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20 April 2012
Overcoming misunderstandings and misleading data in climate science
People can misunderstand the science behind climate change, which in turn can lead to skepticism, said scientists and communicators at the fourth annual Climate Change Symposium, held 16 April at Northern Virginia Community College. They shared ideas about how to correct the often-misconstrued data about Earth’s changing climate.
15 March 2012
Three minutes to be like Sagan: Competition seeks short bits on science
Prove you’re the next Carl Sagan in three minutes or less. Now, go! That’s what young scientists, engineers and aspiring PhDs in the United States are being called to do – move an audience the way Sagan could, but in three minutes or less. Friday morning, a group of young speakers gathered at NASA headquarters in Washington, D.C., to give it a try.
29 November 2011
From Wanna-Be Reporter to Voice of America Journalist
After four busy summers studiously measuring the minute details of clouds, I spent my last summer as a graduate student in a newsroom, far away from the cockpit of a cloud-probing airplane. It was not just any newsroom but Voice of America’s politically charged newsroom in Washington, D. C. Almost overnight, this California-for-lifer was living and working amid the hustle and bustle of the nation’s capital. As a half researcher–half …
14 April 2011
A crash course in science education and outreach
I confess that when I started my current position, I had no idea what I was doing. Well, not much. I had some experience doing outreach, took two relevant courses in graduate school, and worked at the wonderful Museum of the Earth for two years after college. But still, I felt very much fish-outa-water, despite all my enthusiasm. What were the most useful projects for me to be engaged in? Who was my audience and what was the best way to reach them? How could I tell if anything I was doing was actually working?
28 February 2011
Don’t go it alone: Making outreach work
Broader impacts programs are an increasingly important factor in winning hyper-competitive grants. But how can scientists gain the skills they need to succeed in outreach while they are busy learning what’s necessary to advance in their field? One possible answer: team up with the pros.
11 February 2011
From microfossils to second-graders: Confessions of a researcher-turned-educator
I am a paleontologist by training, and an informal science educator by choice. I’m currently in a post-doc position that lets me do both, but I dedicate three quarters of my time to the educator role, an anomaly in the world of research science. Why, you might ask, would I leave a life of deciphering the early evolution of complex life for a life of “outreach” – running workshops, talking to second-graders, and sitting in on innumerable conference calls?
19 July 2010
Why I Blog: Ed Adams (Geology Happens)
Guest Post by Ed Adams, geology educator Several years ago, I started teaching summer field classes for teachers in need of additional science credits for their endorsements. To facilitate the exchange of information and to provide a repository of data links for my students, I created a series of web pages. This enabled my students, some of whom I only saw for a week, to access the data we used …
19 April 2010
A message to science educators and students about global climate change
Guest post by John C. Ayers, Professor at Vanderbilt University. A recent poll of earth scientists found that 97 percent of actively publishing climate scientists agree that data clearly demonstrate the earth is warming and that human activity is contributing to rising temperatures (EOS v. 90 Number 3, p. 22 — those who don’t have access to Eos, see this CNN story). In contrast, the same poll found that only …
5 April 2010
My mission as a scientist shaken by Haiti fieldwork
Guest post: Andrew Freed, Associate Professor in the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at Purdue University, on his experience in Haiti following the January 12, 2010 earthquake. As a geophysicist who spends most of his time staring into a computer screen, I do not generally conduct fieldwork, let alone in a country that has just been devastated by an earthquake. But, following the January 2010 earthquake that killed over …
The Plainspoken Scientist is an AGU blog on science communication, for scientists. With this blog, we at AGU wish to encourage scientists to reach out to the public and to do so with plainspoken discussion.
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