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Blog -
Science outreach
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Monday, 25 August 2008 17:18 |
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I've decided to start publishing a series of short interviews with people doing interesting work in science outreach, with a new interview published each Monday. My goal is to build up a vision of the range of career paths people follow to end up in science outreach, and the different sorts of work that they do once they're there. Our first interview is with Eva Amsen, a PhD candidate in Biochemistry and science writer. Enjoy! How did you get interested in science?I don't really know. I recall reading about genetics in a kids' magazine when I was seven or eight, but I didn't know it was "science" at the time. I could see that it was something educational, but didn'tistinguish between learning about science or learning about history. When I was a teenager I became concerned about the environment, and I enjoyed school science projects about air or water pollution. When I had to apply for university, I applied to a Chemistry program with the intention of studying Environmental Sciences and using science to save the planet, but during my first year I realized that Environmental Chemistry was mostly Analytical Chemistry and I didn't really like that field, so I ended up in Biochemistry instead. I've always had any interests beside science, so it's hard to figure out what led me to science. What makes doing science outreach seem worthwhile to you?
There are different kinds of science outreach: One type of outreach is aimed at elementary and high school students to get them interested in a career in science. Another type is aimed at people who don't work in science and never will work in science but who are curious about the world and like hearing about science. That is my favourite kind of outreach, because to a certain extent everybody *is* interested in science. People will say that they don't like science, but what they don't like is the memory of sitting in a science classroom in high school. Once you point out that there is science involved in many of he things they read about in the news every day - alternative fuels, stem cell therapy, forensics - it suddenly becomes interesting and you have an eager audience wanting to learn more about DNA fingerprinting or energy conversion. What comes to mind as one of the more interesting things happening in the outreach world today?One of the things I find really interesting is the concept of Cafe Scientifique. It brings back a time when science was discussed more publicly than we're used to now. Rather than only hearing about science through the media, people can attend a Cafe Scientifique meeting and talk directly with scientists. It's interesting for the participating scientists as well: They get to meet people who are interested in their work but don't know enough about it to discuss it at an academic level. From my own experience of doing outreach for kids I always felt re-energized and more excited about my own work after having talked to a group of curious nine-year-olds. They have such an admiration for science, and you just tend to take it for
granted if you're in the lab all day. It must be the same for the scientists who get to talk on a Cafe Scientifique panel. What are you currently up to?I'm trying to finish my thesis, so I can leave the lab and focus on science writing for a while. I'm finding it hard to combine thesis writing with other writing, so my blog is not updated as often right now, but I have some blog ideas for when the thesis is done. The only non-blog, non-thesis writing I've recently done is for CRAM science. It's a Canadian website meant for teenagers, explaining the science behind everyday concepts. My most recent piece for CRAM was about fake tanners and I'm currently writing an article for them, together with my sister, about dehydration. I'll also be at the Science in the 21st Century conference, where I'm moderating a panel discussion about science and the public on September 8.
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Last Updated ( Monday, 25 August 2008 22:32 )
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Blog -
Science outreach
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Monday, 04 August 2008 16:48 |
Most so-called science outreach is really just promotion. This is appalling.
We've all encountered this: the science communication department at a large university is usually devoted to marketing the research of that particular university. The so-called "outreach" products of such departments - the public talks, articles, and events for school groups - are all forced to suit this purpose. Mediocre research is described in glowing terms as "world-class" or "ground-breaking". Poor communicators are put forward again and again so that they can be seen as a leader in their field.
This is promotion, not outreach. Describing this as educating about science is like saying that a car commercial is designed to teach viewers about engine design.
This is not to say that it's wrong to do promotion in order to get support from granting agencies and donors. The problem is that this is confused with science outreach.
By outreach I mean activities whose primary goal is to enable people to learn about science, to talk about science, or to do science.
Imagine if your high school english teacher had decided to make your class read his or her amateurish novel rather than Shakespeare. You might have learned something, but it would be dishonest of your teacher to have claimed that you were engaging with great literature.
Promoting mediocre research as "cutting-edge" fundamental science to people who have engaged with the university in good faith, expecting an opportunity to learn, is just as harmful and dishonest. And yet this is just what happens all the time in the science communication departments of many universities.
Of course, many people in such departments end up there because they want to do outreach, and they manage to fit some in around the edges of the promotional material. This helps, but it doesn't solve the basic problem.
So, what's the solution? It's very simple: outreach should be in a separate department to promotion and marketing, and it must be evaluated along different metrics. While the goals for promotion may be described in terms of the number of visits to the website or improvements to the university's public image, the only goals for outreach should be things like the number of people who have participated and evidence for changes in their understanding of science.
These metrics explain why little science outreach is done at universities: there is no obvious pay-off in terms of funding or enrolments, so why bother? In fact, universities should dedicate a certain amount of money to community outreach, just like most large companies do. When a bank sponsors a sporting team, it's not because the sport showcases their newest mortgage.
Similarly, universities should engage in sponsoring genuine science outreach events, without interfering to ensure that their researchers are featured. The pay-off is the positive feelings the sponsorship inspires, the media coverage, and the opportunity to brand the university as a community supporter.
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Last Updated ( Monday, 04 August 2008 16:52 )
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Blog -
Tour of the World
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Thursday, 17 July 2008 12:31 |
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I have arrived at Egypt in my virtual world tour at the same time as I am, coincidentally, reading a chapter about the construction of the pyramids in a book by Mario Salvadori entitled How Buildings Stand Up. It turns out that the first pyramid (shown above) was built by a man called Imhotep who, after his death, was deified by the ancient Egyptians. Salvadori describes Imhotep as a physicist, engineer, and architect - and certainly he must have been all of these things to design and build such a structure (originally 65m tall!) for the first time. As far as I know, he's the only scientist to have been deified in a major religion.
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Blog -
Tour of the World
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Tuesday, 15 July 2008 15:14 |
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 Libya has apparently been spending a large percentage of its oil-derived wealth on providing free education, including university education. Here's an exerpt from Wikipedia:
Education in Libya is free for all citizens, and compulsory up until secondary level. The literacy rate is the highest in North Africa; over 82% of the population can read and write. After Libya's independence in 1951, its first university, the University of Libya, was established in Benghazi. In academic year 1975/76 the number of university students was estimated to be 13,418. As of 2004, this number has increased to more than 200,000, with an extra 70,000 enrolled in the higher technical and vocational sector. The rapid increase in the number of students in the higher education sector has been mirrored by an increase in the number of institutions of higher education. Since 1975 the number of universities has grown from two to nine and after their introduction in 1980, the number of higher technical and vocational institutes currently stands at 84 (with 12 public universities). Libya's higher education is financed by the public budget. In 1998 the budget allocated for education represented 38.2% of the national budget.
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Blog -
Tour of the World
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Monday, 14 July 2008 15:52 |
 Tunisia's northern half or so is part of the Atlas mountain range that has been pushed up by the collision of the African and European continental plates - the same collision that has almost closed off the Mediterranean from the Atlantic. These mountains account for the temperate climate of northern Tunisia, Algeria, and Morocco; the southern, flatter parts of Tunisia and Algeria merge with the Sahara. In between these two regions, Tunisia has a series of large salt lakes (dry most of the year) that are slightly below the level of the Mediterranean sea and may once have been part of it.
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