Public Understanding of Science

Issues relating to the Public Understanding of Science

With a focus on the Public’s Understanding of Smoking

By: Lindsay Oliver Student ID: ttxlo3 Submission Date: 03.01.2011

Contents

Issues relating to the Public Understanding of Science Page 2 - 5

Introduction and Background Page 2
Issues relating to Public Understanding of Science Page 2- 5

Focus study on the Public Understanding of Smoking Page 6 - 17

Introduction and Aim Page 6

Methods Page 6
Results Page 7 - 14
Discussion Page 14 - 16

References Page 16 -17

Appendices Page 18 - 36

Appendix 1: Smoking and Health Questionnaire Page 18 - 20

Appendix 2: Smoking and Health Questionnaire – Coding for Raw Data Page 21 -23

Appendix 3: Raw Data Results of returned questionnaires Page 24 - 31

Appendix 4: Data Analysis of Results Page 32 - 36

Introduction and Background

In recent decades, there has been a growing emphasis on improving the public’s understanding of Science, with various reports being formulated, such as ”The Public Understanding of Science”, produced by The Royal Society (1985;“The Bodmer Report”), to highlight and tackle the issues faced in addressing this (Bodmer, 1985). Various surveys have also been undertaken to measure “adult scientific literacy” within the given public (Miller, 2001). As acting members of the public, we are affected daily by scientifically based issues. In order for us to contribute to, and help make informed decisions on these issues, we first need to have a basic knowledge on such matters, to ensure our understanding, and logically contribute to this decision making, i.e. the public should be “scientifically literate” (Jenkins, 1999).
Although various tactics have been taken to increase the public literacy of science, such as the formation of the Committee of the Public Understanding of Science (CoPUS) (Miller, 2001), an emphasis on

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