Outreach Experience Research Articles

Creating and Teaching Science Lessons in K-12 Schools Increases Undergraduate Students' Science Identity.

Success and persistence in the life sciences is influenced by a student’s self-efficacy, sense of belonging, and science identity. It has already been demonstrated that outreach experiences and service learning by graduate students in K–12 schools aid in the graduate students’ confidence and intrinsic satisfaction. Others have shown the importance of engaging scientists in outreach activities, both for the benefit of the K–12 student and as a way to engage scientists with the community. We predicted it would also be beneficial for undergraduates to engage in service-learning activities during their coursework because working with K–12 students would solidify their scientific identity and sense of belonging while deepening their understanding of the course content. Consequently, we implemented service projects in our upper-level molecular biology and human physiology courses at a primarily undergraduate institution that focuses on five core values: Christian, Liberal Arts, Excellence, Community, and Service. Outcomes such as the undergraduate students’ value of service, confidence in their knowledge of course content, ability to create effective lesson plans, and science identity were measured using anonymous surveys. Overall, students reported that they highly valued and enjoyed this unique experience. This type of activity could be used to increase future scientists’ awareness of synergistic activities such as academic service and of the joy found in such activities. Future plans include measuring the effects on the participating high school and elementary school students and visiting schools with a high proportion of students from underserved populations.

Introduction: The H<em>f</em>E Project and Beyond: New Constellations of Practice in the Environmental and Digital Humanities

IntroductionThe HfE Project and Beyond: New Constellations of Practice in the Environmental and Digital Humanities Joni Adamson (bio) Since the publication of "The Future We Want," the outcome document of the 2012 United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (dubbed Rio+20),1 there has been growing infrastructural support and funding for curricular innovation and programming in the environmental humanities.2 International researchers are increasingly advocating for the integration of humanities insights into codesigned and coproduced knowledge about anthropogenically caused change (Bai et al. 2015, 10; Hartman 2015; Nye et al. 2013). But what forms will integrated or transdisciplinary codesigned research take? Can the humanities (which typically are characterized as weakly tooled to address social and environmental crises) catalyze imagination of new ideas, narratives, frameworks, alternatives, demands, and projects that will enable people to envision plausibly different, even livable, futures (Adamson 2015, 139)? Most articles and white papers calling for integration of the humanities into global environmental-change sciences suggest how far we have come in advocating successfully for the value of the humanities. Still, the argument of many of these position papers often starts from embedded assumptions that take the form of statements such as "We need to begin now to incorporate the insights of the humanities" (Bai et al. 2015). This special issue of Resilience, "The Green Humanities Lab," will report and reflect on an ambitious Andrew W. Mellon–funded project called Humanities for the Environment, or HfE, which took [End Page 1] place between 2013 and 2015. Most of the contributors to this issue collaborated together as part of an HfE steering committee based at Arizona State University (ASU), while other contributors are part of a larger international EcoDH (ecological digital humanities) network. Each article in this issue discusses projects or initiatives the authors have been working on for two years or more. All of us are excited to be stepping out of the shade, so to speak, to illustrate that calls for what Steven Hartman and others have called integrated environmental humanities or integrated codesigned research are being creatively and generatively answered by expanding and increasingly well-organized groups of humanists (Hartman 2015). Hartman's collaboration with Anders Birgersson and Peter Norrman on the highly innovative Bifrost Project, an arts-research intervention to bring "hundreds, if not thousands of artists, writers, scientists, educators, community leaders and activists" together to "educate the public on climate change," is only one of the most developed of these arts-media initiatives (Birgersson, Hartman, and Norrman 2015). The steering committee that collaboratively developed the HfE project included nine environmental humanists from ASU and nine from other universities throughout the US and Canada.3 Some are artists, many have long been involved in establishing the environmental humanities, some are new to the field, some have been piloting digital humanities labs and projects, and one is a Nobel Prize–winning member of the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Most members of this steering committee have been networking for over a decade through the Association for the Study of Literature and Environment, the American Society of Environmental History, and the Environment and Culture Caucus of the American Studies Association. Many had also networked previously through Mellon Foundation grants including one at the University of California, Davis, that brought many of the members of the steering committee together for Davis's Initiative on Environments and Societies.4 Through these associations and others, the steering committee brought a wealth of public humanities and collaborative experience in environmental justice and sustainability community outreach to their work at ASU.5 Having been funded by the Mellon Foundation, the HfE project at ASU was guided by Mellon's persistent defense of the value of the humanities and by its consistent encouragement of "scholars and institutions [End Page 2] to experiment and adapt" (Howard 2014, 4). Members of the steering committee were aware that a high percentage of Mellon dollars have been granted to support the environmental and digital humanities and to make project outcomes "openly available" (Howard 2014, 9, 10–11). With this in mind, the steering committee saw their charge as piloting experimental EcoDH projects...

Constructivism in the third space: challenging pedagogical perceptions of science outreach and science education

ABSTRACTInformal opportunities for young people to engage with science have increased in response to declining uptake in science and a shortage of science graduates. This paper is set in the context of the recent introduction of science at primary level in Ireland and the existence of a great number of science outreach programmes, in particular from universities to support this sector. The recent movement to change science pedagogy in schools towards a focus on inquiry and constructivist methods commands discussion around pedagogical practice in both spaces (education and outreach). Building on the authors’ research which embraced a qualitative approach to ascertain participant perception of constructivism and understanding of conceptual and pedagogical dilemmas within science education, this paper reports a singularly quantitative insight, carried out in parallel, to facilitate a more formal and standardised comparison within and between populations and to allow generalisation to the larger population. A Constructivist Learning Environment (CLES) survey of both primary teachers (N = 148) and science outreach practitioners (N = 81) in Ireland was conducted, eliciting multiple dimension perceptions, in terms of pedagogical choice and comparative differentiators regarding sex, school size, outreach frequency in the classroom, role of outreach practitioner within their institution, outreach experience of the outreach practitioner. Results challenge beliefs presented in the literature about a deficit of science pedagogy amongst primary level teachers and therefore questions the role of science outreach in this relationship. This study provokes the necessity for a discussion of the third space, arising from the juxtaposition between science outreach and education.

Message from the Executive Director: Interview with Britta Voss and Kylla Marie Benes, ASLO 2016 Science Communication Interns

Message from the Executive Director: Interview with Britta Voss and Kylla Marie Benes, ASLO 2016 Science Communication Interns

The emergence of gastronomic engineering

Modern consumers increasingly derive their foods from away-from-home sources. Rising incomes, the emergence of chefs as innovative actors in the food scene, and the growing consumer demand for culinary experiences, are the main driving forces behind haute cuisine. At the same time, food engineering is in urgent need to expand its scope and engage in new collaborations and partnerships. Gastronomic engineering (GE) means using the vast body of knowledge accumulated in food engineering and food materials science to propel the curiosity and creativity of chefs to what is technologically feasible and environmentally sustainable. GE opens new opportunities for food engineering, a discipline that has been mostly oriented to the food processing industry. This article describes the emergence of GE or a new branch of food engineering, as a space of co-creation between chefs and food engineers in a university set-up. Our GE unit consists of an experimental kitchen headed by a chef, a food engineering area and a materials science laboratory. The impact of GE on academic activities (teaching and research) and outreach experiences is discussed.

Drones in California research and extension

Drones in California research and extension

Empowerment in a model of outreach undergraduate dental education.

Aim To undertake a quantitative and qualitative examination into what aspects of the students' experience in outreach at University of Portsmouth Dental Academy (UPDA) are encouraging their empowerment as autonomous practitioners, ready to graduate as 'safe beginners'.Methods The study was devised as part of the educational service evaluation of outreach education at the UPDA. For the two most recent cohorts of 160 students (2014-16) an additional domain was added specifically investigating the students' sense of how their experience of outreach at the UPDA has impacted on their development to be ready for independent practice (safe beginner). The questionnaire was completed anonymously in their last week of attendance just before graduation.Results A 91% response rate for the questionnaire was achieved. To the question about 'being given an opportunity to become an independent dentist', 83% of the respondents strongly agreed. Two themes with seven subthemes were identified from the free text responses. The two themes were 'self-actualisation: developing self-awareness and self-confidence' and 'delivery of care as a dentist'.Conclusion Within the limitations of this educational evaluation, students enjoyed the increase of autonomy they gained during the year-long placement and felt that the clinical teachers empowered, encouraged and supported them to develop as autonomous dental practitioners and as 'safe beginners', to deliver holistic care in the National Health Service.

Experience of Online Outreach for Black MSM Populations at High Risk for HIV Transmission

Smith, Cortney; White, Maggie MSN, MPH, RN; Ross, Michael W. PhD, MD, MPH* Author Information

NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts at 50

Corrigan, restless to a fault, resigned from NYU in 1968 to become the first President of the California Institute of the Arts. After that, he started schools at the University of Texas, Dallas, and the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee. He died in 1993, at the age of 65. David Oppenheim, classical clarinetist and music and television producer, was dean from 1969 to 1991. Oppenheim oversaw the development of TSOA’s studio system of quasi-independent departments and programs. Oppenheim passed away in 2007 at the age of 85. In 1991, Mary Schmidt Campbell, formerly the head of the Studio Museum of Harlem and Cultural Affairs Commissioner of New York City was appointed dean. Under Campbell, the school expanded its physical, intellectual, and artistic scope. Campbell left TSOA in 2014 to become President of Spelman College, Atlanta. In April 2014, Allyson Green — a dancer, choreographer, and educator — was named dean. What will TSOA become under her aegis? With Green, NYU’s leadership installed a person with an active artistic life (in painting and design, as well as dance) and deep experience in interdisciplinary arts, international touring, and community outreach.

Comparative analysis of outreach work with street children in Latvia, Czech Republic and India

Based on available statistics, the number of street children is increasing not only in Europe but also around the world. Street children in the world now number 700 million children who are living below the poverty line, which is attributable to income. In the U.S. street children numbers range from a million to two million – 82% of these children are involved in the drug trade. Number of street children in Latin America is steadily increasing too per year, and approximately 12,500 street children are working [16].India purportedly has one of the highest concentrations of street children in the world, with UNICEF estimating their numbers to be as high as 11 million [9].To find out the true numbers and to investigate what was involved in street children's lives, outreach work experiences in Latvia, Czech Republic and India collected statistical data, summarized studies and conducted qualitative research. The qualitative research was conducted in Latvia, India and Czech Republic. In Czech Republic 5 outreach social workers in Hradec Kralove city were interviewed and in Riga 2 social workers who work in different Day Centres were interviewed and asked for their opinion. In India qualitative information about outreach work with street children was conducted together with identified outreach work programs.

Online Outreach Services Among Men Who Use the Internet to Seek Sex With Other Men (MISM) in Ontario, Canada: An Online Survey.

BackgroundMen who use the Internet to seek sex with other men (MISM) are increasingly using the Internet to find sexual health information and to seek sexual partners, with some research suggesting HIV transmission is associated with sexual partnering online. Aiming to “meet men where they are at,” some AIDS service organizations (ASOs) deliver online outreach services via sociosexual Internet sites and mobile apps.ObjectiveTo investigate MISM's experiences and self-perceived impacts of online outreach.MethodsFrom December 2013 to January 2014, MISM aged 16 years or older were recruited from Internet sites, mobile apps, and ASOs across Ontario to complete a 15-minute anonymous online questionnaire regarding their experience of online outreach. Demographic factors associated with encountering online outreach were assessed using backward-stepwise multivariable logistic regression (P<.05 was considered significant).ResultsOf 1830 MISM who completed the survey, 8.25% (151/1830) reported direct experience with online outreach services. Encountering online outreach was more likely for Aboriginal versus white MISM, MISM from Toronto compared with MISM from either Eastern or Southwestern Ontario, and MISM receiving any social assistance. MISM who experienced online outreach felt the service provider was friendly (130/141, 92.2%), easy to understand (122/140, 87.1%), helpful (115/139, 82.7%), prompt (107/143, 74.8%), and knowledgeable (92/134, 68.7%); half reported they received a useful referral (49/98, 50%). Few MISM felt the interaction was annoying (13/141, 9.2%) or confusing (18/142, 12.7%). As a result of their last online outreach encounter, MISM reported the following: better understanding of (88/147, 59.9%) and comfort with (75/147, 51.0%) their level of sexual risk; increased knowledge (71/147, 48.3%); and feeling less anxious (51/147, 34.7%), better connected (46/147, 31.3%), and more empowered (40/147, 27.2%). Behaviorally, they reported using condoms more frequently (48/147, 32.7%) and effectively (35/147, 23.8%); getting tested for HIV (43/125, 34.4%) or STIs (42/147, 28.6%); asking for their partners’ HIV statuses (37/147, 25.2%); and serosorting (26/147, 17.7%). Few MISM reported no changes (15/147, 10.2%) and most would use these services again (98/117, 83.8%). Most MISM who did not use online outreach said they did not need these services (1074/1559, 68.89%) or were unaware of them (496/1559, 31.82%).ConclusionsThis is the first online outreach evaluation study of MISM in Canada. Online outreach services are a relatively new and underdeveloped area of intervention, but are a promising health promotion strategy to provide service referrals and engage diverse groups of MISM in sexual health education.

The Graduate Extension Scholars: Communicating Science to the Youth

The Graduate Extension Scholars: Communicating Science to the Youth

Teaching corner: raising the bar: ethical considerations of medical student preparation for short-term immersion experiences.

Short-term international medical outreach experiences are becoming more popular among medical students. As the popularity of these trips grows, participants, scholars, and institutions have become more aware of the potential pitfalls of such experiences. Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine (SSOM) has an approximately 20-year international service immersion (ISI) program that has sent more than 1,400 participants to more than 30 countries. Recently, ISI programming has been adjusted to provide students more formal sessions exploring the ethics of the ISI trips. Students are required to attend both pre- and post-trip educational sessions covering a wide range of relevant global health topics as well as participating in in-country reflections and post-trip debriefings. This recent adjustment has evolved further to become the foundation for the SSOM's four-year Global Health Honors program that not only encourages an ethical foundation for the student's ISI experience but also hopes to provide a foundation for students as they look toward a future career in global health.

A low-cost, hands-on module to characterize antimicrobial compounds using an interdisciplinary, biophysical approach.

We have developed a hands-on experimental module that combines biology experiments with a physics-based analytical model in order to characterize antimicrobial compounds. To understand antibiotic resistance, participants perform a disc diffusion assay to test the antimicrobial activity of different compounds and then apply a diffusion-based analytical model to gain insights into the behavior of the active antimicrobial component. In our experience, this module was robust, reproducible, and cost-effective, suggesting that it could be implemented in diverse settings such as undergraduate research, STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) camps, school programs, and laboratory training workshops. By providing valuable interdisciplinary research experience in science outreach and education initiatives, this module addresses the paucity of structured training or education programs that integrate diverse scientific fields. Its low-cost requirements make it especially suitable for use in resource-limited settings.

An Interdisciplinary Hands-On Module for Science Outreach in Resource-Limited Settings

Collaboration across disciplines has played a pivotal role in understanding and advancing science. However, opportunities to gain interdisciplinary research experience continue to remain uncommon. We have developed a hands-on, experimental module that uses an interdisciplinary approach, combining biology experiments and a physics-based analytical model, to address a scientific problem. This module was first implemented at the Hands-on Research in Complex Systems School held at The Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP), Trieste, Italy from 29 June - 11 July 2014. In our experience, this module was robust, reproducible, resource-efficient, and cost-effective. These serve as favorable features in taking this module to diverse settings such as undergraduate research manifestos, STEM camps, school programs, and laboratory training workshops. Given the paucity of structured training or education programs that integrate diverse scientific fields, this module can provide valuable, interdisciplinary, research experience in science outreach and education initiatives.

Overcoming barriers during the co-production of climate information for decision-making

The Great Lakes Integrated Sciences and Assessments program (GLISA) has led the co-development of usable climate information for decision-making in several case study projects. Although each case study is with a unique partnering organization made up of different stakeholders with varying information needs and capabilities, several patterns have emerged that GLISA has identified and overcome to advance the practice of applied climate information. There are three main barriers that GLISA encounters at the onset of many of the case studies: (1) mismatched terminology used by scientists and stakeholders to describe the types of information that are available and needed for problem solving (translation); (2) unrealistic expectations regarding the development of climate information products for problem solving; and (3) disordered integration of when stakeholders want to bring climate information into decision-making processes. Although some or all of these barriers are likely to exist at the onset of any new climate information partnership, GLISA has developed methods for overcoming them more quickly so that the process of co-developing usable climate information is more efficient and effective. In this paper we describe in detail GLISA’s experiences that have led to the realization of these barriers and the steps GLISA has taken to overcome them. We also relate these barriers to literature on the “usability gap” between climate science and information use in decision-making as well as uncertainty cascades in climate change adaptation. These experiences demonstrate that climate scientists performing outreach experience similar struggles as the stakeholders they interact with. However, they also reveal the potential for climate-centered boundary organizations to cultivate their own capacities to overcome these challenges in their partnerships.

CrystalinItaly

The actions for celebrating IYCr2014 in Italy are coordinated by the Associazione Italiana di Cristallografia (AIC), with the contribution of the Società Italiana di Mineralogia e Petrologia (SIMP) and of the Società Italiana di Luce di Sincrotrone (SILS). All the activities are gathered in a dedicated website, www.iycr2014.it, created to convey to the public and media all the information related to crystallography and on the activities that will take place in Italy. The general initiatives organized in Italy intend to be the basis for long term actions with two main objectives: to reach general public and to reach especially high school teachers. The high school teachers are key figures to build a better perception of crystallography for the next generations: previous experience in outreach and divulgation towards schools shows that teachers are highly influential to direct students' future careers. To reach high school teachers and to increase their motivation in teaching crystallography in the science syllabus, a completely new teaching pamphlet has been created, to provide a written modern, clear, and friendly instrument to learn and explain the simplest concepts related to crystallography, linked to everyday life and complemented with simple experiments. This will be distributed freely to teachers and students. To reach general public is a second important aim, where the challenge is to increase awareness of the impact that crystallography has on daily life, culture and history. An initiative to bring crystallography at everybody's door has been launched, consisting in the creation of a list of the Italian crystallographic sites, that has been put on the web site and will be implemented in an applet for smartphones. Moreover, the exhibition 'Cristalli!' is being organized in several places, having being launched in Padua with thousands of visitors in 5 months.

World Federation of Pediatric Imaging envisions Web site as a tool to share and disseminate top-notch educational material to a global audience at a minimal cost.

The World Federation of Pediatric Imaging (WFPI) has constituent members in all parts of the world with varying capacities to access commonly available online educational resources. Everyone wants access to highquality vetted educational material at the point-of-care with minimal cost implication. On the other hand, content authors would like to balance visibility and maximum utilization of the content they produce with an assurance that they can safeguard their intellectual property and copyright is not infringed upon. In addition to education, we would like member societies to have access to a forum to share their triumphs, air their grievances, publicize activities and reach out to the society leadership with suggestions and feedback. The WFPI Web site has the potential to fulfill these goals while keeping costs to a minimum [1]. We propose a blueprint for the Web site and highlight some of the potential obstacles that need to be negotiated in this endeavor. Based on ongoing discussions with the WFPI leadership, we suggest having an online repository of recorded educational material produced by experts from around the world. This can be thought of as the gateway for newer radiologists, trainees and non-radiology colleagues to become involved in the activities of the WFPI and its member societies and to access the information and training we seek to share. The ability of the society to cross national and regional boundaries differentiates us from similar and, in many cases, larger and better-funded societies. We propose minimizing the barriers to access so that anyone in the farthest corners of the globe can use the material to benefit their patients. The cost of creating and maintaining this material is an issue to consider, but we believe it will solve itself if use of the material is optimized and the content goes viral, spreading rapidly over the Internet as interested parties share the information with others. To make this happen and trigger output going viral, the content must be good and it must be easy to share via social media networks. This means we have to balance issues of copyright with ease of access, and this is always tricky. One option is to publish material using one of the Creative Commons licenses, so the authors do not lose all control of their material and due credit is given to the original content generators by those who copy and disseminate that information [2]. Adherence to patient confidentiality rules and assurance that financial and other conflicts of interest are clearly stated are also imperative to ensure wide acceptance of this model. We are also exploring the possibility of enabling member societies to access to live-stream content from their annual meetings and courses at minimal or no cost, using the WFPI Web site as a conduit. This would require additional resources and, at least initially, might need to be funded in large part by the member society; the WFPI in turn would lend its outreach experience and online presence to ensure wide dissemination of content. S. P. Prabhu (*) Department of Radiology, Division of Neuroradiology, Boston Children’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, 300 Longwood Ave., Boston, MA 02115, USA e-mail: drsanjayprabhu@gmail.com

Narratives of Science Outreach in Elite Contexts of Academic Science

Using data from interviews with 133 physicists and biologists working at elite research universities in the United States, we analyze narratives of outreach. We identify discipline-specific barriers to outreach and gender-specific rationales for commitment. Physicists view outreach as outside of the scientific role and a possible threat to reputation. Biologists assign greater value to outreach, but their perceptions of the public inhibit commitment. Finally, women are more likely than men to participate in outreach, a commitment that often results in peer-based informal sanctions. The study reveals how the cultural properties of disciplines, including the status of women, shape the meaning and experience of science outreach.

Metodología dialógica e interdisciplina en la extensión universitaria. Reflexiones acerca de una experiencia

El trabajo es el resultado de nuestras reflexiones sobre la metodologíadialógica y la conformación de equipos interdisciplinarios en procesosde investigación-acción. Las mismas surgieron a partir de una experienciade extensión universitaria desarrollada en la Universidad Nacional de LaPlata, Argentina, en conjunto con la Comisión Provincial por la Memoria(CPM) y la Asociación de Trabajadores del Estado (ATE) de la Provincia deBuenos Aires. El proyecto buscaba el acceso, apropiación y resignificacióncolectiva de los documentos pertenecientes al archivo de la ex Direcciónde Inteligencia de la Policía de la Provincia de Buenos Aires (DIPBA) enposesión de la CPM. Es decir, un encuentro entre esos documentos que conteníanparte de la historia argentina de persecución, represión y prácticasde resistencias, y sus protagonistas. El trabajo busca identificar los nudosproblemáticos y las potencialidades de la experiencia, así como reconstruirla apuesta metodológica que se constituyó a partir de la disposición al diálogoy de la conformación de un nos-otros. En este proceso se analiza lapresencia de una perspectiva dialógica en la conceptualización de la nociónde extensión; en la opción metodológica por la investigación-acción participativay sus tensiones presentes en el campo; en la forma de pensar y actuar interdisciplinariamente construyendo un otro extensionista; y en ladecisión a partir de las necesidades situadas planteadas por los trabajadoresy las trabajadoras de incorporar específicamente el diálogo intergeneracionale intergénero. Una posición que nos permitió un diálogo entre sujetosparticipantes de la experiencia de extensión y la elaboración colectiva de losdenominados procesos de «re» (Vasilachis, 2007). Redefinición de la identidad,redefinición discursiva ante la mirada de los otros (la DIPBA) y unaredefinición de la memoria colectiva de los trabajadores y las trabajadorasdel sindicato a partir de una reconstrucción histórica colectiva. Por último,se plantean los obstáculos y elementos facilitadores que encontramos entodo el proceso, de modo de realizar un aporte que ilumine algunos aspectospara llevar adelante otras experiencias de extensión universitaria exitosas.