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?
6 April 2011
Dealing with online criticism: What’s a scientist to do?
![Amy Draut, doing field work in Grand Canyon [Photo courtesy of Amy Draut]](http://blogs.agu.org/sciencecommunication/files/2011/04/Draut_profilepic-199x300.jpg)
There’s an old saying that all publicity is good publicity as long as they spell your name right. Those of us in Earth science who work mostly out of the public eye usually enjoy the occasional attention our research receives from the world at large. Even though my name is often misspelled, I too like my work to be noticed by someone other than my co-authors. But what to do when publicity turns ‘bad’—when your science is misrepresented or criticized publicly?
30 March 2011
Thinking (of science) like a journalist: A physicist’s take on a media training workshop
Clear and accessible science communication has been a priority throughout my 20-year scientific career as a physicist working in wildly interdisciplinary entrepreneurial R&D settings. Like most scientists, I’ve not had much occasion to talk to “the media,” but I’m also a science news junkie and aware that the thirst for information among the public is increasing.
7 March 2011
Media fellow journeys to the “other side”
On the heels of defending my Ph.D. in soil ecology, I headed off to northern Colorado last September for the next step in my scientific journey: working at a radio station. In graduate school I had pursued some science writing training, but I had never been employed as a journalist. I hoped the experience would help me understand why it can be hard for scientists and journalists to communicate with each other and what the barriers are to providing accurate and comprehensive coverage of science in the media.
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?
24 January 2011
*UPDATED* What science question would you like AGU to ask Obama?
AGU is considering submitting a video question to President Obama for a special YouTube interview at the White House on Thursday (a follow-up of the State of the Union speech tomorrow).
We might or might not pull this off. But to help us come up with a really good question, we would like quick suggestions from our members.
1 December 2010
Communicating climate science with blogs and apps: Q&A with John Cook (Skeptical Science)
Over the past three years, climate science blogger John Cook has become well known for his website Skeptical Science, which takes on common arguments from climate change skeptics with a user-friendly database of peer-reviewed research. Earlier this year he also launched a Skeptical Science iPhone and Android app.
29 November 2010
Getting the word out: Helping scientists engage with the media
Guest post by Jeff Taylor, postdoctoral fellow at the National Center for Atmospheric Research and project manager of AGU’s Climate Q&A Service . More than 700 AGU scientists have volunteered to take part in this year’s Climate Q&A Service which was created to quickly provide answers to questions about climate change that journalists might have. It was launched last year just before the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen (COP15), …
28 October 2010
Welcome to the AGU Blogosphere!
AGU is proud to announce the launch of a new network of Earth and space science blogs: the AGU Blogosphere. Seven blogs written by established, independent scientist-bloggers, who are now hosted by AGU, cover topics including planetary exploration, landslides, DC-area geology, volcanoes, climate change and more.
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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