Meeting Abstract
With stories of struggle and dramatic breakthroughs, science has unlimited potential to interest the public. However, the challenge of communicating science is not trivial. The prevailing attitude toward the study of math and science is that these subjects are hard and boring. There is an urgent need for credible, trusted voices that communicate science in a way that resonates with the public. Whereas academics incur risks to their credibility and suffer consequences from misconstrued or imprecise statements or perceptions of bias or advocacy made in public settings, the situation is quite different for informal educators. By tapping into a network of informal educators, scientific researchers can gain visibility for their research while sidestepping risks to their credibility. This introduction sets the stage for leveraging partnerships with park rangers, museum docents and designers, zoo and aquarium interpreters who are prepared to interact with the public during hundreds of millions of visits a year; just where science stories are most meaningfully told—in the places where members of the public are open to learning. In this symposium, we look at the skills, strengths, and credibility informal educators bring to the endeavor of communicating science to public audiences and explore what it takes for scientists to work productively with informal educators who can give visibility to their research.
