Who We Are  What We Do  Get Involved

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.