Why people care about chickens and other lessons about rhetoric, public science, and informal learning environments

This chapter is drawn from a larger discourse analysis project analyzing interaction in Science Buzz, a community blog facilitated by the Science Museum of Minnesota. After describing how our findings intersect with recent scholarly conversations about everyday science learning and participation, we focus on one Science Buzz blog posting entitled “The Chicken and the Egg” and its comment stream in order to discuss which discursive moves are common in an online science conversation that has continually garnered high participation over several years. Drawing on a close analysis of this case example, we argue that constructing useful science learning environments where participants ask and answer practical questions about matters of concern can create high levels of public science engagement. When facilitated with care, online social media spaces can act as forums that encourage links between scientific knowledge and local concerns, including  the ethical, political, emotional, and experiential issues that arise with a question such as “How should one best care for chickens?”.