Page 73 - Spring2020

Sound Perspectives
L. Keeta Jones
Address:
Acoustical Society of America 1305 Walt Whitman Road Suite 300 Melville, New York 11747-4300 USA
Email:
kjones@acousticalsociety.org
Science Communication Training
In a previous article in Acoustics Today (Jones, 2017), I encouraged all members of the Acoustical Society of America (ASA) to consider doing outreach to promote awareness and understanding of acoustics. I pointed out that doing outreach can be quite simple if one follows a basic outline: choose a topic and outreach style, define your goals as you plan, and work out the logistics of doing outreach, like securing funding and a venue. In this essay, I discuss briefly why outreach requires science communication training and where and how acousticians can develop these skills.
Over the course of their education and work, professionals receive training and education that allows them to communicate with precision to a very specific type of audience: one that already has the requisite background knowledge, such as a colleague or coworker. Therefore, the typical approach in communicating with this audience in conference or meeting settings is to begin with background information and motivation and then conclude with discussions and analysis of results.
However, although this approach can help contextualize and motivate research for colleagues, it clearly is not the best way to educate someone with little to no back- ground in acoustics or, for that matter, in any aspect of a science. Indeed, although
ASA members are highly trained in their field, many receive very little training or practice in science communication for a general audience. Thus, it should come as no surprise that many professionals do not do public science outreach because they don’t know how. Lack of knowledge is an easy hurdle to overcome because public science communication skills can be learned in different ways and they can easily be improved with practice and feedback. The critical point to understand is that communicating science to nonacousticians, whether it is to children, schoolteach- ers, parents, or senior citizens, is very different from presenting research at an ASA meeting. It is also important to appreciate that different audiences require different communication strategies. For example, what works in a formal college classroom generally will not work in more informal, casual settings and, likewise, methods used for children are different from those used for an adult audience.
Overall, interactions with the public should spark interest in learners and encour- age them to do some scientific reasoning and reflection. Ideally, learners should not feel as though they sat in on a college lecture. To understand this better, review the
“strands of science learning” for details about what it means to actually learn science (see ow.ly/7Cz850xMoki). To really spark interest, get the audience to try to solve a problem using similar tools or methods that are used in research. For kids, it can be beneficial to frame this as playing a game or helping solve a mystery. This way, the audience wants to take part and will start off curious. Additionally, they will get a taste of what science can look and feel like. After they start interacting, your job is to guide them through the learning process, weaving in elements of scientific knowledge and practice with effective science communication.
To have a successful outreach activity, sophisticated concepts have to be clearly com- municated. So, just as you received training to be an acoustician, it is no surprise that
©2020 Acoustical Society of America. All rights reserved. volume 16, issue 1 | Spring 2020 | Acoustics Today | 73 https://doi.org/10.1121/AT.2020.16.1.73