February 24th 2017
Join us Monday, March 13 for journal club, presented by Michelle Rodrigues:
Kahan, Dan M., et al. “Science curiosity and political information processing.” (2016).
https://uofi.box.com/s/vinocfkcljihkptlavhrl821kajkwi29
Remember, join us TODAY (Friday Feb 24) from 3-4:30 pm at CLSLfor our panel on intersectionality in science!
March 10th 2016
“Scientists who engage with society perform better academically.” Jensen et al., 2008
Jensen 2008 analyzed if popularization (i.e. outreach) correlated with academic activity. They found that there was a positive correlation between academic activity (i.e. publishing) and popularization. They also found that individuals with higher academic positions were more involved in popularization. Although they used this as support that outreach does not negatively or positively influence career promotions, there are other possible explanations that were not addressed. Individuals may be pressured to wait until after promoted to become actively engaged in outreach.
November 17th 2015
“Knowledge Is Power”: A Mixed-Methods Study Exploring Adult Audience Preferences for Engagement and Learning Formats Over 3 Years of a Health Science Festival
One-way communication from scientists to the public is often scorned in favor of a two-way communication dialogue, however, there has been little research aimed at finding what people actually prefer. Fogg-Rogers et al. (2015) surveyed a large science festival in New Zealand over the course of three years in order to determine public preferences for science engagement formats. The annual Brain Day Auckland festival combines hands-on labs, children’s activities, music, art, community group expos and scientist talks (both lectures and dialogue discussions) to communicate information on brain health and current neuroscience research. Over the three-year study period 89% of participants attended the lectures, 77% stated the lectures were their main reason for attending, and 84% found the lectures useful. The lecture was consistently ranked number 1 for attendance and usefulness every year. This result was consistent across age, gender, ethnicity, and education level. While the lecture format was preferred by the vast majority of participants, it remains to be seen whether stand-alone lectures would be as attractive outside of the science festival atmosphere.
November 9th 2015
We will be meeting in 109A Davenport Hall at noon on Friday 11/13/15 for a journal club discussion lead by Daniel Urban.
The article we will be discussing is “Knowledge Is Power”: A Mixed-Methods Study Exploring Adult Audience Preferences for Engagement and Learning Formats Over 3 Years of a Health Science Festival” FoggRogers_15
Everyone is welcome to join!
October 14th 2015
We will be meeting in 109A Davenport Hall at noon on Friday 10/16/15 for a journal club discussion lead by Sudharsan Dwaraknath.
In this meeting we will discuss different ways in which scientists can directly communicate their research to the public. The articles for discussion will be “Re-Envisioning the Communication of our Science” McGarveyandMason_15 and “Wikipedia Editors Woo Scientists to Improve Content Quality” Hodson_15.
Everyone is welcome to join for an informal discussion.