News & Blog

Receiving only one nomination for this role, we are delighted to introduce to you the C&E Section’s new Chair-Elect: Dr. Elizabeth Cook. Elizabeth’s nomination is posted below, so you can get to know her better. She will assume the Chair-Elect role in August, when Bob Newman (current chair-elect) transitions into the role of Chairperson and Kirsten Schwarz moves into the…

Recognition of important work matters.  Since our inception, the Communication and Engagement Section has intended to offer awards to recognize the intellectual, scientific, and civic contributions made by ESA members active in public engagement and science communication.  For years, our section has worked toward being able to put money, and the credibility of a professional society, into our efforts to…

We Rep STEM “believe[s] science is for everyone and […]want to celebrate everyone in the field — NOT just the loudest people in the room. This website aims to celebrate STEM minorites — people of colour, professionals with disabilites, members of the LGBTQ community, Indigenous researchers, women of all races, scientists in niche areas of expertise — and everyone in between.”…

This statement was first distributed to our members via our monthly newsletter, issued 3 June 2020. We are posting it here for posterity, and to hold ourselves accountable to continued efforts toward justice and equality in the spheres we have influence. Dear Section Members & Friends, We write to you today in solidarity with and affirmation of our fellow Black…

  C&E Section leadership co-facilitated a discussion around storytelling and misinformation as part of ESA’s Water Cooler series. Follow this link for a list of valuable resources on the intersection of storytelling, emotion, misinformation, and science communication.        

The How We Respond project launched from AAAS includes a report and multimedia stories that highlight the ways U.S. communities are actively and effectively responding to climate change, in particular at the local, state and regional levels, and the critical role of science and scientists in their response. Section members Emily Cloyd (AAAS) and Kika Tuff (Impact Media Lab; former C&E…

C&E Section Member Nyeema Harris is a wildlife ecologist at the University of Michigan. Harris and her colleagues recently published a paper on their camera study in West Africa in Conservation Letters. Harris’s camera survey documented human pressures on mammals in protected areas. It is the first wildlife camera survey in the West African countries of Burkina Faso and Niger….

  From the incomparable writer, Maria Popova, and her wide-ranging, powerful Brain Pickings site, comes a brief, thought-provoking “taxonomy” of the three levels of good science writing. Don’t stop at this article – her site is a treasure trove of big ideas, compelling quotations from science writers renown and obscure, and more.    

  A discussion of the relationship between social science research philosophy, methodology, and methods and conservation, written in response to a Methods in Ecology and Evolution special feature on qualitative methods for conservation. The paper specifically emphasizes the importance of a clear distinction between the reality of qualitative data versus the notion of qualitative methods. Excerpt from the abstract: We start with…

In this article in the journal Natural Sciences Education, faculty from Kansas State University describe a watercolor training assignment that enhanced undergraduate ornithology students’ ability to identify several species of waterfowl.

Last year, we featured two #MySciComm posts by co-founders of Plant Love Stories, and at #ESA2018, we hosted Plant Love Stories at our booth at the Annual Meeting. Now, we’re highlighting a related publication informed by that project: a commentary in the journal Plants, People, Planet (published by the New Phytologist Trust). They write: We have a duty to conserve plants…

ClimateOutreach.org is, according to their website, “Europe’s leading climate change communicators, bridging the gap between research and practice and helping to widen engagement across a broader spectrum of society.” Until August 19, 2019, they are accepting participants for a climate change project to investigate the impacts of training on people’s daily-life conversations about climate change. They provide training, support, reporting mechanisms,…

Jennifer Landin, a scientific illustrator and NC State professor, has launched an online group focused on research on the use of visuals/art in science education. She aims to connect and create a community across the art, communication, science, and education fields. VASE (Visual Arts in Science Education), with the goals of: 1) sharing ideas among researchers and practitioners in an…

The C&E Section’s 2018 annual report was submitted to ESA in July 2019. The report is available for viewing and download on the section reports/bylaws page. You’ll see, as you read the annual report, that there are a number of initiatives and ideas in the works for the next year. Please contact us if you are interested in contributing, time, funding, expertise, or networking…

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…

NOAA has archived a webinar focused on visual communication of research results.  

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…