Science on Parade

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Science on Parade

Everyone at a parade is a part of the action, but it is usually clear who is actually on parade and who is not. This clear distinction makes parades a great entry point for considering situated engagement. All of the veteran teams with sites featured here could easily throw together outreach tables at the end of a parade route, but actually joining a parade was a very new experience. Creatively putting “parade technology” to use involves so much more than just hitching up a trailer for a parade float. For science outreach, it means rethinking everything from basic messaging, to who shows up, to overall goals and expectations. And it sure is worth it. Hear why from the teams and observers involved in three Science In Vivo sites: St. Pete Pride Parade, DragonCon Parade, and the Flagstaff Fourth of July Parade. The audio highlights here are from final critiques in 2019 and a group category conversation in 2021.

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Jeff White

DragonCon Parade

Jeff White

DragonCon Parade
I do think the reaction to science comes from ... people cheering for the fact that science was on the sign, I think probably stems in a large part from the fact that it is a parade, and that's the accepted behavior. And so it's probably very likely that they were cheering for every bit of it that came by because of, "Hey, it's also part of the parade." So I think some of it was getting caught up in the atmosphere of the parade itself, but I do think that this was in some ways a unique subset of people in Atlanta that had an open mind towards science and science fiction and fantasy and gaming and that subset. Not necessarily everybody, but I think it's a case of, there's people who were on the fence and didn't know what they wanted to do with it. When you're in that environment and seeing how positive it is and you're left with this reaction of, "Oh, that was kind of cool. Maybe there's just some things that I want to start looking into."

Helen Regis

Observer
DragonCon Parade

Helen Regis

Observer
DragonCon Parade
What's the function of being in a parade? Well, I mean, you're connecting with people that you wouldn't meet otherwise. Of course you're connecting with the people you're marching with, which is what I was emphasizing a moment ago, but you're potentially rubbing shoulders with and interacting with people who you might not meet at work or at school or in your neighborhood. So that's where the incredible strength of this gathering of people is really fabulous. And the crowd really was way more diverse than I expected. I think that's really amazing. And I think the idea that science can be fun, that science can be exciting, that's already implied in the fact that you're marching in a parade. So I think though there could be ways to make that even more fully realized in the interactions, but I think that that's a strong element of what already was presented this year.

Jeff White

DragonCon Parade

Jeff White

DragonCon Parade
there is something that happens before the parade. It's something that I either didn't really know or forgot, but that whole process is really important, and I think it speaks to an opportunity that is bigger than just DragonCon, but an opportunity to really integrate science into many different events like this. There's a big lantern parade, there's something called Atlanta Streets Alive and there are all these parade opportunities, the Pride parades. And perhaps one thing that Science ATL could do, is to generate this science in parade, science on parade club, that would do the things that you described, have these workshops and meetups between makers and artists and scientists, who could then also showcase some of the resources and some of the big players in the Atlanta science scene, in the context of putting science out there and integrating it into the cultural scene in Atlanta. I'm really loving this idea and I'm thinking more bigger than just DragonCon. Well, that would really help the organization to be potentially more of a year round activity for people who love that stuff, that they could have several events and they can practice what works, what doesn't work, and think, "Okay, three months from now we're going to do it a little different."

Helen Regis

Observer
DragonCon Parade

Helen Regis

Observer
DragonCon Parade
I guess I would add just a little more about the parade crowd itself. In downtown Atlanta the streets are really wide and I have to say, coming from new Orleans, they're super clean, and the audience members are four or five people deep. The kids are sitting on the sidewalks, many of them wearing superhero costumes, so they're in full spandex. They're really excited, they're parents are really excited. So there's diverse ages, and I would say in terms of race ethnicity, there's quite a lot of diversity as well. It's hard to say for sure about income and education, but that's probably the case too. And so I was really impressed with that, and also with just how incredibly focused and enthusiastic the crowd was. They were reading the parade really, really closely, and they were looking for things to figure out. And I think in terms of just describing the setting, I think that's really important for understanding what a good idea it is to do this with science, I think, and also the opportunity there, that the scene presents. And

Bonnie Stevens

Team Leader
Flagstaff Fourth of July Parade

Bonnie Stevens

Team Leader
Flagstaff Fourth of July Parade
an event is so much bigger than the actual day of the event, the actual event itself. It's so much bigger in the hype leading up to it. The documentation that comes after that. The conversations you have later. The quotes you receive while you're standing in the crowd and listening, the kids that talk about it, who are involved in the parade or participating by being a spectator. All of that is meaningful. It's not just about the two hours that you're actually walking through a parade. It's so much more important than that and so much bigger, and a lot to consider.

Bonnie Stevens

Team Leader
Flagstaff Fourth of July Parade

Bonnie Stevens

Team Leader
Flagstaff Fourth of July Parade
What was profound to me is that it was so clear how much the Flagstaff Festival of Science and science itself is such a part of the fabric of the community. We were kind of looking at it when we went in as the Fourth of July parade is this thing and we're this thing. Is this going to blend? Does this make any sense? Is this going to be weird? We're not a marching band. We're not demonstrating something with dancers. We're not jumping around necessarily. We're showcasing something else where ours is more of an imagination of the mind, a journey of the mind, perhaps, and if you go that deep with the Science, but if you bring it down to what excites kids, you get there. You get there with what is fun to showcase but I think my takeaway from this would be and something that I believe the board of directors would back me on this in the festival is that it's important to be part of the fabric of the community. We're not just as other thing. We're integrated heavily into this community and it's not a surprise that we're in the parade after all. We should be in the parade. People are happy to have us in the parade and may well expect us to be in the parade in years to come. It's not just a fringy thing to do just because somebody likes parades. It's something that shows support for the community, shows how integrated we are in the community and offers a lot of visibility to the general audience. The general audience includes people from outside the Flagstaff area. It can include all ages. It includes families who can walk down the street go to this parade and don't necessarily have the background or a family support of being taken to be exposed to science events. For all those reasons, it seems so right and not a tough sell anymore when you're talking to other festivals or you're talking to festival board members or donors. It just makes sense and you can make that case for why you need to show up in places like this.

Vaughan James

Observer
St. Pete Pride Parade

Vaughan James

Observer
St. Pete Pride Parade
It's a new and interesting venue. The more venues that we start taking seriously, the more venues we get to use. The, as I mentioned before, audience access is superb. Again, you are hitting at thousands of people that probably wouldn't have sought you out any other way. That's really big. You're doing it in a happy environment. There's lots of research to show that when people are happy, they respond to messages differently. Absolutely, the thing itself is a great venue for sci-com for talking about science issues, and I think that it should absolutely be pursued further.

Vaughan James

Observer
St. Pete Pride Parade

Vaughan James

Observer
St. Pete Pride Parade
On the practical end, I will say that the sheer exposure is phenomenal. You are hitting thousands of people in a really short period of time that do not necessarily give a damn about science, but that's actually important. You have gone to an audience that is huge and is looking at you and may not just stumble upon you any other way, so I think that the chance to do that is not to be ... Or that cannot be overstated.

Helen Regis

Observer
DragonCon Parade

Helen Regis

Observer
DragonCon Parade
There's something else maybe that we haven't quite spoken out loud today that has to do with the way that parades and festivals and maybe actually science fiction itself as one of the themes of Dragon Con is by taking us out of ourselves or of our ordinary every day, it makes it possible for us to think about how the world can be different. And I think on a really deep level science does that too. Thinking about how things work can also help us to think about how things can work differently. Things don't always have to be the way they are now, which is sometimes an incredibly hopeful message for us to have. And certainly, that applies to... Yeah. So a parade like Pride that takes potentially out of the closet or out of heteronormative just to use the jargon or space. It might help us to think "Oh, no, I can actually be who I am." Our culture, what could actually be different than what it is now. Maybe there can be a little more of an open community culture around who we are. And I think parades and festivals do this in a variety of ways by taking us out of our everyday ways of being and thinking about what can be. So I think that's inherently powerful,

Vaughan James

Observer
St. Pete Pride Parade

Vaughan James

Observer
St. Pete Pride Parade
I come from communication science. And one of our big theorists, Marshall McLuhan has a really famous statement, the medium is the message. And I think that that very much applies here. You cannot separate the context from the message itself, it is the message, it is what you are trying to do at these events, is inevitably molded and formed by the event that it is in. The people that you deliver it to change because of that event, the way that people are going to process, the messages that you are giving them are going to naturally change because of the context it is delivered in. So yes, what that means specifically for a parade? I don't know. I don't know if it means that these themes will only appear in a parade. I don't think so. But I do think that it means that the context of a parade will always to be different than the context of a Science Festival of a museum, of a science center, of a lecture in a classroom, that they must be examined on their own merits.

Vaughan James

Observer
St. Pete Pride Parade

Vaughan James

Observer
St. Pete Pride Parade
One of the big benefits is exposure, really what happens a lot is that you get scientists, science professionals that are interested, really genuinely in talking to the community, but I do not know how to do that. I don't know where they are. I intend to tweet about my research. And it's like, yeah, sure, that's fine. But why would anyone read that? So these community level events and saying that well, if you are interested, one way that you can reach people in your community is by going to where people in your community are, is a thing that sounds very simple, but people don't think about it that way. And so I think that that is a huge selling point for these types of events for people that are interested in getting what they do out there and connecting with the community, when they just honestly don't know how to do that.

Gemima Philippe

Observer
DragonCon Parade

Gemima Philippe

Observer
DragonCon Parade
I would say that in the way that we presented science it's like, "Here's the thing you're learning in the middle of all of these other shenanigans." And the subtle message there is that science is more serious, I think, or less inventive
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join communities

Situated engagement joins community.

Gemima Philippe

Observer
DragonCon Parade

Gemima Philippe

Observer
DragonCon Parade
I'd like to bring up a point. So on my way there, I took the MARTA, and what I saw was so many different kinds of people who weren't the typical television definition of a nerd, dressed up in their costumes, and because it's free and it's public it's really accessible, and because it's on the MARTA line and downtown, there's fewer barriers to entry. And so little Latin X kids were on the train in their superhero costumes, and you could see some of the teenagers dressed up as their TV shows. And I think in all things there should be a diversity in approach, and if we look at DragonCon as just one tool of communication of science then ... You have a whole group that does tons of different kinds of science, so I guess what I'm trying to say is, in so much as DragonCon is just one avenue of science communication or of science engagement, I think it's actually really inclusive, and I guess just from my experience on the MARTA, there were people that I just did not expect to see excited about DragonCon, and they were hype and loud and building their excitement as they got closer. I'm just reading myself at this point, but to the extent that this isn't the only way you connect with audiences, I think it's just one really, really effective tool to reach people.

Vaughan James

Observer
St. Pete Pride Parade

Vaughan James

Observer
St. Pete Pride Parade
Yeah, I think that one of the things, from studying science communication, that I have seen over and over again is this idea that it doesn't matter, that the concept of science and being a scientist is easy for a lot of people to remove from community and cultural contexts, which I think is wrong, but I think that a lot of people do it. And so it is always gratifying to see when people are willing to do those outreach things and say, "No, it's not all academic ivory towers. Science is made up of communities too, and it matters." Not just communities, but minorities. And I think a lot of minorities feel it quite intensely when they're not represented, and they don't feel like they're seen.

Parmvir Bahia

Observer
St. Pete Pride Parade

Parmvir Bahia

Observer
St. Pete Pride Parade
I think I've just come up with another implicit message from the activity, which is that science is for everyone. There was no one from the crowd that was excluded from participating and engaging. Yeah, I would agree with that. I was just thinking. Yeah, this is Michelle again. That's what I was thinking earlier, that a message that I personally really love that you belong. You belong however you identify, and you belong in science, however you identify.

Theresa Burress

Team Leader
St. Pete Pride Parade

Theresa Burress

Team Leader
St. Pete Pride Parade
And my one big takeaway I had was just the accessibility and inclusivity aspect of the events of a free, open public experience that is not ticketed and it's not limited and it's not necessarily directed to a specific audience. But yeah, it's an opportunity for people's varying identities to come together.

Parmvir Bahia

Observer
St. Pete Pride Parade

Parmvir Bahia

Observer
St. Pete Pride Parade
So one of the things that come up a lot from me in the past 18 months, is not just as an adult, because it feels like it had a spotlight shone on it is the idea of inclusion, who is included, where they're included. And the fact that a lot of people are not necessarily... I know our event, I'm pretty sure that people will come, they'll enjoy them, but they don't necessarily feel free to be themselves. And something like Pride and Dragon Con, people go there because they're expressing themselves, this is a huge event, but it's a safe space for them. And it's somewhere where they don't have to be someone else, they just to be themselves in all their glory, wherever that is. Just our event, I'm sure people come and they code switch, they don't get to be themselves. So I think there's something unique there by taking something in situ, to something that's happening where we have to adapt to the situation as the people create new experience.
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connect cultures

Situated engagement connects cultures.

Bonnie Stevens

Team Leader
Flagstaff Fourth of July Parade

Bonnie Stevens

Team Leader
Flagstaff Fourth of July Parade
Well, this happened after the parade. And it was so profound to me, it was emotional. And it was felt by the filmmakers who happened to be there, it was felt by board members who happen to be there, and it was felt by me. And there was this profound moment when you realize that there's this kid who had been told that college wouldn't be for him that he should think about something else, and was not encouraged really, until he came connected to a hook and the hook was robots. So, you've got this kid who didn't necessarily have the science capital in his background, in his neighborhood, in his family to lead him to a STEM career. And you see him talking to a middle school student, a younger student from Kayenta and Kayenta is a good three-hour drive, at least, from Flagstaff and you see the two of them engaged. Oscar, the young Hispanic teenager is handing over the controls of a robot that he was part of designing and building and is now demonstrating. And this beautiful young lady in middle school has got her traditional braids, her traditional jewelry, the traditional clothing and footwear of a beautiful young Navajo girl, and she is smiling. The two of them are looking at each other. She's making a robot move. And this is all happening right in front of this historic telescope dome. The same place where Percival Lowell believed that he could see and study canals on Mars. So, you've got such a blending of cultures, tradition, history, and in generations and science, all coming together in one moment. And it just happened. It was something we didn't plan on happening. It just came together. And it was absolutely an emotional beautiful experience.

Vaughan James

Observer
St. Pete Pride Parade

Vaughan James

Observer
St. Pete Pride Parade
I think that you've also got the benefit of being surprising. Yes, I think that that kind of audience is going to be at least a bit more open to community stuff because they are at a massive community event. But, also, they can easily go to an event like that for their interest in the LGBTQ community and nothing else. Right. So when you present yourself in front of these people, there's something surprising. You're something a little different that is not automatically assumed to be a part of an event like that, so the novelty, I think, can be a real positive.

Helen Regis

Observer
DragonCon Parade

Helen Regis

Observer
DragonCon Parade
For me and really listening through the conversation about Pride St Pete, I was just really struck in listening to the personal stories that were shared by the organizers and some of the observers as well, how powerful it actually is to just be present at an event that is about acceptance and being who you are. I found that very moving and very, very powerful.

Bonnie Stevens

Team Leader
Flagstaff Fourth of July Parade

Bonnie Stevens

Team Leader
Flagstaff Fourth of July Parade
being in the parade, took some convincing to get the board of directors to figure out why that was something we should be doing. And it didn't occur to me until we were actually there, just how much science is a part of our community and how receptive the crowd was, I
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make it personal

Situated engagement is personal.

Gemima Philippe

Observer
DragonCon Parade

Gemima Philippe

Observer
DragonCon Parade
And so thinking in that way of how each of the individuals embodied their character, quote-unquote, you can't see my air quotes. I would say that in the way that we presented science it's like, "Here's the thing you're learning in the middle of all of these other shenanigans." And the subtle message there is that science is more serious, I think, or less inventive than these people dressed as plutonium and Einstein as a skeptic. I think there's still some more development to be made in the ways that we present the planets, if we're sticking with planets again next year. In that we were saying how Venus, she kind of played up on that feminine energy, and I think adults especially responded to that, because they had that connotation already. And so I think in addition to how we deliver messages, I think also considering how participants are the message can help people reach that understanding that science is embedded in all things.

Helen Regis

Observer
DragonCon Parade

Helen Regis

Observer
DragonCon Parade
And I think it's important to remember also the larger political moment that we're in, which is, a lot of people who do science don't feel that what they do is necessarily highly valued in the dominant structures of power in our society. So having science in public is really, really powerful, and I overheard a woman saying, "Yes, I work in science. I have a very good job. I really love science." She was sharing that with us, which just seems crazy, but she was shouting it to everybody. I never would have expected something like that would happen. That was somebody in the parade audience? Yeah, exactly. So there was that feeling of recognition. You all are parading, you all represent science, and I'm also a science person, I'm connected to you. And everybody around her was laughing like, "Yes. Okay. That's great."

Gemima Philippe

Observer
DragonCon Parade

Gemima Philippe

Observer
DragonCon Parade
my emotional reaction I think was of awe almost, like, "Wow, so many people are really, really excited about seeing science here." And so it was a shock almost that in this very fun, to be blunt, and kind of cartoon superhero fantasy, this very performative space, that science was so highly cheered, even seeing people cheer for the word science on the sign, that was interesting to me. As someone who knows science is in all of these things, but it's less explicitly stated. I think when you're looking at a Chewbacca costume or R2D2, you're looking at the fantasy not the science. I'm still trying to piece together how people receive science in these contexts, because science is so categorized as one distinct discipline away from our everyday life, that I'm not sure how to even process what people were getting from it, if that makes sense.

Bonnie Stevens

Team Leader
Flagstaff Fourth of July Parade

Bonnie Stevens

Team Leader
Flagstaff Fourth of July Parade
You feel like a rock star in that moment. Imagine what a boost that is for these kids. And you have to remember, I interviewed a number of these coconuts and robotics team kids. And they came into this whole robots thing not knowing anything about it, not feeling confident about what they could ever hope to do, not being extroverted by any means in a lot of cases, and yet we're asking them to perform, to be on stage and they are loving it. And it just encourages them to do more of that and to speak out and it makes them feel so good that people really respect and value what they're doing, what they're saying, what they have to offer. It's such a powerful reinforcement for these teenagers who this is kind of new to them and it's so encouraging.

Bonnie Stevens

Team Leader
Flagstaff Fourth of July Parade

Bonnie Stevens

Team Leader
Flagstaff Fourth of July Parade
You have to have a commitment of people who will get involved in the planning, the preparation for the demonstration, or whatever it is you plan to do and be on hand to staff the event, the event and engage with others. You also want to make sure you've got the right kinds of people. We have a lot of brilliant scientists who may not be the right kinds of people to put in the mall and talk about what they're doing. You have to think about who's giving the presentation. They may be great in creating the idea of what to use and what the learning takeaways are but are they the right people to be out in front.

Bonnie Stevens

Team Leader
Flagstaff Fourth of July Parade

Bonnie Stevens

Team Leader
Flagstaff Fourth of July Parade
at one point in the parade, I went up on a balcony in one of the downtown hotels and I wanted to catch what was going on from a bird's eye view when our float came through. It was amazing. Our float was crawling so slowly because the kids wanted to be engaging with the crowds so much. Our festival board members were doing what they did. They showed up. They were very organized. They're handing out stickers and they were holding the banner but the kids were the one that connected with the crowd and brought smiles and cheers and just had a really great heartwarming feel.

Bonnie Stevens

Team Leader
Flagstaff Fourth of July Parade

Bonnie Stevens

Team Leader
Flagstaff Fourth of July Parade
What's really important to the Festival of Science is being able to show people like themselves involved in pretty amazing things. It seems to be important and important hook if people can engage with scientists or see themselves as scientists or see themselves in the lab coat or in a situation, in the field research station, in the laboratory, in the observatory, that seems to be really important to see somebody like themselves doing science. That was our real angle this time in the festival parade.

Bonnie Stevens

Team Leader
Flagstaff Fourth of July Parade

Bonnie Stevens

Team Leader
Flagstaff Fourth of July Parade
We had those teenagers up on the float, some of them down on the street interacting with the crowd. That, to me, that youthful playfulness was so important. We have a lot of volunteers on our board and elsewhere for the Flagstaff Festival of Science who are scientists and educators. These are seasoned professionals. They're adults. They're serious. They bring an amazing amount of talent to the festival itself but what's missing is that youthful spirit that you can only get as a teenager or a young adult that these other kids bring. That was such an important element to engage with the crowd.

Vaughan James

Observer
St. Pete Pride Parade

Vaughan James

Observer
St. Pete Pride Parade
I feel like I've made friends, but I will add a more personal thing. I will self disclose a little bit. I identify as gay, and I also identify as a scientist. This was my first pride event ever, and so it really was quite something for me. I started in the life sciences, switched over into the social sciences, but I did all of that without any particular ... How to put it? Mentors that were like me. I have never really seen very much of: We are scientists, and we support the LGBTQ community in such a direct way. And so that really meant something for me to see now and especially as an adult and someone who is working their way up the academic ladder. As I saw all of it, it really struck me with, okay, this is important. This is a place where we should be as scientists. This is a community that we should talk to as scientists. And so it meant a lot to see you all doing that.

Theresa Burress

Team Leader
St. Pete Pride Parade

Theresa Burress

Team Leader
St. Pete Pride Parade
we have an external audience that is our official target audience, which is the public from that whatever community that is or event or whatever. But we also have our internal audience, our scientists, our volunteers, our just committee members or whatever. And we're in choosing to participate in a variety of different kinds of events, it is an opportunity to activate their interests.

Bonnie Stevens

Team Leader
Flagstaff Fourth of July Parade

Bonnie Stevens

Team Leader
Flagstaff Fourth of July Parade
I just think we need to acknowledge and I think science still has that stigma where it's this thing that other people do, that really smart people do or a certain kind of person does. So being there, we're breaking those stereotypes and we're showing who are actual scientists and we're involving people that are just showing up for a general public event. And they're actually involved with science by wearing these refraction glasses or learning something about the stars or whatever it is that science is not separate from the rest of the community. And I think that was one of our big takeaways that, yeah, by all means we should be in places like this.

Helen Regis

Observer
DragonCon Parade

Helen Regis

Observer
DragonCon Parade
I was just thinking about emotion and effect and how it's such a big part of what's happening at these events. And I think that just really reflecting back on what Vaughn and others I've just been saying and rereading the transcript Dragon Con briefing about how well okay, maybe the team wasn't necessarily able to convey the content of a scientific demonstration, but there were other things that were being conveyed that also matter. And yeah, that sense of connection, of excitement, of connectivity through emotion. I mean, I do think the learning experts should jump in. But I know, that's a big part of how I learned or how I care about things. And as we've all been learning in the last year and a half, it can be actually really hard for students to stay connected to learning on Zoom, because part of what's actually really hard is to get that feeling of connection to happen on Zoom. I mean, obviously, some of us we have to do it for our livelihoods, but it's hard for students to feel that they have skin in the game, sometimes through the tiles. And so, yeah. I think if part of what the engagement and the outreach is about is really creating a connection, creating a spark, that can then lead to reconnecting other events, other relationships. That is part of what parades are good at and what festivals are really good at is getting us to associate something with other things that we love or learning that we love something we didn't know we loved.

Howard Rutherford

Team Leader
St Pete Pride Parade

Howard Rutherford

Team Leader
St Pete Pride Parade
another outcome that was unexpected from our end, was that this was use... Well, it helped to recruit new partners for our science festival. Specifically, the DJ who happened to be a scientist on our float now is involved with our social media group and they are kicking butt. And that reminds us well, one, if you're having fun, people are going to want to join your group because why volunteer if you're not having fun. Secondly, because he's a scientist and he plays music on the side, but he's passionate about social media and it reminds me that, I love to raise money, but when I'm volunteering, I like my other capabilities to be tapped into, my love of music or art or whatever. And it just reminded me that unexpected outcome of that particular individual, but it's a great recruitment tool too.

Parmvir Bahia

Observer
St. Pete Pride Parade

Parmvir Bahia

Observer
St. Pete Pride Parade
So I think one of the take ons for me was I appreciate that I'm a scientist and I know I'm scientist and I know science is important. And I as a human being, I go to parades, I go to gigs, I go to events. And quite often you don't realize that those two things can and should interact.

Gemima Philippe

Observer
DragonCon Parade

Gemima Philippe

Observer
DragonCon Parade
I think for me, knowing that I'm coming in as an observer and separate, I found myself getting caught up in it. And especially with little Pluto and with earth and the moon, and giving them encouragement and really ... It was in spite of myself. I was surprised by how connected to the parade. I felt, even though I had given myself the pep talk, I was like, "Okay, here's what you look for." And I came in with a very academic or detached view of things, like, "This is not something I am attending, this is something I'm working at." But even then it was just impossible to avoid getting caught up in all of the energy and the positivity and the fun and the joy that was happening. So that's something that I think I'm ... And I've been telling all my friends about it since I came back, and very surprised by that. I wasn't expecting to be so involved, or to feel so involved.
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reframe science

Situated engagement reframes science.

Helen Regis

Observer
DragonCon Parade

Helen Regis

Observer
DragonCon Parade
I would definitely not use the word inauthentic, is because I think that the Science In Vivo group, the planets were so joyful and sincere in their contribution, that I think people took that at face value, as like, "You're here, you're a part of it." It's already a given that you're a part of it because of your engagement, you're marching down the street with people. I think the one thing that was a little bit dissonant was that some of the groups marching were using more explicitly playful ways of marching, and our group was a little more serious. But to the extent that we were playful, I think it really worked. But I think that was potentially a little bit of a disconnect, but I think that sometimes that can work too, right? I think as long as you're sincere and you're engaging with people, people respond to that, and that's what I observed. So I think that what could make the engagement more successful would be to use more of the approaches to being playful that were already there, and to build on that, and just develop, that side of it. But I definitely didn't feel like it was outsiders inserting themselves,

Gemima Philippe

Observer
DragonCon Parade

Gemima Philippe

Observer
DragonCon Parade
if there is an element of confusion and understanding of process, people will shut down and they won't internalize it as a fault in themselves, versus a fault in the learning technique. And so there is an implicit message about, you just can't understand this, that is delivered when there's a concept that's not well explained. So I would say to find other ways or deeper ways that are quick to connect the concepts together, I think would make the whole experience more cohesive.

Helen Regis

Observer
DragonCon Parade

Helen Regis

Observer
DragonCon Parade
I guess another risk that I see potentially in a display of science that shows science as being about what is known about the world is that it doesn't communicate the sense of discovery. So I guess that's a completely different concern, but that science is a lot about trying to figure things out, right? So that if you're presenting science as, "Well, this is what we already know about the world. Are you with us?" And people are like, "Well, I didn't know that." They may feel like, "Well, no, I'm not with you because I didn't already know that." So I think that one possibility with the parade would be to do a little bit more to engage people in the idea that there's discovery involved and they're being invited to discover. And

Helen Regis

Observer
DragonCon Parade

Helen Regis

Observer
DragonCon Parade
There's just a risk that if the messaging was about what science is or the examples of science were not coming through, there's a risk that people might come away thinking, "Science is hard, science isn't for me. I don't get it. I feel excluded." So I would say that's a risk of this kind of quick engagement around science. I do not think that that happened with this group at all, but I think that's a risk of this kind of engagement. The intention of course is to reach out and invite people to be excited about science and to think, "This is something I can do." So I think that that is what was happening, but the risk is that the other message would be taken.

Gemima Philippe

Observer
DragonCon Parade

Gemima Philippe

Observer
DragonCon Parade
Everyone's saying it is a fast paced transient environment, so I don't think there's a lot of opportunity for deep learning in something like this. I think that the opportunities available here are kind of, let's start the conversation, let's show you who we are and what's possible, and then hopefully down the road we'll have a chance for a longer conversation,

Jordan Rose

Team Leader
DragonCon Parade

Jordan Rose

Team Leader
DragonCon Parade
Something else that our participation in DragonCon really enables, and that is not only the teaching of science content, but just the value of science and the love of science and the presence of science throughout the city. And so I think being at DragonCon gives us that stage to integrate science into the culture of Atlanta. And so because of the challenges that Jeff described, it's really difficult to teach science and have them come away learning something, but there are other opportunities that this kind of event presents to put science on the stage, within the context of our city, so that people can see that, "Yeah, it's here, and there are opportunities for me to learn. Maybe I'm not going to learn today, but I'm going to get excited about science learning opportunities in the city."

Jeff White

DragonCon Parade

Jeff White

DragonCon Parade
So there is a lot of fun interplay between the audience of the parade and the people in the parade, but it is really quick. It's lightning fast and, like I said, the biggest challenge for trying to do a parade entry of this kind is, what is the stuff that has a meaningful impact in such a really short amount of time? It's got to have that high impulse so to speak.

Jeff White

DragonCon Parade

Jeff White

DragonCon Parade
Occasionally you get quote-unquote, lucky, that something ahead of you maybe slows down, if there's a vehicle that has an issue and so everything stopped for a little bit. Sometimes you have those rare moments where you have a little bit more interaction with the crowd. The phrase that kept coming to mind during this project was drive-by science. You don't have time to stop and do stuff with it, and so in an organizational sense that was a huge challenge of, what are some demonstrations that have a very short time to observe that can be on the move and don't require electricity, and aren't going to be so cumbersome, but it's going to slow everything else down. So it presented an interesting problem. But in terms of the crowd reaction, the crowd had a great reaction to everything that we were doing, really everything that was going on in the parade. I think partly that's a reflection of the characteristic of DragonCon, a conference as a whole. Everybody at the conference, with obvious outliers here and there, but everybody at the conference was always very supportive of everybody else at the conference.

Helen Regis

Observer
DragonCon Parade

Helen Regis

Observer
DragonCon Parade
I do think one of the challenges for doing science in that setting, is that when you're a marching group you're moving pretty fast, and so what is it that you can communicate quickly as you're marching past people? That's a little bit of a challenge.

Vaughan James

Observer
St. Pete Pride Parade

Vaughan James

Observer
St. Pete Pride Parade
So, explicitly, what was there was St. Pete Science Festival, their website, and the date of the next festival, but there's a lot of implicit things happening. Again, support for the community is one of those big implicits because they're there. They're integrating into the theme of the event, and so that will automatically suggest effort, as does the presence of a decorated float, anyway. It can then be inferred that you spent money and time to be a part of that event, and that suggests that you care about what you're doing. I would also say that your theme did contribute to this implicit idea that science is fun: bouncy music, flashing lights, fog cannons, and things like that are fun. And, therefore, so are you. So science got to be told as fun. The St. Pete Science Festival, which is connected to that, therefore gets an implication of being fun. Yeah, so for me, those were the implicits.

Vaughan James

Observer
St. Pete Pride Parade

Vaughan James

Observer
St. Pete Pride Parade
it generated a lot of happiness, and that was good to see. Even in science-positive environments with science-positive audiences, the concept of science does not always spark joy, but it did here, and I think that that was really important.

Parmvir Bahia

Observer
St. Pete Pride Parade

Parmvir Bahia

Observer
St. Pete Pride Parade
it's a lovely, really family-friendly, really open, really welcoming environment. None of it felt oppressive. None of it felt ... Especially for a science festival that is geared towards children, none of it was overtly sexual or ... Yeah, it was a fun time for all, and I think Vaughan and I both agreed that certainly the way the float looked was very in keeping with the theme of pride and the parade itself. The interaction with the volunteers and the music was certainly ... Yeah, it was all well ... It fit well with the rest of the theme of pride. I would agree with all of that. It was a happy, convivial event. It was a happy, convivial float. People were on both sides. Audience and actors were thrilled to be there or at least quite openly seemed to be. So, yeah, it was very much in keeping within itself. Also, as Parmvir said, within the event.

Vaughan James

Observer
St. Pete Pride Parade

Vaughan James

Observer
St. Pete Pride Parade
it struck me is as important yet, again, is the idea of science being appropriate within its community. And that idea of that the representation of science and scientists at community events that are not related to science is still in and of itself a meaningful, important thing, because it is part of where it is.
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transform the team

Situated engagement transforms participants.

Jeff White

DragonCon Parade

Jeff White

DragonCon Parade
my connection to the parade previously had been me being stationary, the parade moving past me and seeing how everybody interacts with it. But now it's seeing that the entire length of the parade is completely involved and the audience is very into it all the way through from start to finish. Talking with some of the volunteers afterwards, it was an overwhelmingly positive experience, I think a little more so than everybody expected, and a lot of that was due to the fact that the crowd was very receptive to it.

Helen Regis

Observer
DragonCon Parade

Helen Regis

Observer
DragonCon Parade
... There's no way he could have done that if he hadn't been there last year. And so similarly, in parades, people comment on last year's parade or they comment on the other groups that are parading or they comment on other things that are going on in the community, or it could comment on things that are going on in Atlanta, or they could comment on, obviously, Waconda, or what's been happening with Spider-Man. And I'm not going to use the right language, but the multi-verse or the universe or whatever it is that's happening with Spider-Man. That's really exciting and it's got a lot of people interested in comics, who haven't been interested in them before. So there's a way that parades speak to what's happening right now, that is part of what makes people excited about them, so there's an opportunity there as well. I realize, you might not want to do political commentary about what's happening with science, but it could be a way to connect more to the popular culture of the present possibly. Yeah. And then interacting with other marching groups, I think is a big thing that people do in parades, and that Gemima and I observed. When the planets were dancing together, that was fun for the planets and it really engaged the audience too, that there was a physical interaction among the paraders. That doesn't have to be choreographed, but it's helpful when it happens.

Helen Regis

Observer
DragonCon Parade

Helen Regis

Observer
DragonCon Parade
learned a lot from other paraders, and from looking at one year's parades and I have a chance to think about, "Oh, this is what I want to do next year. Next year, it's going to be so much better." But also being coached by veteran paraders, and certainly in the parades that I, to some extent how I observed groups marching with the DragonCon parade, is that they use their body as part of the parade, as well as using symbols and of course words as symbols to convey meaning. And so the way the body is dressed, wigs, hats, things like that, are a big part of the messaging, they said they set the tone. And a lot of paraders do use words, but they don't rely on words as their first way of communicating meaning. And so things that people can see at a distance, regardless of the font size you're using, things that stick up into the air, flags or other things that people can see coming are helpful. And then obviously things that are just a few feet off the ground or at the level of the body, people will see those right when you're upon them, they don't see them coming. Those are just some thoughts I have on people who have used parading as a distinct technology first for communicating and for sharing information.

Helen Regis

Observer
DragonCon Parade

Helen Regis

Observer
DragonCon Parade
Please- But that's all for now. Oh no. [inaudible], you want me to say more? Yeah, I think so. One of the things here, just to give you context, is that we don't ... I don't know, Jordan, is this the first time you've been in a parade since you were in school? Yes. This is my first time being in a parade. Yeah. Great. So this is not business as usual for many of us,

Bonnie Stevens

Team Leader
Flagstaff Fourth of July Parade

Bonnie Stevens

Team Leader
Flagstaff Fourth of July Parade
I think part of what was encouraging for the kids was that they felt really special, we spent a lot of time leading up to this. We visited them while they were building the robot. We were very interested in what they were doing. We wanted to hear their stories, get some time with them. So, they were comfortable with us. They were feeling pretty good about themselves and they're feeling pretty special. And they came out and they're wearing their crazy combination of socks and T-shirts and other things that identified who they were, and they were really proud to be who they were. So, I think it was a real, a big growth experience, because they had all this attention and reinforcement and encouragement, but it does take time. It's an investment of time and genuine interest and that's what they felt. And we made it safe for them. We explained how things were going to happen, what was going to be expected of them and encouraged them all the way. That cultivating is really important when you're dealing especially with kids, but I think that's true of any volunteers. A lot of people are happy to help, they just don't know what they have to offer and they don't know where they're supposed to be and what they're expected to do. That was really important it turns out for these kids because we didn't even give a thought of that these kids may not have ever performed before or maybe they've never been in a parade before. Maybe they're really shy and they just joined this club because they thought it was cool. We don't really know what we're dealing with. So, getting to know what you have to work with and making everybody feel comfortable and having a plan and making them feel valued and respected and proud of who they are and what they've done, I can only see it when the actual parade happens. And then when these kids are glowing and these kids went all day showing demonstrations and walking and talking. And this would have been a big day for an athlete and these kids went all day and their enthusiasm stayed the whole time and their interest and their personalities and their patience with other people and other kids. They just kept going and they were amazing.

Bonnie Stevens

Team Leader
Flagstaff Fourth of July Parade

Bonnie Stevens

Team Leader
Flagstaff Fourth of July Parade
I can tell you just from years of experience and from being in different settings and situations. The classroom experience can be great. A special performance can be great, but something where the stage has been set, the atmosphere, the excitement, if you put yourself in a parade setting, you're hearing bands, you're seeing horses, you're watching young people dance, you have people dressed up and ready to go. I mean, everybody's wearing crazy red, white and blue everything, and funny things in their hair and hats and eyes. And people are there to celebrate. So, yes, there is that element of enthusiasm and excitement and celebration that is already there for you and to be able to have that and add to it and feel it, you pull from that as part of a parade as a performer. You pull from that energy and it only gives you more. It builds up your own energy to throw it out back out at the crowd. So, it all feeds on each other. And yes, it's something that you don't maybe necessarily think about as you're building a parade for a float. You're very focused on the result itself, product, the people and place. Just making sure you've got tape and poles and banners and all those things that go into it, so you're very detail oriented. But you kind of forget about the energy that's already there, that you didn't bring, but you're adding to it, you're taking from it and you're giving as much as you can back out. And that in itself is a wonderful element to showcase something that a lot of people might think science is stuffy, not full of highs and lows, not celebratory and yet, here we are. And people are cheering and we're all excited and we can't wait to share when people can't wait to hear and see and be fascinated and be part of it, and to, especially for the kids, cheer them on, which I am sure can only be a boost in what they've done and what they continue to do as their students. So, yeah, there is that element that may not exist in other places where you bring science, too. To have that there and to be part of it and to use that is really magical.

Bonnie Stevens

Team Leader
Flagstaff Fourth of July Parade

Bonnie Stevens

Team Leader
Flagstaff Fourth of July Parade
It's always scary. It's like the first performance of anything, I would imagine. You learn a lot. You put yourself out there. You are, in some cases, putting a lot of faith into what you believe will transpire and convincing other people that yes, that's what's going to happen and this is going to be good for these reasons. Then, see it come together and it seems like when it does come together, it's even better than you had described.

Vaughan James

Observer
St. Pete Pride Parade

Vaughan James

Observer
St. Pete Pride Parade
The exuberance and excitement of the volunteers was also something really good to see. I talked with several members of the volunteer crew, and all of them were enthused to the point of vibrating about what they were doing. And that does not have to be the case; you can be conscripted into an event you don't care about, but they weren't. And so I think that that sense of, again, conviviality within the float itself, the clearly positive interactions the walkers were having with audience members, people exclaiming with delight when they put on glasses, it brought much more happiness than I would ever have anticipated for a float.

Theresa Burress

Team Leader
St. Pete Pride Parade

Theresa Burress

Team Leader
St. Pete Pride Parade
I will say that we had a couple of volunteers, my son included, teenager, and one of his friends, who came and wanted to contribute to building the float but we're uncomfortable. They're teenagers, so they were uncomfortable with the idea that anybody was looking at them. And so they had the opportunity to come and contribute, and saw PVC pipes, and cut chicken wire, and use a drill, and get a little bit of mentoring from our young science professionals who were leading the float building. And then they finished up their task and then went on their way. So there was even people who are very introverted and don't like the idea of being on stage, that performativeness that comes with walking through a large crowd or whatever, they contributed as well.

Howard Rutherford

Team Leader
St Pete Pride Parade

Howard Rutherford

Team Leader
St Pete Pride Parade
So we have our chair of our volunteer committee, co-chair of the volunteer committee organized the volunteers for this particular event. And her daughter, who is on the spectrum, accompanied her and assisted her in checking in volunteers, et cetera. My understanding is that the parents are very protective of their kids and rightfully so, but this is probably the closest that Mary Margaret could get to ... She's a high school student, by the way. Could get to what a club scene might look and feel like. And Mary Margaret [inaudible] she was on the float, and she danced as if no one was watching for the entire parade. And when I mean dance, she danced. Again, creating space for her to be whatever she wanted to be that night, which I thought was ... We're proud of that as well.

Theresa Burress

Team Leader
St. Pete Pride Parade

Theresa Burress

Team Leader
St. Pete Pride Parade
One of the things that I have read in multiple different ways or in multiple different books, is just about how the ability for people to come together in common cause can help inspire innovation and creativity. And it's along these lines of what our common goal of making science positive relationships with a broad community and that kind of thing. The potential is cool.

Howard Rutherford

Team Leader
St Pete Pride Parade

Howard Rutherford

Team Leader
St Pete Pride Parade
what was different from the parade event versus other outreach activities that we've been involved in, as it relates to situated engagement is that there's an energy there that I haven't experienced in any other event in our community and I go to a lot of events, festivals, other parades, but this particular parade in the center of our city with tens of thousands of people. And when I recall two videos that I've watched of people from the top end of our flow looking down to the masses, that was such a... It just brought chills to me just thinking about those people. And us shooting t-shirts out with t-shirt guns and handing out the refraction glasses and them wanting more and more and more and all I could think of was playing a song for the DJ. And I don't know, it was just an amazing experience. That energy there is one thing that makes it different.

Bonnie Stevens

Team Leader
Flagstaff Fourth of July Parade

Bonnie Stevens

Team Leader
Flagstaff Fourth of July Parade
I know that the teenagers that we had in there must have felt like rockstars and these are people that are normally introverted, quiet, stay with their circle of friends and they must have been on a high all I configure for the rest of the weekend.

Vaughan James

Observer
St. Pete Pride Parade

Vaughan James

Observer
St. Pete Pride Parade
you get impact on both ends. And I think that that's something that doesn't get looked at very often. What happens when you as a science professional volunteer, whatever, go out and do these things? It's always outward looking. What happens to the audience? What do we do to the people that attend? But I mean, truly, what do we do to the people that do it? That is a very important part of it.
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be supported

Situated engagement is better with special support.

Bonnie Stevens

Team Leader
Flagstaff Fourth of July Parade

Bonnie Stevens

Team Leader
Flagstaff Fourth of July Parade
I have this internal gauge that I know when I'm on the right path. I know when things are right. That's when I get chills. When I get chills, I'm overcome with such an emotion that I can't really describe it in words, but it's just, this is so cool. It's almost, it gets to your heart, whatever it is and when you're on paper and the thought behind it and you're going, "Yeah, these were put for these reasons," but when you're there and you're dealing with humans, you're dealing with kids that are so passionate about what they're doing, and are so generous to want to explain it to other kids, and then they tell you their reasons why, it just sends shivers throughout my body.

Ben Wiehe

Ben Wiehe

I feel like I've just got a real learning point from this in terms of practicality. I put that in bold here in my notes of the importance of doing this more than once because- Sorry. I mean, I've heard from, I think that in each of the recordings I've done with people about who've done this sort of a thing, like flags, sorry, St. Petersburg effort, they really stepped it up the second time. They kind of were like, we're ready for this. The first time, they're like, "I'm not sure why we're doing this. Where do we get a trailer from? How's this going to?" Well, yes. Then, the second time they're like, "Right, you know how this goes."

Parmvir Bahia

Observer
St. Pete Pride Parade

Parmvir Bahia

Observer
St. Pete Pride Parade
I agree that having seen some of the participants during the parade, where we leave some big organizations unnamed in this, for the fact that they just showed up with a Jeep and a banner on the float, I personally was turned off by that. And when you know it's a big and well-funded organization, and you think, "Really, guys, that's the best you could do?" So honestly, it demonstrates how much effort you put into doing this. So there's a little bit of go big or go home. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, or at least put in effort to show that you care.

Howard Rutherford

Team Leader
St Pete Pride Parade

Howard Rutherford

Team Leader
St Pete Pride Parade
It does take a bit of effort to create a sophisticated [inaudible], but I think it's important that we do have a float much like the other major floats that are there and not just a flatbed trailer from U-Haul. Nothing against that, but it decrees a different presence, I should say.

Vaughan James

Observer
St. Pete Pride Parade

Vaughan James

Observer
St. Pete Pride Parade
The background mix matters a lot, I think. Pairing people from just different disciplines, I think, is a great idea, because it just expands every... It doesn't have to be two people. But every member of that gets a different perspective all at the same time. It really enriches the conversation.

Bonnie Stevens

Team Leader
Flagstaff Fourth of July Parade

Bonnie Stevens

Team Leader
Flagstaff Fourth of July Parade
so much in the event business, you worry about the what you're doing, how you're going to get it done, what it's going to look like? But the whys are really what gives you the support and especially moving into the future. And I found this in my experiences that a lot of people want to be able to support you and give you the whys and tell others about the whys. But I feel like our job sometimes is to provide that verbiage to tell them what the whys are and then to give them examples. See this did this instead of so much the what. Because I think when I'm talking to board members with limited resources, they're looking at how much time they're going to have to put in and where are we going to get the money and why are we doing this in the first place? So it's not really the what, which we all get hung up on, but I think we need to have this so well thought through and to be able to show them the whys and the impact and that's what they want to support you and they want to help you gain more support, but we need to feed that to them.

Helen Regis

Observer
DragonCon Parade

Helen Regis

Observer
DragonCon Parade
it's by doing it that you figure out how to do it better. And that it is an iterative process, inherently and it's also by doing it that you build some of those relationships and then you can imagine ways to strengthen that or to look in new directions for partners. So I just think that that. Yeah. I think just recognizing that, that it's a practice that's potentially very different from the other work that you're doing the rest of the year, I don't know. So if you weren't previously a festival maker or parade maker, you are learning how to do it by doing it and with your own goals. And I think that all festival makers and parade makers do that.

Becky Carroll

Becky Carroll

it's helpful if people on your board and people in your organization can go and participate in the event and get a feel for it. Even if you don't have a lot of other data, that first hand experience of being there, being in the crowd and seeing the enthusiasm makes a huge difference especially if you're having difficulties trying to make your case and want to continue it. It's helpful to get those people down there too.

Helen Regis

Observer
DragonCon Parade

Helen Regis

Observer
DragonCon Parade
I've been involved in project evaluations for a lot of different projects, but never anything that was the subtle or nuanced or sophisticated. So there's just a lot there. And even though I wish that I could have time to watch the video, to look at all the imagery, all the archive that was created, I'm sure from that process, there was just so much there. It's very, very rich.
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Participants

Helen Regis

Observer
DragonCon Parade

Helen Regis

Observer
DragonCon Parade

Parmvir Bahia

Observer
St. Pete Pride Parade

Parmvir Bahia

Observer
St. Pete Pride Parade

Vaughan James

Observer
St. Pete Pride Parade

Vaughan James

Observer
St. Pete Pride Parade

Theresa Burress

Team Leader
St. Pete Pride Parade

Theresa Burress

Team Leader
St. Pete Pride Parade

Howard Rutherford

Team Leader
St. Pete Pride Parade

Howard Rutherford

Team Leader
St. Pete Pride Parade

Bonnie Stevens

Team Leader
Flagstaff Fourth of July Parade

Bonnie Stevens

Team Leader
Flagstaff Fourth of July Parade

Gemima Philippe

Observer
DragonCon Parade

Gemima Philippe

Observer
DragonCon Parade

images

Team members smile at the camera as they build the parade float.
Pride parade attendees wearing rainbow tutus mingle with volunteers at the event.
Volunteers hang a banner that reads "St. Petersburg Science Festival, October 19, 2019" from the back of the pride parade float.
A team member poses with his arm over the shoulder of a parade attendee behind a DJ booth.
At night, two parade attendees celebrate. One of them holds a rainbow pride flag.
The whole event team wearing matching t-shirts pose in front of the parade float.
Pride parade attendees wave sparklers at the passing float.
An event volunteer is DJing.
A team member wearing a colorful outfit waves at pride attendees on the street.
People carrying signs march in the DragonCon parade.
A group of people carrying signs marching in the DragonCon parade.
A young boy is greeted by someone wearing a pink robot costume.
A group of people dressed as planets at DragonCon.

Science on Parade

St. Pete Pride Parade

The Pride Parade in St. Petersburg is billed as Florida's largest, often drawing a crowd of 90,000. The parade begins at dusk, turning the streets of St. Pete into a massive, moving, nighttime celebration. The following day there is a large, family-friendly Pride festival. For several years, the organizers of the St. Pete Science Festival brought a table to the day-time festival, to hand out promotional materials and share some hands-on activities. In 2019 they joined the parade with their own colorful parade float. The float had a science of rainbows theme, was packed with dozens of volunteers dancing to a DJ's "science-themed club music," and was surrounded by a team on foot handing out thousands of diffraction glasses to the cheering crowd (these glasses make every light source look like a rainbow).

Flagstaff Fourth of July Parade

The Fourth of July Parade in Flagstaff, Arizona is one of the largest events in the region, often drawing crowds of more than 20,000 to a city of some 70,000 people. The parade and surrounding events have brought together communities across Northern Arizona for decades. Similarly, the Flagstaff Festival of Science has celebrated annually since 1990. After nearly thirty years of being separate tentpole events for Flagstaff, the Festival hit upon the idea of joining in as part of the parade. In 2019 the Festival teamed up with the CoCoRAS, a youth robotics club, to march in the parade and pay tribute to Flagstaff’s role in U.S. moon landings.

DragonCon Parade

Part fantasy convention, part SciFi convention, part everything else, DragonCon has become one of the biggest gatherings of its kind, drawing attendees to Atlanta from around the world. The convention even includes a busy science track of its own, with panels on scientific research and science communication. Knowing that this annual event is too big to miss, the Atlanta Science Festival has had a presence at DragonCon for years, taking over a busy hallway for a family-friendly, hands-on science zone for two days. In 2019 the team started looking for a way to join in and participate in an essential aspect of DragonCon, and the convention’s big public parade was the obvious first choice. This parade empties out of the convention and onto the streets of Atlanta, drawing huge local crowds and extensive television coverage. This site is included in two Science In Vivo categories: Science on Parade, and Con_Science.

Science in Vivo is a project of the Experimental Practice team at the MIT Museum,  funded by Science Sandbox, an initiative of the Simons Foundation.

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