Science Outreach: How to Increase the Impact of Your WorkAlexandra Colón-Rodríguez1 & A. Ayanna Wade2

1Genome Center, 2Center for Neuroscience, University of California, Davis, CA, USA

Project Goals

• For attendees to learn about different forms of outreach, how they can get

involved, and the impact it can have on their careers, the community, or other

target populations

• Empower attendees to start an event, write a blog, make a video, become active

on social media, or come up with their own unique way to get involved

Workshop Summary

Part 1 (9:00 am - 12:30 pm) was a presentation from experts on the impact of

outreach and steps towards developing effective events or science communication

including feedback from personal experiences. This part ended with a panel

discussion with the speakers to address additional audience questions.

Speakers:

o Hannah Nelson, PhD Candidate (K-12 Outreach)

o Verónica Martínez-Cerdeño, PhD (K-12/Community Outreach)

o Efraín E. Rivera Serrano, PhD (Science Communication)

o Ayanna Wade, PhD Candidate (K-12 Outreach)

o Mónica Feliú-Mójer, PhD (Science Communication)

Key K-12/Community Outreach Take-Aways:

o Clarify your goals before you get started and as you plan

o Tailor events to your audience

o Word about great events spreads like wildfire

o Less is more; focus on meaningful interaction not facts

o Make sure your activities are active

o Don’t reinvent the wheel; ask others at Davis for help or ideas

Key Sci Comm Take-Aways:

o Promoting your work on social media (Twitter) can help

o Obtain career assistance (jobs and/or collaborations)

o Increase your research network

o Keep up with literature

o Engage with conference attendees

o We should use our stories to change narratives. This can be done through social

media, podcast, videos and or other media platforms such as scientific and

mainstream magazines.

Part 2 (12:45 pm – 2:00 pm) was a collaborative brainstorming exercise for

attendees to come up with ideas for their own outreach events. Some groups even

helped develop actual upcoming events! This part ended with a group discussion of

ideas for additional feedback. (See pictures to the right.)

Part 3 (2:00 pm and onward) began with a presentation on how to seek funding

and resources from departments and organizations and ended with a networking

session amongst workshop attendees.

Acknowledgements

• We would like to thank Teresa Dillinger and Ellen Hartigan-O’Connor for their advice and support as a

part of the PFTF program.

• We also would like to thank Ingrid Behrsin and the Office of Public Scholarship and Engagement for their

financial support and guidance.

• Finally, we would like to thank all the speakers and workshop attendees.

What attendees wanted:

• “Learning how to perform STEM outreach”

• “Skills to create a cost-efficient [and] effective outreach event”

• “How to effectively use social medial platforms to increase science literacy &

highlight URM scientists”

• “Ideas of how to present my research to non-scientific audience”

• “Clever ideas of how I could participate in science outreach”

• “Learn different avenues for outreach”

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BiochemistryBotanyCommunication/MarketingEcologyEducationEngineeringGenetics/GenomicsGeoscienceMolecular, Cellular, & Integrative PhysiologyMicrobiologyNeurosciencePharmacologyPlanetary SciencePlant Science

YesLittle/MaybeNo

How confident is your understanding of what outreach is?

How much do you value the idea of outreach?

Please rate your overall level of satisfaction

Please rate your level of satisfaction with Part 1

Please rate your level of satisfaction with Part 2

Please rate your level of satisfaction with Part 3

How likely are you to create your own outreach event?

How likely are you to volunteer for an outreach event?

I feel confident that I could participate in an outreach event.

I feel confident that I could create and lead an outreach event.

My knowledge about outreach and outreach resources has increased.

I will be able to use what I learned in this workshop toward performing outreach.

* Rated from 1 (Low) to 5 (High)

*Rated from 1 (Not at all) to (Yes!)

• Many different attendee disciplines

• Many attendees familiar with outreach, but

mentioned learned something new!

• Improvement suggestions mostly from

unfamiliar attendees

Top left: Workshop participants listening to a speaker presentation from Part 1. Top right, middle:

Workshop participants work in small groups in Part 2. Bottom left, bottom middle: Sample notes from Part

2. Bottom right: Screen capture of the handbook created from previous experience, research on performing

outreach, and information learned during the outreach workshop.

What went well for attendees:

• “The panel and hearing [about] outreach activity on campus”

• “Learning the details and work needed to prepare for outreach event”

• “The breakout session”

• “Seeing the different sub-specialties of outreach and sci comm”

• “Learning to focus on audience and define a goal”

• “[Hearing] how to build a following on social media”

• “Learning that there is a concept of ‘science communication’”

• “Learning how to formulate your story, cater to values”

• “I enjoyed this workshop & learned exactly what I came for. Thank you!”

• “Great program; refreshing to see”

• We created a hashtag (#UCDavisSciComm) on Twitter that was used to share

all the content of the workshop and it was a success!

What we could do better next time:

• “The breakout session could be longer or allow time to participate in multiple sessions”

• “A wider range/more general science topics for outreach”

• “Small group specialties to be able to use everyone else’s background and specialties”

• “Maybe split the workshop into 2 days so that it was easier to attend. It was hard to have

almost a full day off”

• “Pre-designed scenarios [for the brainstorming]?”

Attendee Demographics Attendee Survey Results