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COPUS and the American Institute of Biological Sciences were pleased to co-sponsor “Communicating Science to the Public: The Where, Why and How of Engaging Non-Scientists,” a special full-day workshop at this year’s Joint Meeting of the Ecological Society of America and the Society for Ecological Restoration in San Jose, CA, on 5 August 2007.

The workshop, organized by the ESA Student Section, introduced attendees to the skills necessary for successfully communicating science to the public and how to identify avenues of communication, both traditional and non-traditional. The line-up of thirteen speakers - including AIBS Director of Public Policy Robert Gropp - discussed how to communicate with a variety of groups, including local organizations and school groups, print and broadcast media, and policy makers.

Gropp’s presentation, “Nurturing the Public Understanding of the Nature of Science,” highlighted the important role that the nation-wide COPUS network plays in promoting local science organizations and programs that, in turn, so greatly contribute to improving the public understanding of science.

Gropp also encouraged the largely student-dominated audience to engage their graduate student groups, academic departments, universities and scientific organizations in COPUS.

Learn how and why you too should get your group involved - http://www.copusproject.org/

More information about the “Communicating Science” workshop can be found at: http://rydberg.biology.colostate.edu/communicating_science/.

COPUS is delighted to share the news that the WGBH Educational Foundation, in association with the scientific research society Sigma Xi, has launched a Web site at www.sciencecafes.org to promote the growing Science Café movement in the U.S.

At Science Cafés, scientists and engineers share their expertise with the general public in a relaxed, friendly setting; discussions are typically held at local restaurants, coffee shops, or pubs. Topics have been wide-ranging, from bird flu, human space flight, chaos and global warming, to the Irish Potato famine, green building, the ivory-billed woodpecker, honeybees and dark energy/dark matter.

Sciencecafes.org is designed to assist in all aspects of planning and promoting these events, from publicizing and supporting them, to choosing topics, speakers and venues. The site was created with the help and input of many science café organizers and also features an interactive map to locate where around the country cafés are being held.

“By taking science to the people, Science Cafés help to personalize and demystify complex subjects, bringing science into everyday conversation, where it truly belongs,” said Laura J. Nigro, who runs Sigma Xi’s Public Understanding of Science program. “This partnership combines NOVA scienceNOW’s compelling video with the educational outreach of WGBH and Sigma Xi’s unprecedented access to the nation’s top researchers.”

“It has been a delight to watch the popularity of science cafés grow in the United States with the support of our organizations,” said Julie Benyo, director of educational outreach for WGBH. “From a handful of cafés a few years ago to more than 50 in the U.S. today, the café format has proven that people of all ages and backgrounds enjoy talking over the latest developments in science.”

For additional questions about this project, contact: Laura J. Nigro, Sigma Xi, scicafe@sigmaxi.org or 800-243-6534; Ben Wiehe, WGBH, ben_wiehe@wgbh.org or 617-300-3980

COPUS encourages you to check out a Science Café in your area - and to register your Science Café in the COPUS network and the public understanding of science program and event database.

If you are interested in joining other COPUS members to develop a Science Café in your community, contact Sheri Potter at spotter@copusproject.org.

Portions of this posting were excerpted from a Sigma Xi press release; For the full text please see http://www.sigmaxi.org/about/news/2007SciCafesWeb.shtml

Dr. Jay Labov, COPUS Steering Committee Member and National Academy of Science Senior Advisor for Education and Communications, presented the plenary address at the 2007 National Congress on Science Education in San Antonio, TX, on 18 July 2007. This annual meeting is organized by the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) and is attended by delegates from each of the 94 NSTA chapters and associated groups. The theme of this year’s meeting was “Charting the Course for the Year of Science.”

Jay’s talk, “The Public’s Understanding of Science vs. the Science Community’s Understanding of the Public: Can the Twain Ever Meet?” addressed the history and key lessons learned from recent controversies surrounding the teaching of evolution in public school science courses. In discussing the public’s perception of science, Jay introduced the audience to COPUS and its prime objective: improving the public understanding of science. He described the advantages and resources the collaborative network offers to science teachers, including opportunities to collaborate with scientists and their affiliated institutions, access to information and exemplars about the process of science and how to integrate it into lesson plans, and a public database for locating science programs and events to engage students.

COPUS is pleased that NSTA has joined the American Institute of Biological Sciences, the Geological Society of America, and the University of California Museum of Paleontology as a sponsoring organization.

We encourage NSTA local chapters and associated groups as well as individual teachers and schools to get involved in this growing coalition. For more information, please visit www.copusproject.org