Bench Press

Inspiring students to be interested in (or at least to value and respect) science is something which the scientific community has unfortunately passed on to under-prepared teachers. This has serious consequences. When leading US politicians can pander to the public by asserting that vaccines can cause autism or that fruit fly research is pointless, I would like to think that the scientific community would be scrambling to find ways to reach out to more properly educate people about why and how to think about science.

Allyson, over at the Systems Biology & Bioinformatics blog, recently wrote an interesting post about her volunteering experiences with the Teacher-Scientist Network which pairs teachers and scientists in an attempt to help educate children about science. The post is fascinating, but I think her tips for scientists reaching out to students are especially useful:

1. My method of using no text on the vast majority of the slides really worked. It was especially useful as it meant I could stop anywhere in my slides if I was running out of time, and the littlest ones were not distracted by trying to read the words rather than listening to me.
2. Pictures of fluffy, pretty, cute, or “gross” animals were very, very popular. The number of “Awwwws” I got when showing pictures of cats was astounding. Equally, all the older ones wanted to see my pictures of the newborn mice (pretty gross with no hair!), and all ages enjoyed trying to figure out what the photo of e.coli was.
3. As soon as you ask a question, they all raise their hands to answer it. Not sure when this stops, but I know that by the time I was in high school the teachers had a hard time prying any answers out of the majority of us! However, on Monday I was at a school where the eldest was 11, and they all wanted to contribute. So, ask them questions. I found there were two types: the question where I wanted to get an answer (such as “What traits make a good horse?” or “What do you think makes these two cats different?”) and the type where I just wanted them to feel included in the talk, and just wanted a show of hands (such as “How many of you have a cat?” or “Who has heard of diabetes?”).
4. Introduce some ethics, and show how scientists think very carefully before doing research. We talked about genes a lot, and how putting new genes in bugs like e.coli can help us, e.g. the human insulin gene into e.coli to help with diabetes. I told all the older kids that it wasn’t the tool that is a problem: a tool is neither good nor evil. It’s how that tool is used, and people need to make a fresh decision, and think about the benefits and downsides each time that tool is used. I said genetic modification is like a knife: it is neither good nor bad, and that scientists try very hard to make sure that it is used for the right reasons, and in a safe way.
5. Visually-arresting analogies: Even though DNA is a double-helix and not a spiral staircase, I found it a very useful analogy, especially for the younger ones.
6. My partnered teacher had prepared some slides to show the kids prior to my arrival. They dealt with Mr. Green Genes, the GFP-glowing cat. Some of the other teachers also talked to their kids about inheriting some of your traits from your mom, and some from your dad, and used the labradoodle as a visual aid. This prepped them for my talk, which I think was really helpful.
7. Make your talk inclusive. It keeps their interest, I think. When I showed pictures of cats, I included one picture of my own cat, and told them a little about her. I often asked them questions about if they had pets, or scientists in the family, or liked the look of a picture, or knew what something was.

I think Allyson makes a lot of great points. But, in keeping with the theme of this blog to talk about technology, I think we can add a few suggestions to her list:

• Put up a science website – The best learning happens outside of the classroom. Now, I don’t advocate scientists to turn their labs over to 8-year-olds, but I do think that giving students a resource to look at outside of class.
• Edit wiki’s - It’s astounding how many people use Google and/or Wikipedia to find information about science and medicine. This represents an incredible opportunity for the scientific community to properly inform the public — fail, and let vaccine fear-mongers, Creationists, global warming deniers, and their kind guide the public discussion.
• Put up online video - A few years ago, online videos were clunky and difficult to use. So you had an excuse back then to not put up videos on your website. Today? Different story. When YouTube is a household name, there is no excuse for people not to put up engaging demo videos — because people who don’t know what they’re talking about are.
• Use feeds - Twitter. Flickr. Del.icio.us. RSS. These are becoming increasingly more mainstream, especially among students, so scientists should learn to use them. Who knows, your picture of GFP-tagged Neurons may be what inspires the discoverer of the cure for Alzheimers?
• Interactive applications - Show the public what you’re researching in a way which actually speaks to them. No, don’t show them your NSF grant application, show them a Google Earth layer highlighting your research on Ancient Rome, the impact of global sea levels rising, or the beautiful nebula that you’re telescopes are pointing at. Present an applet which shows the beauty of a Lorentz attractor, or examples of simple machines in your household.