Welcome to Week One of the SciFund Challenge outreach training class! With this class, we have two goals. One: to build outreach skill levels. Two: to build a sense of community among class participants. So let’s get started with both!
For this week, we’ll be diving into the opportunities and pitfalls that outreach presents for scientists. We’ll also get started with Twitter and video.
The first SciFund Challenge outreach training class starts next week and we are excited! For those of you following along at home, here’s our syllabus.
SciFund Challenge Course One: Outreach 101
Course instructors: Jai Ranganathan (Co-founder, SciFund Challenge), Anthony Salvagno (University of New Mexico), Kelly Weinersmith (University of California, Davis), Siouxsie Wiles (University of Auckland)
Course dates: April 29-May 31, 2013
A few days ago, Ethan Perlstein provided some guidance over at the Microryza blog about how to succeed at science crowdfunding. His bottom line? The secret is to hustle, hustle, hustle during a crowdfunding campaign to get the word out and to get media attention. With all respect to Ethan, if all researchers running campaigns follow his advice, then that’s the end for science crowdfunding. And that would be a tragedy because science crowdfunding has the potential to solve one of the key problems of our time: the giant gap between science and society.
UPDATE (APRIL 9): Registration for our class has closed early. We have received 170 applications in less than a week (way more than we expected) and we want to make sure that we don’t have more course participants than we can handle. We have more outreach training classes coming over the next few months and you can sign up for our e-mail list to keep informed.
Hey Scientist!
Itching to tell the public about your science? At a time of slashing cuts to science funding, maybe you want to explain to the public why your field deserves public support. Maybe you want to set the record straight about misconceptions the public holds about your field (here’s looking at you, evolutionary biologists). Or maybe you just want to finally be able to explain to your friends and family what it is you actually do at work.
But how do you, dear scientist, get started with your outreach? After all, very few researchers have any experience or training in connecting the public with their science. That’s where SciFund Challenge comes in.
Join the SciFund Challenge community for our first online course aimed at helping scientists get started with outreach. Over 5 weeks, we’ll demystify the business of communicating science and equip you with the tools and confidence you need to get started.
