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Title: Strategies for Scientists to Communicate Volcanic Hazard to the Public when Threat of Eruption is Low
Many studies focus on the best way to communicate volcanic information during a crisis event. Because of the urgency during crisis, many of crisis communication studies find that the issues that arise during volcanic crises can often be mitigated during the ‘quiet times’ between eruptions. This project addresses how to engage the population near a volcano that is in this period of quiescence. The goal is to synthesize peer-reviewed research that investigates volcano hazard communication when the threat of eruption is low. By doing this, we will provide scientists and others working with the public recommendations for communication materials. This synthesis will offer suggestions from the academic literature for effectively engaging the public in communication about volcanos, what content messages could include, and what mediums are available to reach different audiences. These recommendations are intended to provide a baseline for scientists to think about the multiple ways to engage with the variety of audiences that live around their volcano of study; they are not intended to be a rigid formula that applies to every population. We have systematically gathered peer reviewed articles from Web of Science, Georef, and Google Scholar, using specific search terms generated through consultation with a University of Oregon librarian. Through the use of specific exclusion criteria, we have narrowed down the 330 resulting papers to a final list of 34 studies that provide suggestions on volcano communications during periods of quiescence. This project will use the advice found in these studies to create a reference for scientists as they create communication materials to disseminate to the public regarding a volcano. The results found include different mediums, such as virtual reality, hazard maps, films, social media, and various online tools that a scientist can utilize to convey their findings. There are also recommendations for different audiences, such as tourists, children, rural communities, and indigenous populations. By synthesizing the findings of these studies into a single document for a scientist to reference, we can help scientists to best engage the public in learning about a volcano during quiescence. more »« less
Obiorah, Mmachi God'sglory; Hammerman, James K.; Rother, Becky; Granger, Will; West, Haley Margaret; Horn, Michael; Trouille, Laura
(, CHI '21: Proceedings of the 2021 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems)
null
(Ed.)
Scientists have long sought to engage public audiences in research through citizen science projects such as biological surveys or distributed data collection. Recent online platforms have expanded the scope of what people-powered research can mean. Science museums are unique cultural institutions that translate scientific discovery for public audiences, while conducting research of their own. This makes museums compelling sites for engaging audiences directly in scientific research, but there are associated challenges as well. This project engages public audiences in contributing to real research as part of their visit to a museum. We present the design and evaluation of U!Scientist, an interactive multi-person tabletop exhibit based on the online Zooniverse project, Galaxy Zoo. We installed U!Scientist in a planetarium and collected video, computer logs, naturalistic observations, and surveys with visitors. Our findings demonstrate the potential of exhibits to engage new audiences in collaborative scientific discussions as part of people-powered research.
Lachlan, Kenneth A; DiCairano, James; Spence, Patric R
(, Progress in Disaster Science)
Recent research in crisis and risk communication has examined information seeking preferences across varying audiences in the time leading up to natural disasters. Such an understanding is critical for targeting risk information messages such that they will have the maximum intended impact on those seeking to take protective actions. Until recently, these studies have largely ignored the relative importance of mediated sources alongside community groups and other grassroots organizations. To that end, the current study surveyed 1030 Florida residents in the aftermath of 2022’s Hurricane Ian in the United States. In addition to replicating past findings concerning media preferences across the demographic spectrum, the current study offers evidence that marginalized and at-risk communities may be especially reliant on community resources for information about protective actions concerning an environmental hazard. The findings are discussed in terms of their implications for crisis communication researchers and emergency managers alike.
Slater, Matthew H.; Scholfield, Emily R.
(, Philosophy of Science)
The COVID-19 pandemic and global climate change crisis remind us that widespread trust in the products of the scientific enterprise is vital to the health and safety of the global community. Insofar as appropriate responses to these (and other) crises require us to trust that enterprise, cultivating a healthier trust relationship between science and the public may be considered as a collective public good. While it might appear that scientists can contribute to this good by taking more initiative to communicate their work to public audiences, we raise a concern about unintended consequences of an individualistic approach to such communication.
Citizen science programs offer opportunities for K-12 students to engage in authentic science inquiry. However, these programs often fall short of including learners as agents in the entire process, and thus contrast with the growing open science movement within scientific communities. Notably, study ideation and peer review, which are central to the making of science, are typically reserved for professional scientists. This study describes the implementation of an open science curriculum that engages high school students in a full cycle of scientific inquiry. We explored the focus and quality of students’ study designs and peer reviews, and their perceptions of open science based on their participation in the program. Specifically, we implemented a human brain and behavior citizen science unit in 6 classrooms across 3 high schools. After learning about open science and citizen science, students (N = 104) participated in scientist-initiated research studies, and then collaboratively proposed their own studies to investigate personally interesting questions about human behavior and the brain. Students then peer reviewed proposals of students from other schools. Based on a qualitative and quantitative analysis of students’ artifacts created in-unit and on a pre and posttest, we describe their interests, abilities, and self-reported experiences with study design and peer review. Our findings suggest that participation in open science in a human brain and behavior research context can engage students with critical aspects of experiment design, as well as with issues that are unique to human subjects research, such as research ethics. Meanwhile, the quality of students’ study designs and reviews changed in notable, but mixed, ways: While students improved in justifying the importance of research studies, they did not improve in their abilities to align methods to their research questions. In terms of peer review, students generally reported that their peers' feedback was helpful, but our analysis showed that student reviewers struggled to articulate concrete recommendations for improvement. In light of these findings, we discuss the need for curricula that support the development of research and review abilities by building on students’ interests, while also guiding students in transferring these abilities across a range of research foci.
Ballen, C. J.; Beatty, A. E.; Granados, E.
(, CourseSource)
The demographic representation of scientists featured in biology curricular materials do not match that of the undergraduate biology student population or of the U.S. population. In this lesson, we promote awareness of inequity in science through an exercise that encourages students to think about who is depicted as scientists in science curricular materials – specifically, biology textbooks. After a brief lecture on the scientific method, students read an excerpt from the introduction of a peer-reviewed publication that provides background information on the importance of representation in science. Next, students collect data from their own biology textbook about the representation of scientists who possess different identities and make a table depicting their results. Then, students fill in predictive graphs about demographic representation over time with respect to scientist identities including gender and race/ethnicity. Students compare their predictions with the results from the peer-reviewed article and discuss the implications of the results. Finally, students apply their new knowledge by designing an experiment that would examine representation of an alternative scientist identity, such as age. Students conclude by answering questions that gauge their knowledge of the scientific method. This activity uses a peer-reviewed publication as well as authentic data generated by the student to increase ideological awareness and teach societal influences on the process of science.
Hufstetler, Rebeckah, Smith, Hollie M, Hooft, Emilie EE, and Walton, Dean. Strategies for Scientists to Communicate Volcanic Hazard to the Public when Threat of Eruption is Low. Retrieved from https://par.nsf.gov/biblio/10567274.
Hufstetler, Rebeckah, Smith, Hollie M, Hooft, Emilie EE, & Walton, Dean. Strategies for Scientists to Communicate Volcanic Hazard to the Public when Threat of Eruption is Low. Retrieved from https://par.nsf.gov/biblio/10567274.
Hufstetler, Rebeckah, Smith, Hollie M, Hooft, Emilie EE, and Walton, Dean.
"Strategies for Scientists to Communicate Volcanic Hazard to the Public when Threat of Eruption is Low". Country unknown/Code not available: 2023 Fall Meeting, American Geophysical Union. https://par.nsf.gov/biblio/10567274.
@article{osti_10567274,
place = {Country unknown/Code not available},
title = {Strategies for Scientists to Communicate Volcanic Hazard to the Public when Threat of Eruption is Low},
url = {https://par.nsf.gov/biblio/10567274},
abstractNote = {Many studies focus on the best way to communicate volcanic information during a crisis event. Because of the urgency during crisis, many of crisis communication studies find that the issues that arise during volcanic crises can often be mitigated during the ‘quiet times’ between eruptions. This project addresses how to engage the population near a volcano that is in this period of quiescence. The goal is to synthesize peer-reviewed research that investigates volcano hazard communication when the threat of eruption is low. By doing this, we will provide scientists and others working with the public recommendations for communication materials. This synthesis will offer suggestions from the academic literature for effectively engaging the public in communication about volcanos, what content messages could include, and what mediums are available to reach different audiences. These recommendations are intended to provide a baseline for scientists to think about the multiple ways to engage with the variety of audiences that live around their volcano of study; they are not intended to be a rigid formula that applies to every population. We have systematically gathered peer reviewed articles from Web of Science, Georef, and Google Scholar, using specific search terms generated through consultation with a University of Oregon librarian. Through the use of specific exclusion criteria, we have narrowed down the 330 resulting papers to a final list of 34 studies that provide suggestions on volcano communications during periods of quiescence. This project will use the advice found in these studies to create a reference for scientists as they create communication materials to disseminate to the public regarding a volcano. The results found include different mediums, such as virtual reality, hazard maps, films, social media, and various online tools that a scientist can utilize to convey their findings. There are also recommendations for different audiences, such as tourists, children, rural communities, and indigenous populations. By synthesizing the findings of these studies into a single document for a scientist to reference, we can help scientists to best engage the public in learning about a volcano during quiescence.},
journal = {},
publisher = {2023 Fall Meeting, American Geophysical Union},
author = {Hufstetler, Rebeckah and Smith, Hollie M and Hooft, Emilie EE and Walton, Dean},
}
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