Volume 1

The funding of science and discovery centres : eleventh report of session 2006-07 / House of Commons, Science and Technology Committee.

  • Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Select Committee on Science and Technology
Date:
2007
Catalogue details

Licence: Open Government Licence

Credit: The funding of science and discovery centres : eleventh report of session 2006-07 / House of Commons, Science and Technology Committee. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Monitoring effectiveness 22. Science centres claim to play an important role in society, but have not, to date, convincingly demonstrated that they achieve their goals. Cardiff University, in its submission, outlined the current body of evidence and commented that “[there] are very few studies of the effect that science [centres] have on students’ career choice”. It went on to say that “although science [centres] have put many programs in place that benefit society, on the whole, they have not developed the methodology to measure the impact that they have at a societal level”.”” 23. What evidence there is appears to be positive. Cardiff University summarised the evidence, which indicates that extracurricular science activities do encourage students to study science at school and to pursue careers in science and science teaching. Other evidence for effectiveness comes from a review carried out on behalf the of the Wellcome Trust. The review, published in July 2006, assessed the impact of five Millennium science centres that Wellcome had funded and found that the centres “provide considerable resources for their local regions—contributing to local regeneration, supporting formal education and acting as regional ‘hubs’ for science based activities”, and that they “offer a wealth of knowledge and expertise relating to the wide aspects of public engagement with science and science education”. Another source of evidence is the reviews of science centres carried out by the Scottish Government’s Inspectorate of Education in 2002 and 2006. The 2006 report outlines the strengths and weaknesses of each of the Scottish science centres and outlines areas of best practice across the sector. It is very positive about the role that science centres play in terms of enthusing young people and adults about science and in terms of linking with schools to provide professional development for teachers and outreach programmes.” 24. The Government has recently funded Ecsite-uk, the body that represents science centres, to conduct a review of the financial viability of science centres. It is expected to report its findings by March 2008. The Government’s submission outlines that the scope of the review is to: a) demonstrate the impact of science centres and the added-value they deliver; b) encourage science centres to work more effectively together, and collaboratively with museums, SETNET, Science Learning Centres and Science Cities; and c) maximise science centres’ future financial viability. 25. We endorse the Government’s decision to assess the effectiveness of science centres. However, the choice of Ecsite-uk to conduct the review is problematic. While we share the Minister for Science and Innovation’s expectation that Ecsite-uk will do a professional job,*? the review will, irrespective of how well researched and presented it is, run the risk of 28 Qq 3-14; Ev 71-72, 115, 127, 178, 181-182 29 + Ev 127 30 Impact Assessment of Trust-funded Millennium Science Centres, Final Report, CRG Research Ltd, July 2006 31 HM Inspectorate of Education, Scottish Government, Review of the contribution of the Scottish Science Centres Network to formal and informal science education, March 2007 32 Q92 [lan Pearson]
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