientific events. It is very important to share knowledge of online science communication.