Yesterday I got the courage to actually wander my way up to the astronomy, physics and geology floor of my local university. I was visiting a friend at the uni cafe, and I thought, why not? Especially since I had a friend to boost my confidence.
Now, I'm not in STEM or any advanced academics, I'm going back to college sometime soon, media. Though, I do have relatives in STEM, or so my mother says, my grandfather also did work at the university, as a prof and living close by it, I've always felt a sort of, long distance relationship with academics and STEM, I guess.
Sometimes I wonder if I could have gone into STEM, I did almost go into psychology, but realized I liked making media a lot better, but maybe I could have been a scientist, I could have gotten accommodations for my dyscalculia, but honestly, I think at the end of the day I prefer to reap the results of the work done in STEM, than work in STEM itself...
That being said, I still can't help but wade ever deeper out of my depth into the fields of STEM, such as, most recently, astronomy, with some physics, quantum physics, now and again.
I feel like it's this odd mix of imposter syndrome, and the aforementioned long distance relationship with academics, where walking those halls, seeing the minerals and fossils lining the walls, the posters, long bleached by decades of sunshine filtering in from those windows, the names of brilliant minds lining the walls... I'd been on that floor before, a long time ago, when I was still so very small, but in that moment, I felt my passion for science and space so much more vividly, like it was a dream, but now, lucid and it's rooted in reality with me.
I'd always known this section of the university existed, but it was like seeing someone you idolize in the flesh, they become much more real, and in those halls, I felt like my passion was real, even if I don't have the credentials or degree to do anything tangible with that passion, beyond passive fan-girling for the field, I have nothing to contribute, compared to the people in the classrooms, labs, offices...
And this is where the imposter syndrome sort of feeling really sets in...
I'm afraid to approach and try talking to these people, the scientists, the experts, the real academics, whatever label applies to them, I'm afraid I'll come off as annoying or disruptive.
Though, I try to recall this post as a counter argument to that fear and doubt...
I still can't help but feel so out of place, so nervous... I don't want to step on anyone's toes...
While the campus may be more or less public, it took me so long to wander those halls because I know I don't exactly... Belong there...
Before that, I'd been to the library several times, and that still took some nerve to step foot there, my favourite book is the Cambridge Dictionary of Astronomy I'm slowly chipping away at, letter by letter, yet, despite that endeavour, it's like teaching a monkey sign language, I can only parrot what I've learned to a limited degree, I can't actually discuss the deeper, complex concepts beneath the surface.
I'm out of my depth, and I can't stop myself from wading in deeper, despite knowing I can only go so far.
Skype a Scientist matches scientists with classrooms around the world! We want to give students the opportunity to get to know a “real scientist”. This program allows us to reach students from all over the world without having to leave the lab!
Skype a Scientist is such an awesome idea... perhaps there can be a Skype a critical urban planner.
Discovered via the “my naem is skwid” poem, inspired by squid biologist Sarah McAnulty’s post on brave and not so brave squids.
I’m a librarian or someone who wants to Skype a scientist with a group of adults. Is that okay?
Absolutely! Signing up as a group of adults is an option on the form :)
Do you have scientists that speak other languages?
Yes! There’s a way to indicate the language you'd like your session to be held in on the form.
Last semester I worked with the BEST scientist- can I work with them again?
If they signed up again, we’ll try to match you. There is a box on the sign up form for teachers to write in the specific scientist you want to work with.
I would like to have a Skype A Scientist in my after school program/club. Is that okay?
That is totally okay! Many scientists are more free after school hours than before. Just talk to your scientist to set that up.
"The truth is that environmental monitoring is difficult. Public Lab tries to offer cheap alternatives, but regulatory agencies like the EPA have very strict standards when it comes to equipment and how it's used. There's a lot of money at stake, so regulatory bodies need bulletproof data before they can issue fines or shut a facility down. Lippincott understands the need for rigorous scientific standards. An EPA field worker has been trained to follow strict guidelines when collecting data to avoid sample contamination, just as lab workers are trained to process samples cleanly. That's why he's working on creating a system of documenting monitoring operations for citizen scientists that mirror professional standards. "How do we set up systems where we have actual data verification?" he says. "A video record of someone calibrating a piece of equipment, photographic evidence of the field collection procedure." The EPA isn't ready to accept just anyone's spreadsheet of data but they are working with community groups, such as a pilot program in Newark, NJ, by providing volunteers with their own air monitors to measure nitrogen dioxide and fine particulate matter. Environmentalists all seem to see value in citizen science, but the framework for how that can one day work in concert with regulatory agencies is just now being sketched out."
Enabling youth to interrogate and denaturalize the conditions of their everyday oppression inspires a process of community and knowledge building. As Paulo Freire (1982) eloquently argued, “the silenced are not just incidental to the curiosity of the researcher but are the masters of inquiry into the underlying causes of the events in their world. In this context research becomes a means of moving them beyond silence into a quest to proclaim the world.” Repositioning youth as researchers rather than the “researched” shifts the practice of researching “on youth” to “with youth”–a position that stands in sharp contrast to the current neo-liberal constructions of youth as dangerous, disengaged, blind consumers who lack any type of connection. Frustrated, alienated and angry survivors of discrimination mature into active policy critics and agents engaged in conversation, confrontation and reform. Legitimating democratic inquiry within institutions as well as outside,
The Public Science Project. A Brief History of the Public Science Project
When the barometer drops, the hyperbole rises, and meteorologists aren’t happy about it.
Loathe as I am to agree with anything the Grey Lady prints these days (quality and internal ethics have really gone downhill), I do have to meteorologically agree with some of the article: using copious amounts of techno-jargon does not impress the audience. It turns them off, and an opportunity to help more people understand science is lost. Inviting the audience along, offering to explain what the situation is without trying to bowl them over with how erudite you may be is what I've found to be the most well received work for science journalists, or scientists, in general. Use the scientific terms, yes, but *explain why they matter* in a particular situation. Throwing in N+1 amounts of science-speak (to me, at least) says someone is trying to impress rather than offer to educate.
Hi citizen science is absolutely fantastic. Technically, it’s a very young field, but that’s only because of the way that science is formatted and structured now - though even before it was about these funded fields of study and exclusive, niche research done only by academics, you still had to be rich (for the most part) if you wanted to get anything done on your own terms.
Public science (or citizen science) is looked down on for letting amateurs participate, guide, or even form and control the entirety of projects and research - but nothing quite screams the future of science and collective action quite like this.
Take the Philly Unleaded Project, for example:
In the winter of 2015, “Jonathan King and Tony Spagnoli – a patent attorney and an urban planner, respectively – launched the Philly Unleaded Project, a not-for-profit organization that provides kits to Philadelphia residents who would like to test their water independently of the Philadelphia Water Department (PWD). They launched their organization as the city council began to investigate how the PWD instructed residents to test their own water supplies, amid concerns that these instructions do not provide accurate measures of lead levels. The PWD now faces a class-action lawsuit over these testing methodologies and other allegations.”
