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
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