On Thursday, July 23rd, I gave a talk to ~60 Science Librarians across the country. This talk was a reflection on my experience taking a graduate course in the spring called “Public Engagement with Science” and was a way to inform fellow librarians on how they can make public engagement activities more intentional and meaningful. The final project of the course was to accomplish a public engagement with science activity in conjunction with a community partner drawing on the theoretical framework developed throughout the semester. My group worked with the Cincinnati Nature Center to host a poster contest that was in line with the mission of the Nature Center by aiming to increase awareness of the importance of native plants in the local ecology and to encourage people in the community to plant native plants.
I focused on ways the Center for Public Engagement with Science at the University of Cincinnati is working with community partners to engage in more intentional and informed science engagement activities. I discussed the process of working with community partners, the philosophy of public engagement that motivated our interactions and activity, the project we implemented including the development of relevant learning standards and a grading rubric, and shared some of the winning submissions.
If anyone would like to discuss my talk, my experience in the course, or see my slides, please email me at mark.chalmers@uc.edu.
