Chapter 4 of Surrounded by Science touches on a very important piece of science education: communication. Science has never been a solitary act and sometimes the way it is taught goes against the way it was discovered. Investigations into the conversations amongst those who went to informal science institutions revealed what is called ‘perceptual talk,’ or the process of identifying significant information. It consists of identification, naming, pointing out a feature, and quoting form a label. These are the major ways that people communicate what they see in an exhibit. In order to maximize social interaction, it may help to have labels and easy-to-read descriptions on exhibits, or interactive exhibits that are designed to be experienced with others.

One form of communication elaborated upon in Chapter 4 is that between parent and child. It was found that the parent-child interaction played a key role in the amount of time and the quality of type spent exploring the exhibit. Outside the informal learning institution, this interaction was also found to improve retention of letters and numbers in 3 and 4-year olds who saw Sesame Street with adults. On the other hand, it is also possible that while doing certain activities that parents do most of the conceptual work while relegating the logistics to their children, resulting in the children making fewer gains in understanding.

Personally, I find communication important to my understanding of science. Being able to talk it over with somebody allows me to flesh out what I truly believe about the concept and also iron out the kinks in my conceptual understanding of the underlying phenomena.