Science Communication Fellowship Program at the Pacific Science Center

With funding from an NSF Informal Science Education grant, the Pacific Science Center in Seattle, Washington began the Science Communication Fellowship program in 2009 as part of the Portal to the Public initiative. The purpose of the Science Communication Fellowship program is to train scientists and engineers to communicate more effectively with the general public regarding their research and to assist with the development of hands-on activities that can be used by the scientists and engineers for outreach activities. The program came out of a collaboration to develop a model for effectively communicating current science research at informal science education organizations. The program model has undergone in-depth research and evaluation to assess its effectiveness and impact. To become Science Communication Fellows, researchers participate in four three-hour professional development sessions, where they learn communication techniques through role-playing and hands-on activities. The workshops are supplemented with additional one-on-one meetings with Science Center staff to help the new Fellows develop activities for use at outreach events. These activities are then used by the Fellows at public events that highlight current research taking place in the region. To date over 80 scientists and engineers have gone through the training sessions to become Science Communication Fellows. The Pacific Science Center holds approximately 12 events a year in which Fellows can facilitate their activity. Public programs range from small, monthly programs to large, annual Research Weekends. Funding for this program continues through support from NIH, IMLS, NSF, and NASA grants. For more information, please contact the current program administrator Dana Vukajlovich at DVukajlovich@pacsci.org.