{"id":12877,"date":"2016-12-19T12:42:09","date_gmt":"2016-12-19T17:42:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/rinsfepscor\/?p=12877"},"modified":"2016-12-19T12:42:09","modified_gmt":"2016-12-19T17:42:09","slug":"engaging-audiences-best-scicomm-practices","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/rinsfepscor\/2016\/12\/19\/engaging-audiences-best-scicomm-practices\/","title":{"rendered":"Engaging audiences: Best scicomm practices"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_12878\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-12878\" style=\"width: 600px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/848\/Geoffrey-Bothun.jpg\"  rel=\"lightbox[12877] attachment wp-att-12878\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-12878 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/848\/Geoffrey-Bothun.jpg\" alt=\"Geoffrey Bothun\" width=\"600\" height=\"247\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-12878\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">RI NSF EPSCoR Principal Investigator Geoffrey Bothun<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p>December 2, at the\u00a0University of Rhode Island. <a href=\"http:\/\/metcalfinstitute.org\/training\/scicomm-exchange-speaker-bio\/\">John Durant<\/a>, director of the <a href=\"https:\/\/mitmuseum.mit.edu\/\">MIT Museum<\/a> and adjunct professor in MIT\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n<p>Durant&#8217;s presentation was part of an\u00a0ongoing collaboration between\u00a0the <a href=\"http:\/\/metcalfinstitute.org\/\">Metcalf Institute for Marine &amp; Environmental Reporting<\/a> and\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/rinsfepscor\/\">Rhode Island NSF Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research<\/a>\u00a0to provide science communication training events.<\/p>\n<p>Durant explained that the older \u201cdeficit model\u201d of science communication practice doesn\u2019t work because it assumes that \u201cif we could just get the public to know more, everything would be okay.\u201d A more effective model of communication, Durant noted, is to engage the public in a more interactive way leading to mutual understanding.<\/p>\n<p>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: \u201cThe first requirement of anyone who wants to be a good communicator is caring that the people can understand what you\u2019re saying [outside the context of a lab or classroom].&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Durant\u00a0also advised\u00a0the group to be open about the limitations of their expertise, noting \u201cAcknowledging what we don\u2019t know is really important in science communication.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI thought this was an excellent way to improve my science communication skills by getting other people\u2019s perspectives on what has worked for them in communicating with members of the public,\u201d said Stefan Bengtson, a graduate student in the URI College of the Environment and Life Sciences Environmental Science and Management program. \u201cMost 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\u2019m doing.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: right\"><em>Story by the Metcalf Institute | Photo by\u00a0Zak Kerrigan<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>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\u00a0University of Rhode Island. John Durant, director of the MIT Museum and adjunct professor in MIT\u2019s Science Technology, and Society Program, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[21,1],"tags":[402,582,621],"class_list":["post-12877","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","category-uncategorized","tag-metcalf-institute","tag-ri-nsf-epscor","tag-science-communication"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/rinsfepscor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12877","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/rinsfepscor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/rinsfepscor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/rinsfepscor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/rinsfepscor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12877"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/rinsfepscor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12877\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/rinsfepscor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12877"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/rinsfepscor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12877"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/rinsfepscor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12877"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}