Clark Greg, Russell Josh, Enyeart Peter, Gracia Brant, Wessel Aimee, Jarmoskaite Inga, Polioudakis Damon, Stuart Yoel, Gonzalez Tony, MacKrell Al, Rodenbusch Stacia, Stovall Gwendolyn M, Beckham Josh T, Montgomery Michael, Tasneem Tania, Jones Jack, Simmons Sarah, Roux Stanley
Department of Molecular Biosciences, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas, United States of America.
College of Natural Sciences, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas, United States of America.
PLoS Biol. 2016 Feb 4;14(2):e1002368. doi: 10.1371/journal.pbio.1002368. eCollection 2016 Feb.
Both scientists and the public would benefit from improved communication of basic scientific research and from integrating scientists into education outreach, but opportunities to support these efforts are limited. We have developed two low-cost programs--"Present Your PhD Thesis to a 12-Year-Old" and "Shadow a Scientist"--that combine training in science communication with outreach to area middle schools. We assessed the outcomes of these programs and found a 2-fold benefit: scientists improve their communication skills by explaining basic science research to a general audience, and students' enthusiasm for science and their scientific knowledge are increased. Here we present details about both programs, along with our assessment of them, and discuss the feasibility of exporting these programs to other universities.
无论是科学家还是公众,都将从基础科学研究交流的改善以及科学家融入教育推广活动中受益,但支持这些努力的机会有限。我们开发了两个低成本项目——“向12岁孩子展示你的博士论文”和“跟随科学家实习”——将科学传播培训与面向当地中学的推广活动相结合。我们评估了这些项目的成果,发现有双重益处:科学家通过向普通受众解释基础科学研究来提高他们的沟通技巧,同时学生对科学的热情和科学知识也有所增加。在此,我们介绍这两个项目的详细情况以及我们对它们的评估,并讨论将这些项目推广到其他大学的可行性。