Education and public outreach: communicating science through storytelling

Education and public outreach activities can be challenging for most active scientists, for very good reasons. Allotment of time to participate in outreach activities could be a major challenge. However, when such activities are incorporated into one's academic and research plan, they can be en...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of microbiology & biology education 2024-04, Vol.25 (1), p.e0020923-e0020923
Main Author: Tirumalai, Madhan R
Format: Article
Language:eng
Subjects:
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Education and public outreach activities can be challenging for most active scientists, for very good reasons. Allotment of time to participate in outreach activities could be a major challenge. However, when such activities are incorporated into one's academic and research plan, they can be enriching. Here, the author describes his experience in what began as on one-off participation at an outreach event, leading to a series of speaking events addressing the public at the monthly meetings of several astronomy clubs/societies, observatories, etc. in the states of Texas, Louisiana, New Mexico, and Colorado. They have often involved the use of motifs and characters from popular science fiction, literature, and movies and when possible, getting the audience actively involved in the presentations. Furthermore, the discussions following each presentation have been enriching in terms of getting a broad perspective of the perceptions that people in general have, regarding the origins of life, microbiology, extremophiles, and astrobiology.
ISSN:1935-7877
1935-7885