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We were due to talk at 14:30, which would allow the audience 30 minutes to catch up and chat before the talk began. They said they had a TV we could present from, however we brought back-up in case theirs did not have an HDMI port. We arrived in Weston 20 minutes early, so that we could have a last minute discussion. We were well aware that it was an informal group, so we made sure that we would present in a relaxed and conversational manner.
Some of the answers we received to the "name a scientist" test
On arriving we introduced ourselves and set up the TV (we had to use the spare). Whilst we were setting up, we got them to write down the names of any scientists they knew for our test, but otherwise we were ready to present within about 10 minutes.
I was the first to present, starting on the topic of parallax. I opened with a video[14] that outlines how, when viewing objects from a distance, there are associated difficulties with perceiving the depths of those objects - and that this was a major problem in the field of astronomy. This took me onto the concept of parallax, which I demonstrated by getting the audience to look at their extended finger through their left and right eyes, and notice the 'shift'. This demonstration was well received, and I went on to explain how a similar 'shift' is also seen with stars, and measuring said shifts provides a key technique for measuring their distances.
Leigh followed me, asking the audience members to raise thier hands if they named a female scientist in our test (a similar proportion to our peers). Leigh then discussed the discoveries and achievements of various female scientists, concluding with Henrietta Leavitt. The audience reacted fervently to this section, expressing annoyance at the unfair lack of credit these scientists were given. George was last, carrying on from Leigh’s introduction of Leavitt, talking about the Leavitt law, and Vicky’s research in this area. This was potentially the most confusing part of the talk, but the audience still seemed engaged, and paid George attention.
The main problem of the day came from the quiz, as many of the individuals in the audience suffered from poor eyesight, and couldn’t read the questions. We decided to basically drop the quiz, leaving it to those who could read it to fill it in at their leisure. They invited us to stay for tea and cake afterwards, which provided a valuable opportunity to discuss the talk further, as well as chatting to them about why we were studying physics, and what we thought of Bath - amongst other things.
As we left, we were all exceedingly pleased with how it went, the presentation had gone extremely well, and I was impressed by how engaged they were. It had gone far better than any of us expected, and we all thought it had been an extremely positive day.
Unfortunately we only remembered to take a photo after most of our audience had left
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