engaged participants in watching videos created by researchers talking about discovering a new species of ant. Participants were then asked to complete a survey on the videos, presenters and what they thought about the science and researchers involved. The research found that participants trusted science communicated by the scientists themselves, more than science communicated by a third party, such as a science journalist. <\/span><\/p>\nThe study built on research on the effects and effectiveness of scientists using digital communications to talk about their own work. Smith, Ruzi and others have been working on the topic for nearly three years, having published one paper that provided a conceptual framework for the new grant.<\/span><\/p>\nNicole Lee, an assistant professor of communication at Arizona State University, worked on developing the grant and participated in related research while she was an assistant professor in the Department of Communication at NC State. As part of the grant team, she offered a social science perspective and experience to the interdisciplinary team.<\/span><\/p>\n\u201cThis project is important because museum biological collections serve an important role in preserving natural history and facilitating current and future scientific research,\u201d said Lee. \u201cCommunicating this value is important for funding and long-term sustainability. Understanding the most effective communication strategies will help museums allocate their limited resources.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\nThe Importance of Interdisciplinarity<\/h3>\n
Smith\u2019s research team is interdisciplinary. It includes Smith\u2019s video experience, Ruzi\u2019s experience with insect behavior and Lee\u2019s disciplinary knowledge in the study of communication. The science about which the team will be communicating is also interdisciplinary. Increasingly, scientists conduct their studies in teams that no longer fit inside a single academic department or scholarly discipline. <\/span><\/p>\n\u201cWe need to do a better job of engaging the public in the process of science,\u201d Dunn says,\u201d And that includes the complexities of working together in teams. Rarely can big societal challenges <\/span>be solved by a single discipline on its own. Consider the issue of global changes in ecosystems. Comprehensive solutions to pressing issues such as these depend on an understanding of climate, agriculture, human behavior, biodiversity and so much more. Stories about these issues, however, tend to be communicated in a vacuum. Through connecting interdisciplinarity to science communication, scholars can more effectively communicate the complex nature of these challenges.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\nWhat\u2019s In Store<\/h3>\n
Through both the museum-university partnership and the new NSF grant, Smith hopes to be able to positively impact what museums, and more generally, science engagement with the public, will look like and do in the future. The partnership helps put science on display through communicating research in a tangible, accessible way..<\/span><\/p>\n\u201cThis is an active place where science is happening. This features the process \u2014 not just the end product \u2014 of science,\u201d said Smith. \u201cCreative science communication, as is the case with digital media, is like the glass wall here in my office; it is a vehicle through which people can exhibit themselves and their work. In the future, I don\u2019t want it to be just about what you experience in the building, but what you can take home and engage with.\u201d <\/span><\/p>"},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A partnership between NC State and the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences is opening new windows on the world of science communication.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":19466,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"source":"","ncst_custom_author":"","ncst_show_custom_author":false,"ncst_dynamicHeaderBlockName":"ncst\/default-post-header","ncst_dynamicHeaderData":"{\"showAuthor\":true,\"showDate\":true,\"showFeaturedVideo\":false}","ncst_content_audit_freq":"","ncst_content_audit_date":"","_price":"","_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_header":"","_tribe_default_ticket_provider":"","_tribe_ticket_capacity":"0","_ticket_start_date":"","_ticket_end_date":"","_tribe_ticket_show_description":"","_tribe_ticket_show_not_going":false,"_tribe_ticket_use_global_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_global_stock_level":"","_global_stock_mode":"","_global_stock_cap":"","_tribe_rsvp_for_event":"","_tribe_ticket_going_count":"","_tribe_ticket_not_going_count":"","_tribe_tickets_list":"[]","_tribe_ticket_has_attendee_info_fields":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[7,18,25],"tags":[255,293],"class_list":["post-21449","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-faculty-and-staff","category-homepage","category-newswire","tag-_from-newswire-collection-45","tag-office-of-university-interdisciplinary-programs"],"displayCategory":null,"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/provost.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21449","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/provost.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/provost.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/provost.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/provost.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21449"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/provost.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21449\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24667,"href":"https:\/\/provost.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21449\/revisions\/24667"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/provost.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/provost.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21449"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/provost.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21449"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/provost.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21449"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}