NEW FRIENDS, NEW IDEAS, FANTASTIC LOCATION
Apply now to join us at the second annual COPUS Invitational Unconference.

The COPUS leadership is convening its second COPUS Invitational Unconference, a unique event that will bring together "COPUSetic" individuals to inspire one another and to generate ideas of how we can work together to engage the public in a celebration of science. Hosted at the Asilomar Conference Grounds in California April 12-14, 2013, this small invitational event will provide participants with renewed energy - an opportunity to "replenish," share ideas, learn from others, and build community among people who share common goals.

Learn more and submit an application to attend! The deadline for applications is February 25, 2013.

Arizona State University's International Institute for Species Exploration announced its top 10 newly described species list for 2011 this week, and the species named through the Year of Science 2009 Biodiversity month activity was on the list!

A newly discovered and yet to be named Bonaire Banded Box Jellyfish (BBBJ) was "donated" to the Year of Science 2009 efforts by scientists Bud Gillan, Allen Collins, Basti Bentlage, and Tara Lynn to provide a really unique opportunity for anyone to participate in the excitement of naming a new species. The naming contest helped participants learn about biodiversity, taxonomy, and how science works.

Hundreds of names were submitted, and seven were posted to the Year of Science 2009 Web site for general voting. After nearly 800 votes, the winner was selected, and the BBBJ went down in scientific history as the now famous Tamoya ohboya.

Are you wondering how Lisa Peck came up with this name? Here is her explanation:

I bet "Oh Boy" is the first thing said when a biologist or layman encounters the Bonaire Banded Box Jellyfish. It is not often that a new amazing species is discovered, especially one so beautiful. I am confident that Bud Gillian exclaimed "Oh Boy" when he saw tourist Vicki Carr's video of the Bonaire Banded Box Jellyfish (a never before seen species of jellyfish). Vicki probably exclaimed "Oh Boy" when Bud called her to tell her the news of her amazing discovery. I am sure that "Oh Boy" was uttered by the 3 people who were stung by the Bonaire Banded Box Jellyfish. In addition, I bet that "Oh Boy" was spoken by the doctors when they saw the wounds inflicted by the nematocysts of the Bonaire Banded Box Jellyfish. Later, the doctors probably uttered "Oh Boy" when they were confident that these 3 people would survive their encounter with the Bonaire Banded Box Jellyfish. And finally, when I saw the website Year of Science: Species naming contest of the Bonaire Banded Box Jellyfish I loudly exclaimed "Oh Boy"!! Therefore I am suggesting the scientific name Tamoya ohboya be given to this amazing creature.

Congratulations to the scientific team Allen Collins, Bastian Bentlage, William (Bud) Gillan, Tara Lynn, Andre Morandini & Antonio Marques and to Lisa Peck! Read more about naming a new species and our species naming contest on the Year of Science Web site!

A month has passed since the First Annual COPUS Invitational Unconference took place. I am honestly still buzzing from the excitement of the adventure. Most of the evaluations are in now, so I thought it would be helpful to share the results and take a quick look at whether we were successful in meeting our goals for the event.

We set out to:

1 - Strengthen and expand the COPUS network by creating new connections among attendees during and after the meeting.

2 - Create an architecture of engagement for future science convenings that cross domains of science outreach (informal, formal, academic, and corporate) that do not normally interact, but need to.

3 - Provide direction for future activities of the COPUS community by evaluating what is currently being done, identifying new needs, and building upon ongoing successes.

4 - Provide a new forum and recognition for those conducting public outreach.

We also wanted to bring people together who often operate in isolated pockets to create a space where they could build on one another's knowledge, support one another, and encourage them in their efforts.

You can read the results of the evaluation at a glance.

In summary:

We definitely expanded the network, moving from the COPUS Core to the COPUS Corps. The Unconference format was a refreshing change from the usual and helped to facilitate creative conversations. It also provided a forum for new "friends" to meet, recognize one another, and leave replenished and refreshed. As one attendee put it "it was like fitness camp ...and a relaxed spa....for my brain."

To top it all off, we were able to salute the 2012 Paul Shin Memorial Award recipient - Bill Gomez. Paul would have been so proud to be honored among such a warm, fun group of kindred spirits.

So, for me, overwhelmingly, the event was a success... and it even had a little dash of magic (snow in the Southern Arizona desert in March sound magical enough?). Where are we meeting next year, everyone??

On March 16-18, 2012, COPUS held its first Invitational Unconference at the Biosphere 2 facilities near Tucson, AZ. Fifty-seven individuals came together to talk about a common concern - how the public perceives and interacts with science. Upon arrival, most of the attendees were perhaps a bit unsure of what was to transpire, but almost instantly introductions and bonding took place and conversations emerged through which they shared ideas, generated new ones, recognized challenges and investigated strategies for dealing with them. This was a meeting of unparalleled energies fueled by a high level of diversity - age, ethnicity, geography, perspectives, institutional/organizational connections, outreach strategies, etc. - and it was that diversity that enhanced both the listening and the sharing - a true cross-fertilization of ideas. We had hoped that all would leave feeling renewed, and it appears that this was accomplished (and then some).

This conference was truly something quite unique but rather hard to put into words. We will post testimonials and evaluation data that we will help to describe what transpired, but suffice it to say that COPUS has moved from an idea (2006) and an amorphous network (2009) to a group of 12 individuals (the COPUS Core) (2010) and now to a COPUS Corps. There are 57 individuals who went away from our meeting with renewed energies. They will each return to their own home areas and continue their own individual efforts to increase the public understanding of science, but now in collaboration with new friends and colleagues. The COPUS evolution continues...

Press contact: Sheri Potter, American Institute of Biological Sciences
941 321 1573, spotter@aibs.org

March 7, 2012

COPUS - a grassroots network focusing on connecting the public to science -  is hosting its first Invitational Unconference on March 16-18, 2012.  At this event, a group of invited guests will meet at the Biosphere 2 facilities outside of Tucson, Arizona to discuss strategies for increasing public understanding of and engagement with science. Sponsored by the Whitman Foundation, the unconference will bring individuals that ordinarily operate in isolation together to share knowledge, experiences, and discuss challenges. The conference is a think tank, a networking event, a showcase, a forum and a celebration - all rolled into one.

At the event, COPUS will also award the 2012 Paul Shin Memorial Award to William Gomez, a docent at the Jasper Ridge Biological Laboratory in Palo Alto, California.  The Paul Shin Memorial Award was formed to honor the contributions made by former COPUS Core member, Paul Shin, who demonstrated unrelenting passion in promoting good science in everything he did - as a teacher, police officer, and society member.  Paul was an unsung hero of science, and this award enables COPUS to honor his memory, and those like him whose contributions often go unrecognized.  The 2012 recipient, William Gomez is an excellent candidate, embodying the same passion for communicating science that Paul did.

In the spirit of the Unconference, the event agenda will be driven by attendees, which includes 65 science communicators, artists, educators, and yes, scientists. Together, invitees will brainstorm on the opportunities and challenges of the science outreach community, as they focus on three core, interconnected, questions:  What is meant by public understanding of science, what is the role of the scientist in promoting public engagement in science, and how will we know we are successful at our efforts.

The event will also have opportunities for individuals to participate in the dialog via social networking tools like Twitter and Facebook.  "Asynchronous" meeting spaces will pose questions to the larger scientific community for discussion, and anyone can tweet in their ideas and opinions.

You can join the conversation by following us on Twitter - @COPUScore and using the hashtag #COPUS and #sci4all.  You can also join the COPUS Facebook Group. The meeting will also help to define future directions for the network itself.  Like the Unconference, the grassroots COPUS network is driven by its participants' needs and interests.

Stay tuned for more upcoming COPUS Unconference details.

About COPUS

The Coalition for the Public Understanding of Science (COPUS) is a grassroots effort to engage the public in science and increase public understanding of the nature of science and its value to society. What COPUS does is simple - it creates a network of peers that build community for science through promoting dialogue, building connections, and sharing ideas and resources. http://www.copusproject.org

Washington, DC - After three rounds of reading, laughing, and learning a lot of science, a panel of six judges selected the winners of the Year of Science 2009 Science Zine contest - a contest sponsored by the Coalition on the Public Understanding of Science (COPUS) and the Small Science Collective. More than 250 submissions were received from all over the world - from Milwaukee, Wisconsin to Marasthra, India; from Bellingham, Washington to Buenos Aires, Argentina. Each mini-magaZINE combined science and art to tell a compact story about science. The subjects ranged from endosymbiosis to energy, from oceans to the solar system, and from thunder to mineralogy.

Thirty-two winners from three age categories (8-12, 13-17, and 18+) were selected by the judges based on four criteria: scientific content/fidelity to topic, visual appeal and communication, readability, and original perspective on the topic. The judges were three faculty members of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and three scientists from The Field Museum in Chicago, the University of Illinois Chicago, and the University of California, Berkeley. The submissions were extraordinary, reflecting creativity, talent, and enthusiasm, which made the judging very challenging.

The contest grand prize winner was Chen Dou (age group 13-17) from Gaithersburg, MD with the zine "Meeting a Giant Octopus." Runners up to the grand prize were Lauren Hughes from Minneapolis, MI with "Dive Deep into the Lives of Freshwater Mussels," Alex Chitty from Chicago, IL with "The Indomitable Water Bear," Rishabh Tripathi from Nagpur, Maharashtra India with "Acids," and Mary Allison Abad from Gaithersburg, MD with "Endosymbiosis." The grand prize was a cash prize of $500 donated by Shodor, a nonprofit organization serving students and educators by providing materials and instruction for computational science.

Two $250 awards were given in the category of understanding the nature and process of science. The winners were Santino Chavez from Rockford, IL with "Scientific Methods in Earth Science" and Amy Schleser from Chicago, IL with "Perfect!" The contest was a collaboration between COPUS and The Small Science Collective, a project initiated by Andrew Yang of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and Jeff Oishi of the University of California Berkeley. They founded the Collective as a way for scientists, artists, students, and anyone invested in science to share their fascination with others. The zines are meant to be both educational and artistic - often humorous, sometimes questioning, and always readable. To learn more about The Small Science Collective, visit http://smallsciencezines.blogspot.com/.

Prizes donated by the COPUS network will be sent to all winners. For a complete listing of winners, winning zines, prize donors, and details on the judges and judging process, please visit http://www.yearofscience2009.org.

COPUS, which began with a grant from the National Science Foundation - (Grant Nos. EAR-0606600, EAR-0628790, and EAR-0814048), has grown to be an inclusive grassroots endeavor spurring communication and collaboration in the scientific community while shining the spotlight on science in 2009. Still growing, Still growing, the COPUS network includes a broad and eclectic range of participants from large federal agencies and professional societies to small local groups using music and the arts to portray science. Major sponsors of the Year of Science 2009 include the American Institute of Biological Sciences, the University of California Museum of Paleontology, the Geological Society of America, and the National Science Teachers Association. To register as a participant or learn more, visit copusproject.org.

For more information about COPUS and the Year of Science 2009, please visit:

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.

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.

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.