Did you know that attending workshops for your own or your students' professional development is an acceptable way to address the broader impacts of your research?

From time to time, COSEE-NE will provide professional development workshops for scientists like the one described below.

 

Telling Your Story

In January and September of 2004, scientists gathered at WHOI for a workshop entitled Telling Your Story: How to Survive a Classroom Visit. The workshop offered the scientists an opportunity to learn from educators how to talk to K-12 students about their work. The workshop was organized by TERC, a non-profit education research and development group from Cambridge, Mass and COSEE-NE collaborator.

The workshop covered a range of issues from planning with teachers before the visit to how to handle an inappropriate question from a student. A concept mapping exercise helped the scientists think about planning their presentations and targeting them to audiences of different ages. The discussion then focused on the visits themselves and how the scientists could best “tell their stories.” For example, the facilitators encouraged the scientists to talk a little bit about themselves and how they decided to become scientists. They discussed the importance of hooking the audiences early, staying on message, using visuals, and placing their talks in a larger context. The facilitators reminded the scientists that the best communicators are great storytellers, and that the scientists should strive to shape their talks into good stories.

Click here for information on outcomes of the Telling Your Story workshop.