Science Communication: Developing Your Elevator Pitch

Alright, I think we’re right at two past the hour. So we’ll go ahead and get started. Welcome to The New Mexico SMART Grid Center webinar on science communication. I’m Selena Connealy, EPSCoR’s Education and Outreach Manager and I’ll be your host for this webinar today, along with Brittney VAn Der Werff our public relations specialist I’ve got a few housekeeping items before I introduce our speaker. First I want to let you know that this webinar will be recorded and archived on our website nmepscor.org Next we’re going to have time at the end for audience questions and at any time during this webinar, you’re welcome to type your questions into the Q&A a box at the bottom of your screen.

00:00 - And Brittney and Allison will field those questions at the end of our session. We also are going to be using chat today for the webinar and you’ll find that on your on your bar as well. And finally, I’d like you to mark your calendars for our next webinar which will be on September 23 at noon when Seth Blumsack from Penn State will present a webinar entitled, “Carrots Sticks and Other Smart Tricks in Making Energy Consumption Smarter” So my great pleasure to introduce and welcome our speaker from Explora who’s our project collaborator for public outreach and communication. Allison Brody is a friend and a longtime collaborator of mine and she’s also the Explora Director of Education. She has a doctorate in ecology and biological education from Idaho State University and has run out of school education programs since 1998 at the Bronx Zoo, Oklahoma City Zoological Park and Botanical Garden, University of Las Vegas Public Lands Institute, Clark County Wetlands Park and Explora.

00:00 - Although Allison’s expertise lies in STEM much of her work has centered around effective compelling stem communication. Whether facilitating a multicultural outreach program for Hispanic families with UNLV or helping STEM professionals engage people of all ages and backgrounds through the Institute for Learning Innovations “Portal to the Public” program - welcome Allison. Here we go. Thank you so much, really appreciate that. Selena Okay, let’s get started with a little bit of an activity and I have a strip of paper here and I’m just going to make a loop with it. I’m gonna take some tape. And I’m just going to tape my loop here, thusly, and then I’m just going to, with a pair of scissors, cut down this the middle of this strip of paper.

01:02 - And just like this, cut it down like that, and not surprisingly, we end up with is two different loops. Not very surprising, but if I take a different strip of paper. And for this one I’m going to actually make a mark, I’m just going to draw two different dots here one on one end one on the other. There. So I’ve got my two dots right there and then instead of making a single loop like this. I’m going to twist the paper just kind of a half twist right there.

01:46 - And this might be fun if you all think about if For this particular loop of paper, what might happen if I cut it exactly as I did before. What am I going to end up with? So let’s…… first time I cut it, I ended up with two loops. Now when I cut it straight down the middle. My cutting skills are wanting. I have a single loop…that’s a Möbius strip, it’s got a twist right there. So a single loop Möbius strip. Let’s do this one more time. Single Piece of paper. I’m going to draw my two dots on it. One on each end. thusly And now, instead of doing a half twist.

02:55 - I’m going to do a full twist so that my two dots are facing the same way. All right, and now Think if I cut down the center of the strip. Again, we have a single strip of paper. All three times. But now I have this full twist on it. Now, if I cut down the center. What do you think are going to get? So the first time was two loops. The second time was a Möbius strip. This time, let’s see what we got. If you want to put any ideas in the chat that would just be absolutely awesome. All right, I’m just cutting down the center, it is a little bit more tricky now. Plus, I’m trying to keep it straight. Oh, good grief. Here we go. Cutting down the middle.

03:50 - Anybody have any ideas, what I’m going to end up with? Two loops. connected together. All right. We do have a chat. Oh. Oh. Nice Brittney, thank you. All right, I’m gonna do one more. And this is cool, right, a nice little party trick or you do one more. This time I’m going to do two loops. So two loops of paper. I’m going to take. So I’m taking one together. So there’s my one loops. I’m gonna have a second loop. Together, tape that thusly and then I’m going to put my two loops, you might want to put it on Speaker view rather than gallery view. So you can sort of see - cause you’re definitely going to want to try to try this at home. Trying to put my two loops perpendicular to each other.

05:03 - And then I’m going to tape it at every spot where the loops intersect. Okay. So I’m going to tape it there. There. So there’s gonna be four pieces of tape because it’s for intersection points. All right, and then I’m going to do the same thing. I’m going to cut down the center of each of these loops and again What do you think I will get, let’s give it a shot. So anyway, cut down the center here. End up with sort of a handcuff like thing there….

and I’m going to cut down the center 05:51 - of the other one. Be straight here. And boom, after two loops, we end up with the square Alright, so What on earth does this have to do with science communication. This is what we call a discrepant event. It’s a, it’s something that is discrepant into what it is you expected, is something that surprising. A discrepant event can be a demonstration. It can be a question that you ask You know….

like what animal goes through 1000 teeth or 10,000 teeth and its lifetime? 06:35 - It could be a statement that you make that could be surprising. Anything that elucidates that surprise reaction. And how this is useful in in the context of science communication is that surprising events are is an excellent strategy to get your audience into this inquisitive scientific mindset to really foster that sense of curiosity and compel that that I want to know. It’s like what just happened? I just really want to know what what might happen if I try something else. What might happen if I try three loops of paper, what might happen if I tried two complete twists on the paper.

07:21 - What is the presenter going to do next? and using strategies such as grabbing events is important because when we communicate about our science to the public it’s often in a setting outside of a school setting, whether you’re talking about graduate school, undergraduate teaching, in high school. But this type of science communication often takes place in non- formal non-school situations or you might be talking to A reporter, you might be tabling an event, you might be doing an outreach program. You might even be trying to explain your science to a family member or somebody that you met in a grocery store. And so this idea that communicating science outside of a school setting is might be different. It’s worth looking at the, the, the, the possibility of those very two different environments. What is different about it. Let’s think about this for a minute.

08:30 - What are some similarities between conventional instruction that might happen in a school or formal education and science communication that might happen in an informal setting. What might some of those differences be If you have an opportunity. Go ahead and put some ideas in the chat. I’m actually going to stop sharing for a minute, but put some idea in the chat. You can definitely have science content in both situations. Could you remind us of the question? Yeah, so the question is, what are some of the similarities and differences between conventional instruction.

09:11 - In a school type setting and in science communication that’s happening in an informal non-school setting? Another way of thinking that that is asking that same question from the audience’s perspective. One might label this table as a captive audience versus a non captive audience. What’s the difference? and I’m going to share my screen again. Umm in the school setting the audience is captive right they are THERE. In a non-school setting the audience is more voluntary. And it turns out that difference makes a big difference. Let’s take a look at this. This comparison originally was done by a Dr. Sam Ham at the University of Idaho and these are some of the similarities and really some of the differences that he identified Between captive audiences in a school setting and a non-captive audiences. And for captive audiences the time commitment is often fixed, right? They are there for this time. and external rewards become important. And because of that, you have to pay attention.

10:32 - You know the professor is going to have this on the test. I have to pay attention. Otherwise, I’m not going to do well at the test. The captive audience is more accepting of a formal academic approach. And then definitely because of those external rewards because of this extrinsic motivation, they’re going to make an effort to pay attention because they want that grade. They want that diploma that certificate, that license.

11:00 - Maybe It’s a captive audience in a job situation within a job training and maybe money’s on the line advancement is on the line, maybe success. with your colleagues is on the line. But all these factors. feed into that external Extrinsic motivation of the captive audience. Compare this with the non-captive audience and A non-captive audience is there voluntarily. They don’t necessarily have a time commitment external rewards are not as important, rather the intrinsic motivation becomes extraordinarily important. And think for a second. What types of things might motivate somebody to pay attention. They don’t have to pay attention.

11:53 - There’s no, there’s nothing extrinsic holding them there. So what kinds of intrinsic motivations might feed into a non-captive audience? This is an audience that definitely expect an informal atmosphere and a non-academic approach and they’re totally going to switch their attention if they’re bored. There’s no reason not to. There’s no test looming over them. What are some ideas that people have about intrinsic motivations of might hold somebody there and motivate them to remain engaged in the science communication? Brittney. Do we have any comments? Yeah, we’ve got… it looks like Dr. Jenn says “they care about the topic” Andre says “information that directly relates to them” Dave says, “what does it mean to me?” Nice! and those definitely make the list as things are self enriching as things that are allow people to improve themselves and You know, it’s like a learning is about your life and in achieving a better life.

13:18 - And so it’s those things that sort of feed into those deeper feelings as well as everything that you just said. Fun entertainment. Those are also things that will feed into that, um, The key part here is it if they decide if the audience at this point decides to pay attention. It is only because they want to. So it’s up to us as a communicator to make them want to So keep these two differences in mind the extrinsically motivated captive audience versus the intrinsically motivated voluntary audience keep these differences in mind as we think through what the implications are. Um, This is a model that was originally developed in and I’ve adapted from triple AAAS and When we as scientists do presentations. We often follow format, such as I’ve represented on the left side of this model so You know you spend quite a bit of time on the background information.

14:26 - Some of the supporting details and then you reach the results and conclusions and and and and you really have this sort of more formal formal approach. So for example, if you’re doing a presentation about lasers. You might start talking about little background information, how to lasers work, uh, how do I need to explain how lasers work. So you might talk about electronic valence shells coherent wavelengths other background information. But let’s go back to that voluntary audience, what is it that’s going to capture their attention and make them want to listen to it.

15:05 - Is it really electron valances? Is that really the way to go? To capture their attention. And again, keep them wanting to be engaged wanting to listen to the to you. And the answer is often no it’s not how things work. It’s, it’s, like, what is the bottom line, you’ve got a laser, for heaven’s sake. What’s cool about a laser. What are they capable of, of what can you demonstrate with a with a laser. Why should I care? To Dave’s point - What does this mean to me. So definitely flipping that triangle is is one of the first considerations when thinking about successfully engaging an audience in a non-formal setting. Let’s see here. This model is another model of communication that that I’ve seen many times. I’m sure you have as well. And what is being presented here is essentially a one way flow of information. The assumption being that the speakers messages are being received whole cloth by the audience members and but This doesn’t really take into account, you know, and yes, they have that little, you know, maybe there’s some feedback coming back to the presenter.

16:35 - But this really this model really doesn’t take into account what we know about how learning actually happens. What is actually learned by the audience. Depends on what is going on in their individual brains and how engaged they are, whether they’re emotionally involved, how will the how well they are able to integrate the message with their prior experiences and their knowledge, their values, their feelings. In in just sort of where it is they are today. So we’re going to go through each of these bullet points: brain chemistry, engagement, strong emotional stamp, integration. One step at a time. And see what The research tells us about what happens in each step of the way. So in terms of brain chemistry.

17:36 - Um, what we know is that pleasurable thoughts actually stimulate the production of endorphins and dopamine these chemical chemicals are addictive. In the same way that of morphine is And so in the brain really wants those hits and it wants those hits so badly. That if the brain is bored or it’s being presented with a difficult subject matter. It’s going to look for more pleasurable thoughts elsewhere. And this is essentially what happens when we daydream. Daydreaming is an involuntary act and essentially what is happening is that the brain is a control of our intention. And it’s such a powerful tendency of the brain to find pleasure that even if you’re consciously, you know, I’m trying to pay attention. I know this is going to be on the test. If it’s super boring or uninteresting, or I can’t engage with it or it doesn’t make sense to me. The brain again that that brain chemistry. Is going to want to take control so Going back to that voluntary versus involuntary audience if the, if you have an involuntary.

18:55 - I’m sorry if you have a voluntary non captive audience. This is huge right as a presenter, you have to go, I want To to present I want to create my communication experience in a way that’s going to stimulate that that brain it’s going to stimulate enjoyment, it’s going to keep people engaged. What else do you have to think about, um, engagement itself, um, motivation extrinsic and intrinsic interest influence what people choose to learn. It’s huge. It’s a huge influence And learning is highly effective when learners are engaging experiences that are relevant to their lives. They can imagine Again, it’s like I can.

19:50 - This is going to make a difference this is relevant to me it’s age appropriate, it makes sense to me it’s compelling and it’s not just motivating, but it’s intrinsically motivating. And there is a lot of really compelling research out there that indicates the learning, but it’s intrinsically motivated is more lasting and more effective. Than learning that is extrinsically motivated and I can. I’m looking at this young man, and in this photo. Doing this this chemistry activity and I’m thinking of my own experience with chemistry, which was all formal and pulling these all nighters i know i mean four years dedicated to chemistry that really, I didn’t have that much to show for it.

20:37 - And what I actually learned In this case with this young man. What we also know about learning is this rarely linear. It takes place over time and space. And so it’s almost never this instantaneous you present me about chemistry. I’m going to learn what it is you present me that, sir, a whole cloth model of learning. Rather is the sort of unfolding cumulative process where it says continuous accumulation of experiences of ideas of different sources of information at different it happens at different times.

21:24 - You know, maybe you have a relative that becomes ill and you are motivated to learn. The chemistry from the context of different medicines or vaccines. Maybe as this young man, you have this opportunity to have this fun experience with chemistry. But what’s important here is that this young man may not be learning a lot of chemistry content doing this activity. But the experience itself is literally going to stick in his brain and allow other experiences to be added on to that.

22:03 - You know, some Some learning theorists. You know, have an analogy of, like, little hooks in your brain that literally these experiences. Have need a place to hang on. So if you don’t have an existing hooking your brain for an experience to to lock on to is going to be less effective. And so I’m in this case. Wha… as as a provider as a science communication provider for this young man. I’m not less worried about what content. He’s getting and I’m more concerned with what it is that I can add to what he knows and understands about chemistry. How many hooks. Can I help to create in his brain.

22:52 - That will be available for later knowledge in later experiences to add on to what he knows and understands about chemistry. So in this case, I want to create an experience. This engaging that’s relevant that’s compelling this motivating that and that is likely to Create success for future learning experiences. And then one last point about this is that learning is is a way of responding to the day to day experiences of our lives. Right. So it’s not just learning about facts and concepts, it’s deeper than that.

23:33 - So as science communicators, the more that we really understand Us connecting with our audience, what is it that I can do to connect with our audience, the more successful that we’re going to be A question so far. We don’t have any questions. From awesome. I will carry on. Emotional stamps. You know, and we often that don’t give learning experiences. We don’t often think of them as these emotional things. But it turns out that the limbic process. I’m sorry, the limbic system is is Is tightly bound up with learning experiences. And so there’s these like feedback loops that exists between these emotional states of learning processes and memories are a function of what happens in these feedback. Loops.

24:33 - And so a system that combines sort of higher mental functions. I’m sorry. So, but the limbic system is a system that combines like these higher mental functions and emotions. And it’s that combination of it’s going to result in whether the learning experience is going to be strongly held Or if it’s can be weekly held. And if it’s weekly held. It’s just going to sort of disappear over time. And so the bottom line is, is that the stronger the emotional value to learning experience, the better the memory is going to be the more lasting that learning experience is going to be And so again, this is a, how, how do we take this into account when we’re thinking about communicating science.

25:18 - things that are experiences that are fun that are playful that are enjoyable that are strongly rewarded. Are going to have that stronger emotional stamp as well as experiences that are collaborative in nature that maybe it’s like a challenge. You know I want to succeed. And a challenge is awesome because it really taps into that intrinsic motivation in that emotion, because I wanted succeed. So those are ways to to receive that that that strong emotional that high emotional value as part of that learning experience. Um, and then finally integration.Play is an integrating mechanism and it helps a learner make important connections amongst things they learn.

26:09 - They know they feel they understand There’s a lot going on in somebody’s life and the learning experience that you have sort of has to fit into that. And so providing of these playful experiences can help make that stronger integration in everything else that’s going on in somebody’s life again. It’s, it’s not just about their learning. But is that What it is, they already know the prior experiences. They’re bringing into it, their values. What it is, they already think they understand about something what preconceptions they have, they may be right that may be wrong. So another aspect of integration is also really understanding where your learner is at giving them the opportunity to tell you these things.

27:08 - And this can be as simple as asking An open ended question before you start a presentation like what is it you know about lasers, you can learn a lot about where your audiences at and how they know and feel about a subject, just by starting off with a couple of those open ended questions to begin with. In your end up being able to more successfully integrated if you’re able to respond to that. So not only ask those open ended questions but have a couple strategies in your back pocket so you’re able to respond to what it is they that you hear from the audience. Um, So finally, This is a statement that I absolutely love this is again from Dr. Sam Ham, who Is a Learning psychologist and and I just spent a lot of time working with communication in informal settings, especially in national parks around the world. And, you know, from all of his work.

28:27 - He has boiled it down to this one sentence that good communication or effective communication. Has to capture your audience’s attention in, in, in, you know, so all those things. What are you going to do to capture their attention? How are you going to respond to them personally? How are you going to make it age appropriate? How are you going to make it relevant to them? And then how do you successfully make your point, it has to be compelling. It has to be fun. It has to be engaging and it has to Make somehow a Connection and integration point into their lives. And so, and I did, I Have got plenty of time for questions right now but you know just sort of the bottom line is that effective science communication Definitely actually engages the audience, but it’s not just about incorporating an activity.

29:31 - Right? It’s the entire approach that you take to communication that’s going to matter. So how is it the you take into account the motivations, the interest of your audience, the emotional connections that you can make with the audience. And really being satisfied with meeting the the learner where they’re at, not necessarily where you want them to be. where they’re at, is where they’re at right there exactly where, you know, if you just sort of accept that this is where they’re at and my job is just to add to that, in a way that’s going to set them up for success in continuing that learner over time and through space. Um, I’ve so as Selena was was talking, Explora Is working with NM EPSCoR and SMART Grid staff scientists and others. Around this idea of communication.

30:39 - Like, how can we help Up important work of communicating successfully about the smart grid to as broad an audience as possible. And so, um, some ideas that we have Is Is is actually sort of this holistic approach to this multi layered. So one is we want to create these mini traveling Smart Grid exhibits. And we need your help in planning and designing these. And so, beginning in October, we will invite you to a couple of what we call design charrette, these are essentially A listening planning sessions where you get to contribute ideas in a really open ended way. It’s really fun.

31:35 - It’s a great way just to to develop sort of the sort of broader thematic topical approaches that we might take with these exhibits. Then we’ll take what we learned from these design. Design Tourettes again. We hope that you consider participating in October, I will take what we learn to Create a couple of prototypes. Show you all those prototypes. Get some feedback from you all work with some audience members get some feedback from them. then iterate the design and end up with a between three and six of these for the spring, then what’s going to happen is we’re going to actually use these smart grid exhibits and not just here at Explora, but you will have the opportunity to use them.

32:28 - For your public communication of science throughout New Mexico or wherever, as well. We’re going to work with other Museums and other institutions to bring them to the public audiences there and we would definitely appreciate Any help that we get in actually facilitating those exhibits in those different settings, because again it’s not just about those exhibit is also about the opportunity to interact with real STEM professionals, real scientists such as yourself. Other opportunities we have to engage the public - New Mexico science Fiesta is coming up and Selena has the Save the Date postcard for that And that’s a coming up this September. And we will have A science communication workshops coming up this spring. Those will happen either in person or virtually and we’ll start those in January and we will actually have an emphasis on Southern New Mexico for those especially if those are in person will try to bring those down to Las Cruces and we would love to highlight Smart Grid scientists in Meet a Scientist videos.

33:44 - These are less about what it is you do explaining what a smart grid is and more about you as a scientist and meeting a scientist. If people are able to break apart break down some of those stereotypes that they have about who scientists are what scientists are like that science is boring that science is all about you know.. electron valence shells. And science is this person who has this compelling story to tell and this cool pathway story about how they got to be where they are and they’re doing this important work. Those are the kinds of things that come out in those videos. So we would love the opportunity to to To interview you all will be doing some teen science cafes is here were unclear as of yet what those look like (stupid pandemic) and as well as a Opportunities to bring you to students.

34:50 - Through either like a meeting up with a with a classroom or sort of as a role model in other types of events. Um, You ready for questions? Yes, I am. Awesome, because we have a few. Dr. Jenn wanted to know where the quote you, where the quote came from that said good communication captures your attention and successfully makes a point Yes, let me grab the book, um, Hold on. I’m looking at right now. Um, The book is called interpretation, making a difference on purpose. I’ll put that in the in the chat. Awesome. Thank you. And we also have other questions, I’ll let you type that in. All right you ready Yeah, okay.

35:56 - Sarah would like to know any observations on how COVID has changed your approach to science communication? has engagement increased Right. Um, and, you know, that’s a really good point because good communication is good communication regardless. And certainly, you have to think about engagement, a little differently in some ways I’ve been really pleasantly surprised at how Virtual does not exclude the or preclude the possibility of being hands on. And so, for example, that you know this quick activity. We’ve done this. Virtually with adults and with students. It’s materials that you easily have at home, and we’ve done like design challenges virtually, we’ve done a computer science.

36:53 - Virtually, it’s just a matter of getting the materials in the hands of the of the of the learner and in some ways what we’ve learned the advantage of this This Format the virtual format the advantages in some ways it’s more accessible. I mean look at this right now, everybody across the state can participate You don’t have to drive anywhere. You know, it’s just like right there. It can be hands on. If you plan accordingly either use me materials that are at home or we We if we do this science communication training virtually will be mailing participants kits, so that they will have those materials and then they’ll just be participating at home. And if you work at make – um, learning tends to be a social endeavor. Again, that’s what contributes a strong emotional stamp. So you have to consider that.

37:55 - How are you going to still make this social And this webinar sucks in that way. Right. It’s like, you know, we’ve got the chat. But there’s no real opportunity to collaborate. And so using Features and tools for collaboration becomes really important. And then so in zoom. Maybe that’s the breakout room. Maybe it’s jam board mural. Mural co Has some really cool collaboration tools. And collaborating on a PowerPoint slide a year, there’s just different ways to do that. But it’s still possible.

38:31 - So, you know, again, as long as you sort of take those things into account and it’s it’s still possible. But yeah, there’s things that suck about it. I don’t know if that answered the question. I think it gave a general overview. Thank you. So we’ve got two different people. We’ve got multiple people actually involved on getting are interested in getting involved, how do they get involved with these opportunities that you mentioned. Awesome. Um, I will work with Selena will get a couple of Google Forms going And we’ll get you guys a loaded up from there outstanding.

39:15 - We have another question - How will We will get the information to y’all. If you’re interested, maybe just put your email message us your email. In the chat. I’ll put my email for people. Thank you. That’s a great idea, Selena. Thank you. Another question we have Is, Hunter wants to know, do you have any good suggestions for communicating to those who may be coming from a place where they actively distrust scientists or may have a biased against your research vaccines clean energy, etc. Right, right, right. And that’s, that’s definitely where we’re at right now. Right. And it’s like a science communication on one hand has never ever been so important. Well, maybe it has.

40:09 - But it’s definitely so important right now. And there seems to be a trust level there but you know the whole politicization of it. And so this holistic approach becomes important. And so the science Fiesta is an opportunity to again directly address stereotypes and preconceived ideas that people have about what science is and who does science and where it happens and how science is integrated into a community. And so that’s one of the reasons why New Mexico EPSCoR supports the New Mexico science fiesta as one of our sponsors, is that we are able to address that through a couple different ways.

41:02 - By showing just a huge varied array of different types of science and and different types of scientists and where it’s happening we connect people with with the opportunity to actually talk with real scientists, so they see scientists as people We give the scientists as an opportunity to role model and engage directly with the with the with the people. NSF has funded some evaluation of science festivals in 2015, I believe, and some of those evaluation results really demonstrated the efficacy of Meeting real scientists and exposing people to science in that way. Another thing that we do in science Fiesta is the we flip science on its head we reframe it. It’s like we’re gonna have some break dancers there and look at the science behind breakdancing and so that way. We’re, we’re trying to reach people that don’t just self identify as the science nerd, we, we need to reach beyond that, if that’s all we reached there were always can be in that same tunnel.

42:13 - We need to reach people that don’t necessarily identify themselves as, you know, someone is interested in science, but it’s like hey breakdancing is cool and oh my god I never thought about, you know, the way that the momentum and and You know, I’ve lost my nouns. It happens. you know the center of gravity and how that affects a breakdancing and and you know now that I’m listening to this. Yes, this…yeah…science is kind of cool. And just, you know, giving people the opportunity to put themselves. In the position of enjoying science and enjoying scientists The Meet a Scientist videos again by focusing on scientists as a person rather than explaining what it is you do is another way of addressing that. And again, there is some Research that demonstrates the the efficacy of that approach and in broadening in in…

I 43:23 - don’t think there’s been demonstrated efficacy in impacting people’s trust of science, but definitely it broadens their, their view of science in and has the opportunity to impact how they value science. We - a- the questions are rolling in. Alright. So, um, We have a question that is asking, which - oops sorry- How would you suggest approaching the topic of effectively communicating scientific ideas, depending on audience in a succinct manner to high school students. Right. Um, and, and this is awesome. And this is from Syfic How are you, I’m at right this is awesome because we, the new science standards are all about science practices and so engaging students with phenomena. And having them. Ask questions in, see what happens if I try this. But it’s about the facilitation. So yes, the phenomenon is right there. But the facilitation of that phenomenon. Becomes the important aspect of engaging them with a science practices and that happens through open ended questions and happens when you as the science communicator and it’s less about explaining what it is you do and more about facilitating the interaction with that phenomenon.

45:01 - So that’s, that’s what I would suggest in that’s definitely a paradigm shift. Awesome. Um, we have a question in the Q&A, I think it. I think it might be asking for advice on training scientists so they don’t scare people away from colloquium lectures. Do you have anything on that or any suggestions for scientists, so they don’t scare people away with her lectures. Right. What, and it turns out that, you know, if we really take to heart the research tells us that intrinsic motivation intrinsically motivated learning experiences.

45:47 - Are super powerful and super effective, then we would tap into that intrinsic motivation, regardless of the audience is captive or, you know, fits in in a classroom setting or not. And so, utilizing these strategies. Is a great way to make science accessible relevant and meaningful to all of our audiences and really that’s what we have to do. There’s a My Degree is a is a Doctor of Arts. It’s not a PhD. It’s a DA degree. And the idea behind that degree was to put people that were trained in teaching in front of undergraduate students so that You know, we have that opportunity right from the get go to get people interested and motivated and excited about a subject area. Oh, we have a hard question here, but it’s a good one.

46:54 - It kind of riffs along the same thing we’ve been getting it. Austin wants to know, what’s the best way to communicate or persuade scientific realities to someone who is not scientifically literate or in denial Right and getting people to do things is hard. And actually that’s a Sam Ham has been spending quite a bit of time working with for example Park Service. To try to influence behaviors you know with with the general public, you know, how do you influence what is the people Might how they might behave either actions like whether or not they recycle or or whether or not they take, you know, like petrified wood out of petrified Petrified Forest National Park. But you’re also talking about how do we influence what people know and and and feel and that’s hard. Right.

47:53 - And we know that people come by their values over a lifetime. They come by them honestly And they are, where they are. We have to meet them where they are. So we have to sort of reframe this and it’s not about what it is I want them to know and understand it’s about Working together to understand each other like, why, what should I listen to you if you won’t listen to me. You are telling me all these things about global climate change. Why should I listen to you if you’ve never talked to me about my experiences and my understandings of, of, of how climate is affected my my family’s in my family’s farms and in ranch for generations.

48:48 - And so it’s reframing that whole thing is about having conversations, rather than one way communication events. It’s about, again, we’re not going to change people’s values, just with one communication event it’s it’s It might happen is going to be extraordinarily rare. And in fact what research has shown is that We might Accomplish exactly the opposite of what we set out to do by trying to do. so because people will Tend to entrench themselves in what it is they already know in the values they already have and they’ll tend to believe that even harder in the face of conflicting that information. And so it’s not about throwing information to people. It’s not about throwing facts at people. It’s about having conversations.

49:43 - It’s about engaging with them is about having experiences together. It’s about meeting them where they are at and being satisfied with that. That’s where we have to start And But the more we have those conversations. And the more that we’re willing to listen to each other. There’s been out of the Park Service’s is for a while was doing a lot with a community dialogues, especially around climate change and there’s some really interesting papers. And approaches that really seem efficacious. So that would be something that would be takes a lot of work. It takes a lot of intention, but that would definitely be one approach. Wow, what a spot on answer. Cool. I that is fantastic. Thank you so much. Allison. We do actually have another question in the chat from Cynthia about whether there’s any website or resources that you might Recommend and so Allison as I’m wrapping up. Maybe you can put some of that into the chat, because I know you you know the answer to that.

50:52 - And then We’ll, we’ll get this wrapped up. Thank you so much. I think I can probably speak for all the audience that this is the most interactive webinar. I’ve attended in Many months. So we appreciate that you practice what you preach, and we can’t, but will all give you a virtual hand in appreciation. Thank you. Allison. Thank you. So I want to just finish up with a couple of commercials for things that are coming up that Can you can use to help hone your own science communication or be inspired and Allison mentioned the science Fiesta which is coming up. It’s a week long celebration of science, September 18 through 26th. The website is going to launch on Friday.

51:34 - But we’ve given you an advance peek and there’s the URL where all the Great stuff will be there’s live events. There’s also be a number of things that are recorded and people can access it anytime. So go ahead and Save that data and share it widely. There’s no registration on the, I think that platforms for access are are super accessible like YouTube and Facebook. Anything else I should say about science Fiesta Allison. Know, we will get you More information. I’m sorry. I’m like madly Googling because I want to share this website. I’m trying to figure it out. Okay, so go ahead and and Explora will certainly be pushing out all the information. Information about the science Fiesta. So look forward to that. And you can see that EPSCoR is a sponsor. So we’re really excited that it’s moving ahead in the virtual space this year. And then finally, I want to remind you about this webinar that will be coming up in September with Seth Blumsak and he’s a fantastic communicator.

52:33 - So I think you’ll really enjoy learning about his Expertise As an economist. And connect it to the smart grid. So with that, I think we will say good bye Allison. Are you have you been able to get your things into into chat, or shall we keep it open for a bit longer. Yeah. Give me one minute. Okay, well, and so one thing I would recommend to everybody. The science communication training that Allison is planning for January. That EPSCoR is helping to sponsor. Is open to scientists across New Mexico.

53:11 - You don’t have to be associated with the SMART GRID CENTER. And so we would welcome your participation in that And if you’re interested. Go ahead. I put my email into the chat and you’re welcome to email me and I can make sure that you’re You’re on the list to get more information about that training coming up and Brittney is a is an alum of that training so she can she can vouch for how impactful it is and useful and we we certainly have have space to accommodate scientists from across New Mexico, and that’s our intention. It’s an awesome training, everybody. So anybody who’s interested in seeing the information from Allison, please. Hang on. And we’ll get that posted in the chat, all of the rest of you all who are ready to go on with your day.

53:56 - We thank you for attending and Hope to see you again at science Fiesta. And next month at our webinar. Take care everybody. Bye bye. Oh, I finally found it. It’s called a case. Awesome, thanks. Allison. Nice reference to the kaldi nice steady to the Oh yeah, I’d petrified wood that’s a great one. Yes, super interesting. Right. Yeah. Hey, Brittany, we’re going to push The stop record. Does everybody got the resources, then we will stop. .