handy links

LSU’s Science Communication Specialist, Dr. Paige Jarreau, shares advice about using social media in the classroom. Excerpt: “In college classrooms, faculty of all fields try to find new ways to engage students and help them gain more experience communicating in the science world. Some of them turn to social media. Science Communication Specialist for LSU College of Science Dr. Paige Jarreau utilizes…

Excerpts from www.tolerance.org: “Our mission is to help teachers and schools educate children and youth to be active participants in a diverse democracy.” Free resources include: Workshops Trainings Facilitator Guides Self-Guided Learning Webinars Podcasts “Teaching Tolerance provides free resources to educators—teachers, administrators, counselors and other practitioners—who work with children from kindergarten through high school. Educators use our materials to supplement the…

A thought-provoking take on the synergy between activism and technical proficiency from theoretical physicist Dr. Chanda Prescod-Weinstein. Spoiler alert, she writes, “While often necessary, [activism] is not a substitute for technical proficiency. Dr. Prescod-Weinstein is an American cosmologist, science writer and equality activist based at the University of New Hampshire. In addition to major work with NASA, FQXI and more, she maintains…

In recognition of #NationalIndigenousPeoplesDay, we’re sharing this Decolonising STEM Reading List from theoretical physicist Dr. Chanda Prescod-Weinstein provides a powerful, necessary deep-look into the history and current practices of science and the relationship of science to oppression, colonialism, and more. Dr. Prescod-Weinstein recommends starting your reading with “Making Meaning of ‘Decolonizing’” to fully understand the context in which she situates her…

It is Pride Month! Here are a few resources on representation, inclusion, and intersectionality with science. Stay tuned for more in our Resource of the Week series*, as the month progresses. As always, we’d love to hear your recommendations on additional resources to share in the series. LGBTQ+ STEM DAY “LGBTQ+ people in science, technology, engineering, and maths (STEM) continue…

  According to their website, “myIDP provides: Exercises to help you examine your skills, interests, and values A list of 20 scientific career paths with a prediction of which ones best fit your skills and interests A tool for setting strategic goals for the coming year, with optional reminders to keep you on track Articles and resources to guide you…

  Artist Mike O’Brien shares the drawing resource that has been most impactful for enhancing his ability to draw people. Read through the comments for trouble-shooting tips, if you have issues downloading the files in the linked-to article.

In their article in American Psychologist, Drs. Kathryn J. Holland, Lilia M. Cortina, and Jennifer J. Freyd take a close, critical look at the beneficial assumptions embedded in university and college compelled disclosure policies and practices.  

A thought-provoking piece in Facets. What do you think?

The University of Michigan’s Career Center and Head-Heart-Hands provide resources on how to plan a career change in three stages (HHH) and how to talk about transferable skills developed during a PhD (UMCC).

Numerous articles, resources, podcasts, and whole ventures (e.g., StoryCorps; The Moth) address key aspects of narrative and storytelling that are valuable (even essential) for sharing science. See the following articles for a few we find particularly helpful, insightful, or thought-provoking. These resources may change how you do things and/or provide you with useful citations to justify how you tell science…

Carolyn Trietsch writes in Science about the significant role that regular craft-making has assumed in her entomology department at Pennsylvania State University-University Park. The article points to valuable benefits including transdisciplinary collaborations and networking across labs, art-based science communication and outreach, and entomological collections curation.

Effective November 2018, The Bulletin of the Ecological Society of America will accept submissions for consideration in a new section dedicated to Communicating Science. All articles published in the series are free to publish and freely available via open access. This new space in the journal provides ESA members interested in communication and engagement a platform for publishing articles on…

New Web Articles on National Parks in the History of Science National parks in the United States have hosted some of the most significant and influential research projects in ecology and other fields. Many of those studies have launched new lines of inquiry, revealed new taxa, informed foundational ideas in a variety of disciplines, provided “real-world” complements to laboratory studies,…

The Intergroup Dialogue Project website indicates that IDP was founded as a series of undergraduate-focused courses and resources at Cornell University (2012). By 2016, IDP had developed “the first and only graduate and postdoc dialogue program in the country.” Beyond the programs and courses IDP offers at Cornell, they provide an overview of their core tool, the LARA Method: Listen,…

In this article in Nature Biotechnology, Maximiliaan Schillebeeckx, Brett Maricque, and Cory Lewis detail: The limited availability of academic positions vs number of PhDs granted per year; What a group of PhD students and postdocs at Washington University-St. Louis are doing to expand their training and career options in light of the academic job market. Broadly, the authors call for grassroots…

According to Tracey L. Weissgerber, Natasa M. Milic, Stacey J. Winham, and Vesna D. Garovic, proper representation of small data sets and sample sizes allows accurate interpretation. Doing so, they assert, requires displaying continuous data. But, they write, “Most papers presented continuous data in bar and line graphs. This is problematic, as many different data distributions can lead to the same…