Greetings:
A critical part of ecological studies is reporting results - not only to other ecologists, but also to public audiences. The National Science Foundation (NSF) has expressed the importance of public engagement through their Broader Impacts requirements for research grants. However, most ecologists receive little training and accrue few academic rewards for transmitting their research results to audiences beyond academia. As one means to shift public engagement from burden to benefit, we founded the Research Academic Program (RAP), whose mission is to provide guidance and rewards to academic ecosystem scientists to link their research to an existing interest, trade, or hobby of a segment of the public in non-academic venues to enhance public engagement and understanding, particularly to environmentally unaware public audiences in non-academic settings (www.researchambassador.com). In 2010, the RAP was awarded a pilot grant from the NSF Ecosystems Program to train a cadre of RAP Fellows to explore ways to communicate their research to non-public audiences that might be receptive to understanding their work and also provide insights to the scientists. We recruited 10 "Research Ambassador Fellows" - junior and senior scientists from large public universities and small private liberal arts colleges. Their research topics included climate change, denitrification, forest dynamics, harmful algal blooms, and secondary plant compounds. They received long-distance training electronically, and also carried out three days of intensive training at the Evergreen State College where they gained experience in speaking to audiences that included prisoners, faith-based groups, shellfish farmers, senior citizens, pre-school toddlers, and ski resort owners. To both reflect upon and disseminate our work so far, we have organized a Special Session at the upcoming ESA meeting, in which the RAP Fellows will describe their experiences and discuss the rewards and benefits of such work. We will also develop ideas for the next steps for the RAP, which we anticipate will take the form of an NSF grant renewal in early 2012. We invite you to join us at the Special Session at the ESA meeting to learn more about and contribute ideas to this program. ESA Special Session Plan of Action Title: SS #6954:"Outreach as Burden or Benefit: Scientists Reflect and Describe their Experiences as Research Ambassador Fellows" Time: Monday, August 8, 2011 10:00 AM - 11:30 AM Location: TBD Organizer: Nalini Nadkarni ([email protected]) Agenda ยท 10:00 AM Welcome and Summary of the Research Ambassador Program (RAP) * 10:15 AM Round-Table of Fellows Challenges and benefits of RAP from Fellows' perspectives: What are challenges you faced as you participated in the RAP? What were some of the benefits of participating in the RAP? What outreach activities have you done since participating in the Fellowship? * 10:45 AM Emerging issues: Fellows and all Workshop participants discuss: How can institutions augment public engagement efforts by scientists? How can individual scientists augment public engagement efforts of their institutions? Can public engagement be viewed as a benefit rather than a burden by academics? What are the next steps for the RAP? * 11:10 AM Open Questions Audience * 11:30-12:30 Informal post-workshop follow-up with Fellows and others Please respond to: Nalini M. Nadkarni, Ph.D. Member of the Faculty President, International Canopy Network The Evergreen State College 2700 Evergreen Parkway NW, Lab II Olympia, Washington 98505 (360) 867-6621 www.evergreen.edu/ican www.researchambassador.com www.sustainableprisons.org www.nalininadkarni.com http://www.ucpress.edu/books/pages/10606.html
