Ask a Scientist: An Exercise in Communication Training

While there is a growing awareness of the necessity for increasing science communication skills for graduate students and postdocs, there remains an unfortunate lack of formal training opportunities available at many leading institutions. Numerous student- and postdoc-led groups have been formed at universities in an effort to circumvent the absence of communication training offered. One example is the “Ask a Scientist” program that we recently implemented at UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas. My goal in sharing our experiences is to demonstrate how easy it is to increase your science communication skills, as well as to encourage other groups to get out there and share their love of science within their communities.

The mechanics behind our program

“Ask a Scientist” was launched in Fall 2015 by a graduate student- and postdoc-led group, the Science Policy, Education and Communication (SPEaC) club. The goal was to provide a platform for trainees to practice science communication skills, while simultaneously increasing public awareness of the science and research performed in the local community. The premise of “Ask a Scientist” is very simple: The public submits questions they’ve been dying to ask a scientist at any of our outreach events, and we have our trainees answer them in YouTube videos that we later promote and share through social media.

The key to our “Ask a Scientist” program is our educational outreach events where the public can submit their questions. The SPEaC club hosts outreach events with diverse partners such as: the Perot Museum of Nature and Science, local health and science fairs, as well as STEM nights at schools in our community. Our program accepts questions from both children and adults at all of our outreach events. This provides our trainees with the opportunity to practice distilling complex scientific information down to something that is easily digestible and accurate for a broad audience. Here are a couple of examples of the diverse questions we have received:  “How does the human brain work?”; “Why is the sun yellow?”; and “Do you love your job and why?” Once we receive the questions we reach out to our trainees through an email listserv and assign questions to interested trainees. Once they send back their video responses, we edit and post the videos to YouTube, and then promote them using social media (e.g., Facebook and Twitter). Our trainees eagerly participate and enjoy making their response videos because it is a great way to teach while also practicing science communication in a casual setting. Not to mention the added incentive of reaching a larger audience through the Internet and social media.

Expanding the scope

Due to the success of the video-based “Ask a Scientist” platform and the desire to encourage our trainees to engage in more public speaking, we recently expanded the program to include live sessions with patrons of a local bar. The set-up is very simple: A group of our trainees goes to a local tavern with a sign that reads, “We are scientists, ask us anything!” General science questions range in topic from how cells work to human health and disease. The resulting discussions are variable and highly dynamic, and are often quite entertaining! These interactions are a perfect way for trainees to master how to think quickly and clearly articulate their ideas while in a casual environment.

This has been a fun and relaxed way for trainees to engage non-scientists in spirited conversations about science. It is also a great platform for trainees to share the importance of their own research with non-scientists and show the local community the amazing research going on nearby. These interactions help to dispel the negative stereotype of the eccentric and isolated scientist, and permit the public to see that scientists are approachable and relatable. An additional benefit of this platform is the ability to reach voting-age adults and increase the general awareness of the benefits of basic science research on human health and the need for continued funding.

How to get involved

Our “Ask a Scientist” program can be easily adopted at any institution and, of course, modified and personalized to achieve any group-specific purpose. All you need is a passion for science and the ambition to share your love of science with non-scientists in the community. I strongly encourage other graduate students and postdocs to take the initiative and begin to implement informal science communication training at their own universities.

We hope these concerted efforts will aid in creating a new culture of science communication and help resolve the science-society paradox. Many of you may have already begun this process, so please share your experiences with us in the comments section below or on our COMPASS Facebook page!

Ashley Lakoduk explains why we sneeze when we come in contact with sunlight, as part of the Science Policy, Education and Communication (SPEaC) club at UT Southwestern.