How Academic Biologists and Physicists View Science Outreach

Anne E Lincoln,Elaine Howard Ecklund,Luís A Nunes Amaral,Sarah A James

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0036240

Anne E Lincoln, Elaine Howard Ecklund + Show 2 more

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https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0036240

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Journal: PLoS ONE	Publication Date: May 9, 2012
Citations: 155	License type: CC BY 4.0

Affiliation: Southern Methodist University, Rice University

Abstract

Scholars and pundits alike argue that U.S. scientists could do more to reach out to the general public. Yet, to date, there have been few systematic studies that examine how scientists understand the barriers that impede such outreach. Through analysis of 97 semi-structured interviews with academic biologists and physicists at top research universities in the United States, we classify the type and target audiences of scientists’ outreach activities. Finally, we explore the narratives academic scientists have about outreach and its reception in the academy, in particular what they perceive as impediments to these activities. We find that scientists’ outreach activities are stratified by gender and that university and disciplinary rewards as well as scientists’ perceptions of their own skills have an impact on science outreach. Research contributions and recommendations for university policy follow.

Highlights

If science is going to fully serve its societal mission in the future, we need to both encourage and equip the generation of scientists to effectively engage with the broader society in which we work and live. – Alan Leshner.As the United States continues to fall behind other countries in math and science performance [1], Alan Leshner, CEO of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, expresses a sense of urgency about translating science to the broader public
Demographic Correlates of Science Outreach Efforts Overall, 58 percent of the respondents are involved in some type of science outreach pursuit
Though biologists and physicists are involved in such efforts (x2 = 2.66, df = 1, p = 0.103), women are markedly more involved in outreach work than men (72 percent versus 43 percent, x2 = 8.59, df = 1, p = 0.003), a finding that holds within each discipline

Summary

Introduction

If science is going to fully serve its societal mission in the future, we need to both encourage and equip the generation of scientists to effectively engage with the broader society in which we work and live. – Alan Leshner.As the United States continues to fall behind other countries in math and science performance [1], Alan Leshner, CEO of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, expresses a sense of urgency about translating science to the broader public. Previous research shows that half of academic scientists are engaged in some type of outreach [3,4], though 5 percent of the most active public scientists do half of all outreach [4].

Results

Conclusion