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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!

Media Contact:

ajb@botany.org            

For Immediate Release 

Three upcoming articles look into the ways plant biologists can improve science communication with students and the general public

Society needs science, and scientists need an informed, thoughtful, and open-minded citizenry. Thus, the obvious dependence of American society on science is strikingly inconsistent with the low level of scientific literacy among U. S. citizens. By establishing 2009 as the "Year of Science," professional scientific organizations and grassroots, citizens-for-science groups hope to bring a renewed and invigorated focus on the importance of science now and in the future. As knowledge experts and educators, practicing scientists are key players in advancing the scientific literacy agenda.

As part of its 2008 annual meeting, the Botanical Society of America (BSA) organized a symposium to help inform attendees about the issues involved in scientific literacy as well as the progress achieved toward the goal of obtaining a public that is better informed and more accepting of scientific achievements and science in general. There were five presentations during the symposium: Marshall Sundberg discussed the PlantingScience initiative developed by the BSA (www.PlantingScience.org), Gordon Uno showed how developing botanical literacy among our students can contribute to scientific literacy, Judith Scotchmoor illustrated how she and her colleagues have developed educational outreach and resources for helping teachers teach the process of science to their students, and Matthew Nisbet and Dietram Scheufele each discussed different aspects of science communication and the public.

Papers based on these presentations will be published in the October issue of the American Journal of Botany and will remain free for viewing. All of the papers--including the introduction by Christopher Haufler and Marshall Sundberg (http://www.amjbot.org/cgi/reprint/ajb.0900241v1)--show how both passive and active forces have contributed to current concerns about scientific literacy.

In his contribution, Gordon Uno (http://www.amjbot.org/cgi/reprint/ajb.0900025v1) summarizes why it is important for scientists in general and botanists in particular to invigorate science teaching with inquiry methods. He illustrates the challenges we face because students lack critical thinking skills, are generally uninformed about plants, and many are actually hostile toward learning about plant biology. To improve this situation, Uno provides seven principles of learning that make recommendations about how botanists should teach, including using themes and "thinking botanically" to illustrate all biological concepts.

Judith Scotchmoor and her colleagues Anastasia Thanukos and Sheri Potter (http://www.amjbot.org/cgi/reprint/ajb.0900014v1) discuss efforts targeted at raising public awareness of science (via COPUS, the Coalition on the Public Understanding of Science) and provide resources that are available to teachers who seek to weave the "process of science" into courses to inform students about how science works. By developing a public that is more actively aware of science as part of their lives, both citizens in general and students in particular are more likely to be interested in learning about science. Scotchmoor et al. also discuss the web-based project called "Understanding Science" that aims to improve teacher understanding of the nature of the scientific enterprise, provide resources that encourage and enable K-16 teachers to reinforce the nature of science throughout their teaching, and serve as a clear and accessible reference that accurately portrays the scientific endeavor.

Matthew Nisbet and Dietram Scheufele (http://www.amjbot.org/cgi/reprint/ajb.0900041v1) melded their presentations into a joint-authored paper to discuss efforts targeted at raising public awareness of science. As researchers into communication about science, these authors illustrate that building a public that is more receptive to science requires more than enhancing scientific literacy. They emphasize that science communication efforts need to be based on a systematic, empirical understanding of the intended audience's existing values, knowledge, and attitudes, their interpersonal and social contexts, and their preferred media sources and communication channels.

Taken together, this set of papers captures current issues about the public understanding of science, illustrates why greater emphasis on helping students understand and appreciate the process of science is so important, and provides insights and perspectives on what all practicing scientists can do to build a more receptive audience. It appears that in some respects academic scientists are contributing to the problem because we tend to teach content (facts about biology) rather than process (how to learn about biology). We need to help our students understand how scientists actually do our work, and we should learn about the social dynamics involved with scientific communication. Each of the papers presents different elements of making us more aware of the challenges we face, better prepared to help our students appreciate and learn about science, and in general enhancing our capacity to change the future. Practicing scientists should be active participants in making sure that scientific literacy improves for new generations of students.

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The full articles in the links mentioned are available for no charge for 30 days following the date of this summary at http://www.amjbot.org/papbyrecent.dtl. After this date, reporters may contact Richard Hund at ajb@botany.org for a copy of the article.

The Botanical Society of America (www.botany.org) is a non-profit membership society with a mission to promote botany, the field of basic science dealing with the study and inquiry into the form, function, development, diversity, reproduction, evolution, and uses of plants and their interactions within the biosphere. It has published the American Journal of Botany (www.amjbot.org) for nearly 100 years. In 2009, the Special Libraries Association named the American Journal of Botany one of the Top 10 Most Influential Journals of the Century in the field of Biology and Medicine.

For further information, please contact the AJB staff at ajb@botany.org.