The most effective way to communicate science? Engage people in a more interactive manner through dialogue and mutual understanding rather than delivering a monologue, assuming they just need to know more.

December 2, at the University of Rhode Island. John Durant, director of the MIT Museum and adjunct professor in MIT’s Science Technology, and Society Program, shared his views on science communication research and practice with a full house of graduate students, faculty, research, and communication staff from Rhode Island.

Durant’s presentation was part of an ongoing collaboration between the Metcalf Institute for Marine & Environmental Reporting and Rhode Island NSF Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research to provide science communication training events.

Durant explained that the older “deficit model” of science communication practice doesn’t work because it assumes that “if we could just get the public to know more, everything would be okay.” A more effective model of communication, Durant noted, is to engage the public in a more interactive way leading to mutual understanding.

During the question and answer portion of the program, Durant encouraged participants to find everyday language to describe what they do and avoid complex terms that create unnecessary barriers: “The first requirement of anyone who wants to be a good communicator is caring that the people can understand what you’re saying [outside the context of a lab or classroom].”

Durant also advised the group to be open about the limitations of their expertise, noting “Acknowledging what we don’t know is really important in science communication.”

According to the program exit survey, SciComm Exchange participants left with a greater interest in practicing science communication and a desire to expand related skills.

“I thought this was an excellent way to improve my science communication skills by getting other people’s perspectives on what has worked for them in communicating with members of the public,” said Stefan Bengtson, a graduate student in the URI College of the Environment and Life Sciences Environmental Science and Management program. “Most of science [research] is publicly funded, so getting people to understand where their tax dollars are going is often a very useful way to get people to buy in to what I’m doing.”

Story by the Metcalf Institute | Photo by Zak Kerrigan