{"id":1606,"date":"2017-04-05T07:10:03","date_gmt":"2017-04-05T13:10:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/advancingecocomm.wordpress.com\/?p=1606"},"modified":"2017-04-05T07:10:03","modified_gmt":"2017-04-05T13:10:03","slug":"myscicomm-megan-litwhiler","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/esa.org\/communication-engagement\/2017\/04\/05\/myscicomm-megan-litwhiler\/","title":{"rendered":"#MySciComm: Megan Litwhiler on museums as a stepping stone to scicomm"},"content":{"rendered":"

This week, Megan Litwhiler\u00a0responds to the #MySciComm questions!<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Megan

Megan birding at Reserva Ecologica (Buenos Aries); image courtesy of Megan Litwhiler<\/p><\/div>\n

Megan\u00a0is a scientist turned science communicator. After finishing her PhD in bird ecology, and a brief stint at Harvard\u2019s Arnold Arboretum, Megan moved on to her current role as a Research Communications Associate at the Museum of Science in Boston. When she\u2019s not science communicating, she\u2019s hanging with her daughter or birding \u2013 preferably both at the same time. Connect with her online\u00a0@MegClock<\/a>\u00a0and the SciFund Challenge\u2019s EcoTome blog<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The #MySciComm series features a host of SciComm professionals. We\u2019re looking for more contributors<\/a>, so please get in touch<\/a> if you\u2019d like to write a post!<\/em><\/p>\n

\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014-<\/p>\n

Okay, Megan\u2026<\/span><\/h4>\n

1) How did you get into the kind of SciComm that you do?<\/span><\/h4>\n

I\u2019m an ecologist by training, but I\u2019ll talk your ear off about any kind of science<\/strong> <\/span>
\n<\/p>\n

While I was working on my PhD, I discovered that scientists aren\u2019t always that deft at explaining science, at least not to those outside of their specific discipline.\u00a0<\/span>By the time I finished my PhD, I realized how big of an issue this was in terms of integrating science and society, and I wanted to do something about it. <\/span><\/p>\n

But transitioning from scientist to science communicator wasn\u2019t easy. <\/strong><\/p>\n

I was used to communicating with my peers,<\/strong> but like most scientists, I was self-taught in terms of broader communication. \u201cWell,\u201d I thought, \u201cI needed training to become a scientist, now I need some sci comm training.\u201d So I did \u2013 online classes, workshops, <\/span>blogging<\/span><\/a>, whatever I could get my hands on. <\/span><\/p>\n

All that training helped me land an awesome job<\/strong> at the Museum of Science in Boston. Now, I bring the work of some amazing scientists to our museum visitors in the form of presentations, <\/span>podcasts<\/span><\/a>, and hands-on activities. We also train <\/span>scientists<\/span><\/a> to share their work with broader audiences. <\/span><\/p>\n

Basically, I get to talk about science for a living! \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

2) What are your top 3 SciComm tips and\/or resources?<\/span><\/h4>\n

1.\u00a0<\/strong>Every science communication professional will tell you this, but it\u2019s worth repeating \u2013 training, training, training! <\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

There\u2019s a growing number of resources aimed at different sci comm needs and goals. Check out <\/span>COMPASS<\/span><\/a>, <\/span>AAAS<\/span><\/a>, <\/span>AGU Sharing Science<\/span><\/a>, <\/span>Portal to the Public, <\/span><\/a>ComSciCon<\/span><\/a>, <\/span>MIT\u2019s Knight Science Journalism program,<\/span><\/a> and more. I started out with <\/span>#SciFund Challenge<\/span><\/a>. They have awesome (and free!) online training courses.<\/span><\/p>\n

2. Consider attending the AAAS annual meeting.<\/strong> <\/span><\/p>\n

I went this past February as a consultant for the <\/span>Presentation Rx Clinic<\/span><\/a>, but I also took in as much of the meeting as I could. It was a great experience. Understanding the science of science communication is essential in developing best practices, and the AAAS meeting is where you\u2019ll find it in <\/span>abundance.<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

3. Go to a museum!<\/strong> <\/span><\/p>\n

If you\u2019re an #actuallivingscientist interested in outreach opportunities, museums can be your outlet. At the Museum of Science, we partner with current scientists and research centers to help them reach their broader impact goals by sharing their work with museum <\/span>visitors<\/span><\/a> and <\/span>beyond<\/span><\/a>. <\/span><\/p>\n

If you\u2019re looking for a job in sci comm, you might be as surprised as I was by the opportunities museums can offer. I thought museums just produced exhibits on broad topics, but there\u2019s so much more \u2013 like <\/span>this<\/span><\/a> and <\/span>this<\/span><\/a>! And I discovered that many of my museum colleagues came from academia, just like me.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This week, Megan Litwhiler\u00a0responds to the #MySciComm questions! Megan\u00a0is a scientist turned science communicator. After finishing her PhD in bird ecology, and a brief stint at Harvard\u2019s Arnold Arboretum, Megan moved on to her current role as a Research Communications Associate at the Museum of Science in Boston. When she\u2019s not science communicating, she\u2019s hanging with her daughter or birding…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5470,"featured_media":1643,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,2,16,17],"tags":[53,62,81,87,113,115,117,150],"class_list":["post-1606","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-myscicomm","category-news-blog-scicomm-by-scientists","category-resources","category-scicomm-2","tag-blog-post","tag-contributed-post","tag-handy-links","tag-inspiration","tag-resource","tag-resources-2","tag-scicomm","tag-transition-to-scicomm-career"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/communication-engagement\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1606","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/communication-engagement\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/communication-engagement\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/communication-engagement\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5470"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/communication-engagement\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1606"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/communication-engagement\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1606\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/communication-engagement\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1643"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/communication-engagement\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1606"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/communication-engagement\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1606"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esa.org\/communication-engagement\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1606"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}