The Miami Science Museum is one of several science centers nationwide participating in the Portal to the Public initiative, led by the Pacific Science Center and funded by the National Science Foundation. The goal is to work with scientists in your local area on science communication strategies. Scientists get to hone their science communication skills, and the public gets to connect with real, current science, and “put a face on science.” One of my goals for this Arctic expedition is to expand our project to an international scale, so I am leading a mini-Portal to the Public workshop onboard. The projects I have given them for this expedition are to use the strategies from my presentations to write stories for this blog, and to focus on 1 concept from their research that they could develop into a hands-on activity (which is harder than it sounds, when your research areas are so interesting and complex).
In the photos are a few of the activities we did so far: figure out what’s in the box that only has one small eye hole (you’re investigating, therefore acting as a scientist)… describe in one word or phrase a meaningful experience you had in any informal learning environment (remembering your own experiences helps when you are creating experiences for others)… describe a picture so that others understand and can accurately draw it (testing effective communication skills). I am certain that these people can be really positive “faces for science.”
