THE FLIP SIDE OF COMMUNICATING SCIENCE – PREPARING ALL STUDENTS TO PARTICIPATE IN SCIENTIFIC DISCUSSIONS

Natural disasters, dwindling energy reserves, and society's vulnerability to climate change are representative of the hot topics that straddle both science and society. Misunderstandings, misperceptions, and even the misusing of science in addressing these important issues all point to the need for significant improvements in communicating science to government and the public. With this recognition, efforts to improve the efficacy of scientists explaining their work have become a forefront activity of our professional societies, academic institutions, and science-focused government agencies. Clearly improvements in how we, as scientists articulate our work are important, but perhaps as important is developing a community of non-scientists who can participate in the two-way exchange of science information. To address this issue we have instituted several courses that use hot-topic science issues (in our case related to natural hazards) to help students, who are primarily non-science focused, develop an understanding of how science works and importantly how to communicate science concepts and consequences to others. Exploiting the intrinsic interest in natural disasters, the real-time nature of disasters, and the associated misunderstandings and miscommunication, we have developed two courses (one at the intro or GenEd level, the other as an upper division course) that allow students to both explore the causes and consequences of the disasters, and also to develop skills in describing these events and effects to others. By putting these non-science students into the position of explaining their ‘science' to others –in such formats as briefs for members of congress, reports to regional governments, or as participants in public debates – we are helping them to develop skills that will allow them to be full participants in similar discussions throughout their lives. Through a focus on such basic concepts as backing-up arguments, logical links between cause and effect, an accurate representation (even if very simplified) of the physical process, and a measured discussion of societal consequences, we strive to help students develop these skills so that they can be effective players on the two-way street of science communication.