Developing Key Skills as a Science Communicator: Case Studies of Two Scientist-Led Outreach Programmes

Geosciences

Samuel M. Illingworth²  Heidi A. Roop¹ 

[1] Antarctic Research Centre, Victoria University of Wellington, Wellington 6140, New Zealand;School of Research, Enterprise and Innovation, Manchester Metropolitan University, Chester Street, Manchester M1 5GD, UK

关键词: education;    outreach;    classroom;    scientific training;    learning experience;   

DOI  :  10.3390/geosciences5010002

来源: mdpi

【 摘 要 】

Outreach by scientific researchers in school classrooms often results in widespread benefit for learners, classroom teachers and researchers. This paper presents a consideration of these benefits using two case studies in the Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences (GEES). In each case, different school classroom-based activities were designed by scientists, but were improved by input from educational professionals, which helped to maximize the mutual learning experiences and to ensure the quality of the content and its delivery. Each case study suggests an improvement in scientist’s working knowledge of best practices for classroom-based outreach activities, which can translate to improved practices for University-level teaching, among other tangible career-relevant benefits. Despite these benefits, these projects highlight the well-established need for improved training for researchers in effective outreach practices, increased value on programme evaluation, and the growing need for meaningful professional recognition for researchers involved in these important, and ever-growing, outreach activities.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© 2015 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.