Scientists are adept at talking about their research
with peers. But ask them to explain what
they do (and why it's important) to the cashier at the
local grocery store or the mother of four who
lives across the street and they admit to feeling, well,
less than competent.
"The truth is that some of us are better than others
at talking to the general public about our
research," said Jonathan A. Bagger, vice provost for
graduate and postdoctoral programs and special
projects and a professor in the Henry A. Rowland
Department of Physics and Astronomy at Johns
Hopkins' Krieger School of Arts and Sciences. "Being able
to communicate is important, and it's
something we need to work on, for sure."
That's why Bagger was among a handful of Johns Hopkins
scientists and graduate students who
recently collaborated with curators at the Maryland Science
Center to create two exhibits and a
demonstration that elucidate their research to the general
public.
The work was done under the terms of a National
Science Foundation grant called Internship in
Public Science Education, or IPSE for short.
"The objective of the grant is to help researchers
learn how to clearly communicate their
science to a general public audience," said Louise
Pasternack, a senior lecturer in the Department of
Chemistry and coordinator of the IPSE grant. "A secondary
purpose is to create a model for a
sustainable and enduring partnership between Johns Hopkins
and the Maryland Science Center so that
scientists can continue to work on outreach to the
public."
Involved in the grant on Johns Hopkins' end were
Professors Bagger; Alexander Szalay, also
from Physics
and Astronomy; and Gerald Meyer, of the Department of
Chemistry. Physics and
Astronomy grad students Sam Carlisle and Christopher Wells
assisted Szalay and Bagger; Amanda
Fond worked with Meyer. Jordan Raddick, an instructional
designer in Physics and Astronomy, also
worked with Szalay.
Peter Yancone, director of education for the Maryland
Science Center, spearheaded the effort
for the museum.
"Our role was obviously not to do the actual research
but to be interpreters who helped the
Johns Hopkins scientists bring that research to a more
general audience," said Yancone, who
graduated from JHU with a degree in earth and planetary
sciences in 1976.
The first meetings between the Johns Hopkins and
Maryland Science Center teams included
lengthy discussions about each research project and various
ideas exploring the best ways to
communicate those projects. According to JHU's Pasternack,
her team quickly learned that "the
Science Center team was better at coming up with designs
that were appropriate for the museum than
we were! All of us scientists wanted to explain things in
too much detail to be accommodated by the
noise and distractions at the busy Science Center."
Yancone agrees.
"The collaborative process was about editing and
trust," he said. "The researchers had to learn
to trust us to know the audience at the Maryland Science
Center. So they learned that if we said that
visitors found a certain approach too complicated, they
learned to trust that that was true," he said.
"It helped to bring researchers and grad students from
Johns Hopkins here to look at who the
audience is and to see that they would be talking to
schoolchildren or moms pushing strollers. Once
they were here, it was easy for them to quickly see that
the goal of an exhibit or a demonstration is
to capture people's attention, teach them something and
inspire them to learn more in any manner they
choose."
The end results of the many months of meetings and
mutual give-and-take are two exhibits
about astrophysics — a smart-board presentation
called "Mapping the History of the Universe,"
featuring Szalay's work with the Sloan Digital Sky Survey
and the Galaxy Zoo, and "Dark Matters," a
planetarium show that capitalizes on Bagger's research into
particle physics and the astronomical
topics of dark matter and dark energy — as well as a
demonstration about nanotechnology that includes
information about Meyer's work on nanowires and their
possible use in medical science. The
demonstration includes video clips from Johns Hopkins
showing magnetized wires being used to
manipulate and organize cells.
"It's fun to observe kids and families as they watch
the demonstration and it dawns on them
that there is this whole nanoscale world where things don't
behave in the same way that they behave
in our world," Yancone said.
Both exhibits and the demonstration are available to
audiences at the Maryland Science Center,
and the center is working to export the planetarium show to
other museums, science centers and some
colleges as well, Yancone said.
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