My research focuses on the role of authenticity in science museums and on measuring the impact of science communication.

More information about Anne Land-Zandstra

Authenticity in science museums

“Is it real?” is one of the most heard questions in science museums. Science museums consider it important to make sure visitors can experience real objects and real phenomena. But there is not much empirical evidence on why authenticity is important, how visitors perceive authentic objects, or how it affects their experience. In a research collaboration with Naturalis Biodiversity Center, I am studying these questions. We are studying how visitors perceive real objects versus replicas. And we are experimenting with different ways to support the interaction of visitors with real objects, e.g. through questions on object labels.

In addition, science museums are facing the challenge of how to address societal issues such as climate change and biodiversity loss. How can they mobilize their unique collections to address these issues and activate audiences to consider these issues.

Impact of science communication

The goal of science communication is to affect and change the general public’s views, knowledge, attitudes or behaviour regarding science or scientific findings. In order to determine if and how this impact is being reached, the department of Science Communication & Society at Leiden University, in collaboration with the department for Social, Health and Organisational Psychology at Utrecht University, have developed a platform and toolbox to measure the output, outcomes and impact of science communication activities. Although the initial phase of the Impactlab has ended, we are still looking for opportunities to continue the support and the research that are part of Impactlab. 

Citizen Science

When citizens are collaborating with scientists in research projects, we call that citizen science. A few examples of citizen science projects are national bird counts, water quality monitoring by volunteers, or online analysis of satellite images looking for galaxies. Although the concept of volunteers contributing to scientific research is not new, the opportunities for citizen science have increased tremendously over the last decades. New technologies such as internet, and smartphones have made it easier to collaborate with large groups of citizens. My previous research has focused on motivation and learning outcomes of citizen scientists. I have collaborated with different CS projects (iSPEX, Grote Griepmeting, Schone Rivieren) to study why citizen scientists participate in these projects, and what they get out of them. I am still supervising two PhD students in this field, but have focused my own research focus on the two other topics above.