I was just talking to Chuck Berry, leader of the South Dakota Hub, and I heard all about the GREAT Year of Science events the hub organized. I want to share a few of these with you - hopefully you’ll be as inspired as I am as we kick off 2010!

Chuck is a Professor at South Dakota State University, and he and his colleagues organized not one, not two, but THREE university courses that were centered on the Year of Science. There was a course on Science Journalism, and it focused on the role of the media in the public understanding of science. This course was such a success it will be taught again next year! Another course was taught in the Honors College, and it focused on the public understanding of climate change. The students read Thomas Friedman’s book, Hot, Flat, and Crowded. The most inspiring course, I think, was at the University Center Lifelong Learning Institute. The class was made up of, as Chuck says, “a few dozen older folks.” I think it’s fantastic that the course was aimed at a non-standard audience! Says Chuck, “when you’re getting it out to the non-students, that’s when you’re really making hay, in the way the Year of Science was intended.”

Continuing on the theme of bringing science to non-students, the SDSU Film Society screened four science films throughout the year - the audience, Chuck says, is mostly non-university people. One of the films, called A Sense of Wonder, was a documentary about Rachel Carson. And, says Chuck, “the words she said were right out of the Year of Science.” The films were very well received, and the film society will continue to screen science films in the future.

The South Dakota Hub consists of about 20 organizations - universities, museums, and outdoor education centers. Of course, they had many more events than I can fit in this blog post! Check out the South Dakota Hub Page (coming soon) to learn more about their YoS events. Also, Chuck wrote a paper about the Year of Science, and it will be published in The Proceedings of the South Dakota Academy of Sciences in April - we will make the paper available to you when it is published!

South Dakota will be sending a contingent from the Sanford Underground Science and Engineering Laboratory to the USA Science and Engineering Festival in Washington, DC in October 2010. (A few quick words on the Sanford Underground Lab - an old gold mine, over 2 feet deep, is being converted into a physics lab, so scientists can do experiments without the pesky interference of radiation and particles from outer space. Is that cool or what?) Chuck would like to host Satellite Events in South Dakota, in conjunction with the USA Science and Engineering Festival.

One last thing: during our conversation, Chuck mentioned that he’d hoped to involve industry in the Year of Science, but was relatively unsuccessful. I agree that industry has a lot to offer. If your hub has involved corporations or industry, we would love to hear how you’ve encouraged those relationships. Please leave a comment here on the blog, or contact me at skene@berkeley.edu.

This is not a story about dating. In the summer of 2009, the DC COPUS Regional Hub, a loosely knit group of science cheerleaders from associations, federal agencies, local schools and businesses, decided to hold a Meet the Scientist program this past fall.

We’d kicked the idea around earlier in the year and had met with local schools, but the decision to put the event together was made about six weeks before it started. Why bring scientists into our public schools? Throughout five years of elementary school, I saw math and reading homework daily, and only an occasional science project come home. And we all love challenges.

How We Recruited Schools and Scientists

The National Science Teachers’ Association built two surveys for us on Survey Monkey - one for scientists and the other for schools. The scientists’ survey told us what area of science they specialized in, how comfortable they were talking to students and at what level, how to find them and when they were available.

The science teachers (some were schools but most were individual teachers) told us what type of science they were looking for, which class they wanted scientists for, and what their expectations were.

From these two surveys we matched the scientists with local schools and sent both groups letters of introduction to the other. One of our big concerns was we didn’t want to get in the middle of schools coordinating events with scientists because we didn’t have enough people to manage it. Our core group was four people - myself, Ed Rock of NSTA, Bernadette Farrelly of AIBS and Jen Collins who works on science and education for COPUS. We all had other jobs and little time to spare.

Finding Scientist and School Volunteers

We drove potential participants to the survey links in multiple ways:

Contacted Everyone We Could Think Of - The DC COPUS leadership team contacted everyone it knew in scientific societies and associations, as well as other science organizations in our area. We also partnered with the Retired Scientists, Engineers & Technicians (ReSET) program. Executive director John Meagher leads this group, which sends its members into elementary schools for long-term projects.

Reached Out to the Schools - We got in touch with schools in DC and in suburbs within a 50-60 mile radius of the city. We also contacted a couple of district science supervisors and a random sample of school principals and science lead teachers in Montgomery County. The response was excellent.

Used Social Media for Scientist Recruitment - We used Facebook and LinkedIn to recruit as many scientists as we could. For instance, AAAS sent out our notice to fans of its Science Careers page which has several thousand young scientists and graduate students participating. We also put up notices on college and association pages.

Scientists in the Schools

More than 100 scientists and 50 schools (we could have gotten more schools but were afraid we’d run out of scientists) signed on. Each school was assigned two scientists, given their contact information and told to follow-up with them directly.

DC COPUS also connected with local colleges and universities whose scientists were piloting outreach programs with K-12 students. For example, the Johns’ Hopkins Shady Grove Life Sciences Center held its first Frontiers in Science and Medicine Day, for 200 seventh graders that attend Shady Grove Middle School during our Meet the Scientist month.

Training information for the scientists - particularly those going into elementary schools - was supplied by ReSET and the San Diego Science Festival 2009, which held a Nifty Fifty Meet the Scientist program earlier this year.

A follow-up survey with scientists and teachers to evaluate and learn from this test experience is in progress. One lesson we learned is it takes time to connect schools and scientists. Some of the visits are still in the planning phase and will be held early in 2010.

A second Washington, DC event is in the works. The USA Science & Engineering Festival plans to hold a Meet the Scientist event in October of 2010 as part of its outreach activities. Here are some of the photos and links to presentations.

Barrett Elementary School - Arlington, VA

http://tinyurl.com/DrGarfinkel-09

http://tinyurl.com/DrCostin-09

Takoma Park Middle School Math and Science Magnet - Takoma Park, MD

http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/mainstory/story.aspx?id=78990

http://picasaweb.google.com/sdega315/MeetTheScientists#

http://www.gazette.net/stories/10072009/silvnew181211_32533.shtml

Johns Hopkins University - Montgomery Campus

http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/mainstory/story.aspx?id=75842

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/10/10/AR2009101000858.html

(Author Aimee Stern is a member of the COPUS action team and head of Stern Communications, a Washington, DC-based firm specializing in science, health and education.)

Well the zines are here! According to Andy Yang, the YoS friend behind the Small Science Collective, more than 250 of your zines have arrived at his office at the Art Institute of Chicago. The task before him - to sort the zines according to the themed-categories and coordinate the judging with his students and colleagues at the Field Museum - has commenced!

He says that the submissions are awesome; we can't wait to share the winning zines with our sponsors and prize contributors. Thanks again to Shodor and Understanding Science for providing the cash prizes!! (It is not too late to give a prize if your organization is interested!)

The winners will be announced on February 15th and prize distribution will begin at that time, so check back next February to see the winning zines!! If you are a winner you will be notified by email.

As we prepare for the conclusion of Year of Science 2009 we have been reviewing the feedback we received through the Two Questions survey and I found this wonderful comment that pertained to the zine contest. I wanted to share it because it really speaks to the reason we love the zine contest - for its utility as a teaching mechanism and how it can be such a great way to connect the public to science in a fun and interesting way. I hope you enjoy the comment too!

I liked the zine contest idea. I tried it with my multi-age classroom (grades 2-5). They did some research on "Earth Sciences", one of your monthly themes, also related to our Learning Expedition theme at the time. They had such a great time with the project. Unfortunately they were unable to do more than four frames, but they worked on regular size paper and we reduced their images on the copier. We handed them out to parents and at a local cafe, where my husband is a chef. He told me everybody wanted to know more about them and if they could take the zines home. I think this is a great way to promote science and get people excited about all the facets of scientific awareness and discovery.

Post contributed by: Sonia Bhangoo

So I have a little secret. I know that as a Ph.D I am supposed to be buried in books and papers trying to tease out the next big thing in science. But I must admit, at times I just need the easy version. Instead of reading the complex work in all of the prestigious science journals... sometimes I just want to read the quick and dirty version to get the take home message.

I notice that I get a lot of this from reading articles in general news magazines or online news sites. You see, the average person will not necessarily pick up the latest version of Nature or Cell. The average person may read the newspaper or Time magazine. Or perhaps they will watch the nightly news on television. It is through these mediums of communication that we as scientists see the general public accessing information about what it is that we do. Take the health headlines for CNN.com this week as an example. One story highlights World AIDS day and the progress that is being made in different scientific studies. There have been stories discussing how scientists are still searching for new treatments and working on a vaccine. A second headline on the news website highlights a study of how early intervention has huge benefits in children diagnosed with autism. In fact, the first sentence of the article starts with "Researchers have shown....." . It seems the stories highlighting the results of scientific studies are becoming more common. I cannot help but gleam a little when I read the stories. The media highlighting science and the discoveries being made emphasize the importance of science in the solving today's health problems.

Helping the public understand how the process of science works and exactly how studies contribute to our understanding of health and disease is vital. After all, if we have a public that understands what science is and how it can change their world, then we can have a public that supports funding for research and development. Even more importantly, we have a public that will understand what the implications of cutting funding for the NIH may do in our quest to find treatments and cures for diseases.

Whenever I have a conversation with a non-scientist about what it is that I do, I find that they take a genuine interest in learning about the research process. When I ask why is it that they find science difficult to understand, the answer almost always has something to do with the fact that science is not necessarily communicated with ease. While having the media highlight studies in a more general tone helps, I feel that more must be done to get the message out. Our job as members and supporters of COPUS is to help do this. Talk about science.....help them understand that answers do not just simply happen. Research and hard work answers questions about health and disease, and research and science can help change their world.

Post contributed by: Jennifer Skene

A few weeks ago, President Obama introduced a new campaign, Educate to Innovate, to improve student performance in science and math. I was thrilled to learn about this new initiative - and to see students from my alma mater, Oakton High School, help the president make his point about the importance of science. The campaign takes a multi-pronged approach to getting kids interested in science, through collaboration between corporations, universities, and non-profits. It will involve science design competitions, connections between scientists and schools, science TV shows on Sesame Street and The Discovery Channel, and a science fair at the White House. Says Obama, "We're going to show young people how cool science can be."

At the end of his talk, Obama was joined by a two students from my old high school, a big public school just outside Washington DC. The students were demonstrating a robot they'd built for the FIRST Robotics Competition. Called the Cougar Cannon, the robot fired basketballs in the air - Obama looked impressed. Seeing those kids in my school colors made me think back to my high school days, and all the things that made me, as a young person, think science was cool.

First off, I had some great teachers. My high school physics, biology, and pre-calculus teachers were fantastic. The Educate to Innovate campaign has received some criticism because it doesn't directly impact teachers and the school science curricula. However, I think there could be some great indirect benefits. Segments of the TV programs could be used in the classroom, following the great education program that is part of QUEST, a Bay Area science and environment program. And kids will be more excited to participate in science fairs when they know the grand prize involves a trip to the White House (and they don't even need to sneak past the Secret Service!).

Second, my high school physics teacher gave us extra credit for attending a very cool public lecture series at the University of Maryland, called Physics is Phun. These lectures were not lectures at all - they were exciting demos that showed us that yeah, physics is pretty fun! However, sitting in the audience was only part of the benefit of these lectures. I made the hour-long drive to and from the University of Maryland with my dad and my little brother. We had great conversations in the car, about the cool physics demos, school, and whatever else was going on. In his speech, Obama mentioned that in other countries, parents are very involved in their children's education - this is one reason why other nations' science programs are so rigorous and effective. Public science events like Physics is Phun provide the opportunity for parents to spend time with their kids and get involved in their education.

Third, I had the opportunity as a high school student to visit the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, as part of an outreach program for local DC area high school students. My visit to the research center really influenced my views about science as a career. While I didn't understand all the details about the research, I definitely understood that a job at a place like HHMI would be challenging and exciting - something to aspire to. This is the sort of inspiration that will spring from National Lab Day - students can visit the labs, and scientists can visit the students. Both groups, I think, will benefit.

American students lag behind their international peers in science, math, and engineering. But rather than despairing this fact, we should see it as a challenge. The Educate to Innovate campaign involves some fun, creative ideas that can inspire kids to learn and love science. These ideas have definitely inspired me, both as a kid in the DC suburbs, and as a scientist and science educator today.

Some colleagues and I have been conducting an informal survey examining student perceptions of their biology learning experiences. One of the questions we asked was about the types of biological issues they found the most interesting and I am sure you won’t be surprised to learn that preferences take a note from pop culture, the top three being: DNA forensics, stem cell research, and vaccine use. However, one surprise was that biotechnology ethics was at the bottom, an issue that our society is going to have to start making decisions about in the very near future - in fact it is already starting to make its own debut appearances on TV, and perhaps that is what it takes.

Last week’s Private Practice episode had the dutiful Naomi in the middle of a heated debate over embryo selection to help a dwarf couple who wanted to select to have a dwarf child. Naomi ultimately won the battle in this episode, but not until after she was accused of impeding scientific progress. I was impressed to see this issue start to emerge in so public a forum. Scientific issues get a great surge of interest when they are presented in TV’s storytelling format, and it is no surprise that this is what the latest enthusiasm is geared toward in our considerations of how to communicate science, in the classroom or otherwise.

In my opinion, the greatest attribute of the forensic TV shows is that the viewer becomes a part of the mystery that needs to be solved and is challenged to see if they can pick up the clues before the lead characters do. The best shows defy predictability and leave us guessing until the very end. But the key is that we aren’t just guessing - we are looking at the evidence and thinking longer and harder about what the data that has been presented to us actually means. Isn’t this what science itself is all about?! These shows manage to engage people in the process of gaining insight into “how we know what we know.” Our challenge is to transfer that engagement to the real world, as this is the type of understanding we hope for as we express concern about “public understanding of science” - not the recitation of facts but a public at large who is able to look at a societal questions, consider the data that has been presented by scientific research, consider the possible outcomes, and make informed judgments about how to act.

The Understanding Science Web site, from the University of California, Museum of Paleontology, is a tremendous accomplishment in helping the scientific community and teachers communicate how science works and why it matters, but it is merely our first leap in the right direction. We have a society to re-educate … not to indoctrinate, but to invite to participate in the joy of understanding that, yes, science is a body of information, but each bit of information in that body is the result of an amazing story … of a person or group of people who asked questions, investigated a mystery, failed, triumphed, laughed, cried, and that same piece of information is the beginning of another story that will change, challenge, or help grow the stories that came before it. We can only imagine - if we become successful in this endeavor, students in our survey will select the issues where fact has more compelling stories than fiction, and they themselves will recognize that they are participants in determining the outcomes to issues they express little interest in today - like alternative energy and habitat fragmentation.

Welcome to our new COPUS blogger Sonia Bhangoo! Sonia is a Post-doctoral Fellow at the National Institutes of Health conducting research on chronic pain. She has volunteered to help with COPUS, because she is passionate about connecting science to the public. We are thrilled to have Sonia as part of our COPUS team!

January was quite the time to be in Washington, DC. The energy surrounding the arrival of a new President at the White house could be felt in the cold January air. However as the next few months passed, and the new administration settled down in the nation’s capital, questions of who will lead the various government agencies arose. One such agency near and dear to our hearts is the world renowned National Institutes of Health (NIH). The NIH is at the front line when it comes to science, providing financial support for medical research in every state and around the world.

On Monday August 17th, 2009, Dr. Francis Collins was sworn in as the 16th director of the NIH. For the past decade, Dr. Collins had been serving as the director for the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) at the NIH. His work and leadership led the institute to prestige in April 2003 with the completion of a finished sequence of the human DNA instruction book. Being a top leader at the NIH, while authoring several books on the importance of research and medicine, shows his appreciation for science.

While his scientific career is well known and appreciated, some out there may not know his softer side. Dr. Collins recently made an appearance on the Colbert Report on Comedy Central. His witty remarks and ability to develop a comic rapport with Steven Colbert show that not only is he a successful scientist, but can also be someone who brings ease and understanding to the often complex world of science. This was especially apparent in his response concerning cloning and stem cell research after Colbert expressed his desire for crab claws!

As you know, the mission of COPUS is to bring science to the forefront of the public eye and increase their public understanding of the nature of science and its value to society. Having a leader like Dr. Collins will help further this effort. His ability to communicate to the public the necessity for biomedical research and how it can further our society is a welcome sight to the scientists who dedicate their lives to the exploration of science. Seeing the public understand, value and appreciate research is the ultimate goal that we all hope to achieve. A new director at the helm will bring a different perspective and a different way achieving this goal. Welcome Dr. Collins!

In case you missed his appearance on the Colbert Report, check it out here:

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Francis Collins
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor Michael Moore

Welcome to our new COPUS blogger and Regional Hub Coordinator Jennifer Skene! Jennifer is a post doc at the University of California, Museum of Paleontology diving in to science education -- and will be a regular blogger here at COPUS. We are thrilled to have her join the COPUS team!

COPUS Regional Hubs are doing great things, across the country! This is the first in a series of blogs to update you on Regional Hub activities. We'll share the strategies that are working for each Regional Hub, and introduce you to the people who are making things happen.

I recently spoke to Natalie Kuldell, one of the liaisons of the Cambridge Regional Hub, and an Instructor of Biological Engineering at MIT. Natalie, along with co-leaders Ben Wiehe of WGBH, and Marie Studer of the Encyclopedia of Life, meet with the Cambridge hub members every other month. They don't meet at the member organizations' offices. Instead, they meet in a neutral space, like a bar (I love the idea of a hub in a pub!) or a municipal building. They start with a 30-minute talk about a topic of general interest, and then break for snacks and networking. The hub members suggest the topics for the meetings. "We want it to be group directed, not top-down," says Natalie. Some of the topics suggested for future meetings include how to improve an organization's web presence, and how to better interact with the press. Right now, the challenge is to develop a good communication tool, so that everyone can participate in planning the hub meetings and can coordinate on collaborative activities. They're experimenting with a Google Group - I'll keep you posted on how it works out.

Networking is central to the Cambridge hub's strategy; the Cambridge area has lots of science resources, and COPUS brings different groups together. Natalie says it's been great for people with complementary interests to connect and talk about how they can help each other out. The Cambridge hub meetings have resulted in a few collaborations already: several MIT graduate students have spoken at the science cafés organized by Ben Wiehe.

As an instructor at MIT, Natalie designs the curriculum for the biological engineering undergraduate major and teaches several research-based courses - learn more about her work here. Natalie wants "scientists to be spokespeople for science." Especially in the area of biological engineering - "bioengineering is a field that needs a good public interface, so people can get a good idea of what bioengineering can and can't do." She hopes that when her students are asked about bioengineering issues, like genetically modified food, they can be articulate providers of good information. In the classroom, Natalie works with about 100 students each year. Her involvement with COPUS lets her interact with a much broader group.

Do you have suggestions or strategies you'd like to share with other COPUS Regional Hubs? Or questions about how other hubs operate? Email me at skene@berkeley.edu

There was a magical moment last week when I escaped my kids for two hours to meet a friend at the closest tiki bar for some laughter and relaxation — but something from that day still haunts me.

For those of you who don’t know me, I have the quintessential waitress personality. I talk to everyone I am near, and usually end up making a new friend or at least having a nice, interesting conversation. That is why, as I was waiting for my friend to arrive, I was listening to the conversation between the bartender and the patron closest to me to see if I could find an opportunity to jump in. The conversation went down something like this:

Patron: Unseasonably hot this year, huh?
Bartender: (noticeably dripping with sweat in mid-September) Man, it sure is - must be that global warming.
Patron: (Heckling) Yeah “global warming.” If that is what this is about.
Sheri: (Trying to be smooth) So, that global warming is pretty crazy stuff, huh?
Patron: Eh, I think it is bunk — this is just normal temperature fluctuation, nothing to get worked up about.
Sheri: (Totally shocked) So you don’t think global warming is real?
Patron: What are you, some advocate or something?
Sheri: Well, the scientific community thinks that global warming absolutely is happening and happening faster than the original projections. I am kinda worried that my house will be under water in the next couple decades.
Patron: Hmph, well, we just don’t know what is going to happen. (Turns his head away and avoids further conversation.)

All of a sudden I had been shunned… and repeated efforts to reengage in idle conversation were complete failures. I don’t take failure to socialize lightly. This was a major attack on my sensibilities! And here we are a week later, and I still can’t get that guy’s face out of my mind — where had I gone wrong? Was it because I tried to talk about the “S” word (science)??

Back in the early days of COPUS, a colleague told me: “That is great you are doing this Year of Science thing to reengage with the public — but really it is not that broken.” I have spent the last three years personally deciding if I think this statement is true — collecting evidence, like this exchange at the tiki bar, to form my own impression about whether or not we need more science in our culture. From my personal and professional observations — the evidence is overwhelming! I am stunned that anyone could think it is not broken!

So, as we roll into the third quarter of the Year of Science 2009, we are spending a lot of time asking ourselves the two questions that we asked of you: What did we get out of 2009? Should these efforts continue? The chasm between science and society is BIG, and we can see that our journey together has only just begun. We hope that you will join us in providing your input on how to move forward as a community that is passionate to impart change — our collective voice and activities will have far more impact than any one of us alone. And maybe through our work together, the day will come (hopefully before the tiki bar is under water) when I listen to the patron next to me say “scientists say this global warming stuff is serious, aren’t you glad this bar’s light bulbs are CFL’s?” That will be a moment to toast.

I received a hand written thank you note today from Doral Hurd, senior volunteer at the San Diego Archaeological Center. Wow, did that make me feel good - the joy of receiving a hand written note is something that email will never be able to replace! She was writing to thank us for sending her the Understanding Science posters from last month's giveaway.

We are really excited about how the poster giveaway came together. For those of you who didn't hear - it all started with a $100 donation from our colleague Dejan Petrovic at Dejan SEO in Croatia. We thought it would be nice to use that money to mail some Understanding Science posters, leftover from a conference. So we posted a link on our newsletter to see who was interested. But we never expected the size of the response. By the time it was over we gave out 10,000 posters to people in 49 states plus India, Greece, Canada, Argentina, Portugal, UK, Colombia, Oman, Philippines, Germany, Ecuador, Australia, South Africa, Malaysia, Pakistan, Barbados, and Switzerland!

The additional funds to pay for this came predominately from Dejan who rallied 21 of his colleagues to give an additional $100 each (or more!). Encyclopedia of Life followed with a wonderful contribution, as did a philanthropist friend of Judy Scotchmoor's in California (Judy is my partner in crime on all things COPUS). (To see the full list, check out the logos on the bottom of the Year of Science 2009 home page!)

COPUS was pleased to share this wonderful resource with so many. The whole experience was a great one for us, we never expected 900 responses to the request (I am sorry I had to turn off the form!), and we were thrilled by the way our friends stepped up to help us meet the need. We hope you all enjoy the posters... and thank you for all you do in support of science!