Leveraging, Synergies and Cloning: Thoughts on How Scientists can Multiply their Impact on Education and Public Outreach

An individual scientist might look at the huge numbers of students and the public who constitute a potential audience for education and public outreach (EPO) and conclude that he/she has no hope to make a difference. This talk will share some strategies that have the potential to multiply a scientist's for maximum effect, and some evidence that indeed one person CAN make a difference. The first strategy is to leverage: that is, find a person or group who already has an ongoing EPO activity that relates to your subject area, and use it as a way to get your information out to an existing, interested audience. This benefits you because you don't have to begin from scratch to build an audience for your information, and it benefits them because they get great new content to keep their audience interested. The second strategy is to synergize: that is, cooperate or coordinate with an existing EPO group, or with colleagues with similar interests. Use your expertise to develop new resources that fit into an existing program. Cooperate with an existing EPO group so they can help you navigate details like review processes, aligning your resource to education standards, and helping tailor your information to the needs of the education audience. The third strategy is to use technology to approximate cloning: that is, to propagate yourself and your information via multiple channels. However, this strategy should not be used until after you have tested and honed your information through a number of in-person interactions with the audience(s) you seek to reach, and have developed some communications skills that help you connect with students and teachers. One lesson that you may learn from such interactions is that scientists aren't like other people. We have a distinct vocabulary, culture, and habits of mind that distinguish us from others. This is a key strength for science, but sometimes a barrier for EPO. By personal contact with non-scientists, we can learn again how to communicate outside of science. There is one major difference between the communication scientists normally do, at conferences such as AGU, and that which they do for EPO: novelty vs. repetition. While scientists seek to present the latest discovery to each other, 4th graders need to learn basically the same thing every year. Thus, the information you share with students does not need to be totally cutting edge; it should ideally draw connections between the fundamentals they are learning and exciting areas of recent scientific inquiry. Once you have figured out a message and style that works with live audiences, it is time to explore how emerging technologies can multiply your impact beyond that achieved by individual in-person interactions. Technology is advancing rapidly, and new and better options are continually becoming available: webinars, video, QR codes, the list goes on! Again, collaboration and cooperation are key strategies here: join forces with technical experts, EPO groups who use these new tools, and other interested individuals with key knowledge. The bottom line of scientists doing EPO: It's worth it! Studies show that a very small fraction of people in the US actually know a scientist. It is important for scientists to get out there and demonstrate that, in fact, scientists are real people!