Public Engagement on Climate and Health in Museums and Participatory Dialogues may Foster Behavior Change

As scientific knowledge grows and the planet’s human population makes unprecedented changes, decision-making places more and more demands on the everyday democratic participant. Yet efforts to help the public acquire and make use of evidence-based information fall short. We present preliminary comparisons of three participatory design models of public engagement with science designed to encourage community action rather than just raise awareness in participants on local public health issues impacted by climate change. We collected survey data at two in-person community-based participatory dialogues and a museum exhibit and presented but received no surveys from televised versions of the participatory dialogues. Results indicated that behavior change was indeed salient to participants. Actions participants plan to take included sharing what they learned, contacting legislators, and direct conservation efforts. Future research should study whether participants undertake planned actions and do so in groups rather than as individuals

Amateur Paleontological Societies and Fossil Clubs, Interactions with Professional Paleontologists, and Social Paleontology in the United States

Considerable interest exists among lifelong learners in the USA about fossils and the science of paleontology. Unlike some other science-related groups, e.g., astronomy and ornithology, interest in fossils among amateur paleontologists is primarily focused within local clubs and societies with little national coordination. This paper presents the results of formative evaluation of the FOSSIL project, conducted after the project “Kickoff” meeting held at the NAPC (North American Paleontological Convention) in 2014. FOSSIL is developing a national networked community of practice that includes amateur and professional paleontologists. Our research indicates that more than 60 amateur fossil clubs and societies exist in the USA, of which almost 40 have elected to be part of the FOSSIL network. Overarching goals of this program include enhanced collaborations between amateurs and professionals, knowledge-building about paleontology, access to resources for lifelong learning, and development a viable learning community of practice focused on topics of common and societal interest, such as collections (including digitization), evolution, climate change, and K-12 outreach. In addition to more traditional means such as list-serves and newsletters, FOSSIL is developing an online community (myFOSSIL) and using social media (Facebook and Twitter) to foster communication and interactions among stakeholders, and thus promoting the concept of “social paleontology”

Panel-Based Exhibit Using Participatory Design Elements May Motivate Behavior Change

Meaningful science engagement beyond one-way outreach is needed to encourage science-based decision making. This pilot study aimed to instigate dialogue and deliberation concerning climate change and public health. Feedback from science café participants was used to design a panel-based museum exhibit that asked visitors to make action plans concerning such issues. Using intercept interviews and visitor comment card data, we found that visitors developed general or highly individualistic action plans to address these issues. Results suggest that employing participatory design methods when developing controversial socio-scientific exhibits can aid engagement. We conclude by recommending participatory strategies for implementing two-way science communication

The Belgrade PaleoBlitz: A Pilot Project to Engage Amateur Paleontologists

Paleontology is an interdisciplinary field that attracts a range of individuals, from hobbyists to professionals. A primary goal of the NSF-funded FOSSIL Project is to establish a unified community of paleontologists and promote best practices in the field of paleontology. The Belgrade PaleoBlitz was a pilot effort to meet these goals by guiding participants through the museum curation process via a rapid two-day immersion. The objectives of the PaleoBlitz event were to: 1) educate participants in best practices associated with the museum curation process, and 2) catalog specimens collected from the Belgrade Quarry into the Florida Museum of Natural History vertebrate paleontology collections. These objectives seek to find a balance between educating participants and contributing to science. A pre-event application dispersed to amateur paleontology clubs throughout the United States determined applicants’ baseline content knowledge and practices. To facilitate learning and promote networking, we selected 13 participants who varied in expertise from six different paleontology organizations. Immediate and delayed post-event surveys assessed acceptance and implementation of best practices, confidence related to specific aspects of the museum curation process, and expansion of individuals’ personal paleontology network. Responses showed that all participants made changes to their existing collections, felt more confident in specific aspects of the museum curation process, and had continued connections with other participants after this event

A Framework for Social Paleontology via an Online Community Space

In this paper we describe a design framework for an online social learning space for a community of practice involving amateur and professional paleontologists. This space will support a shared practice related to the domain of knowledge that we delimit as: understanding the natural world through the collection, preparation, curation and study of fossils and the science of paleontology. We call this practice social paleontology—an open and inclusive form of computer-supported collaborative scientific inquiry. The framework involves propositions that situate the practice of social paleontology within the social learning themes of Hoadley and Kilner\u27s (2005) C4P model aligned with supports for distributed cognition. This represents a first step in the design process and grounds the next phase, which involves a review and evaluation of existing technologies and services for enacting the framework via Information and Communications Technologies

PaleoBlitz: Promoting Best Practices in Paleontology

Paleontology is an interdisciplinary field that attracts all walks of life, from hobbyists to professionals. This shared interest between the public and professional communities offers ample opportunities for both collaboration and conflict. In order to facilitate collaborations and minimize conflict, it is necessary for all stakeholders to understand what motivates this passion and to establish a set of best practices based upon their respective impetus. A primary goal of the NSF-funded FOSSIL Project is to establish a unified community of paleontologists and promote said best practices. Adoption of these best practices further serves to meet the goals of the partnering NSF-funded project, iDigBio, which aims to digitize all national and international natural history collections. The FOSSIL Project PaleoBlitz was a pilot effort to better understand what motivates people’s passion for paleontology, while educating the public about best practices employed during the museum curatorial process. A diverse group of amateur paleontologists were selected based upon an application dispersed to fossil organizations throughout the United States. Post- and delayed- surveys were administered to analyze personal identity in relation to the practice of paleontology, determine acceptance of best practices, and refine the PaleoBlitz design. Herein, the results of this pilot study are summarized in an effort to encourage similar outreach events and provide a framework for successful implementation

Exploring Social Media as a Research Tool for Measuring Engagement in a Paleontological Community of Practice

The FOSSIL Project, a web-based initiative, is using social media as a research tool to investigate the engagement levels of professional and amateur paleontologists online. The FOSSIL Project includes face-to-face and online interactions which bring amateur and professional paleontologists together in a community of practice. The community of practice entails an online space through which amateurs and professionals commune in an inclusive form of computer-supported scientific inquiry that we call “social paleontology.” A key component to establishing our community of practice is social media. By examining the ways in which our community engages with the social media platforms of Twitter and Facebook, we can offer unique insights into best practices for using social media to support science-based communities of practice. This longitudinal study examined the ways in which our social media audience(s) engaged with content on various platforms. An encompassing question for this study was: “Which social media components are most engaging, for whom, and under what conditions?” We focused on describing which types of posts generated the most conversations about scientific topics. Using descriptive statistics to quantify post engagement, we saw changes in levels of engagement based on social media post type. Content analysis of the community’s comments reveal that basic conversations about science (those without much scientific merit) occur on social media. Our results indicate that engagement level is dependent upon: (1) social media post type, such as research-focused stories, informative stories, stories featuring opportunities for community members, and paleontological news stories; (2) the different forms of audience segmentation occurring within social media platforms, such as the plethora of professional paleontologists on Twitter, yet low professional numbers on Facebook; and (3) best practices for creating a community through social media. This study suggests that social media is a useful but underutilized tool in building scientific communities of practice

Social Media Messaging and Engagement with Paleontology in an Online Community of Practice

Throughout the U.S., fossil clubs host meetings, attend field trips, conduct outreach, and use the Internet to learn about paleontology. In their Internet use, these fossil clubs communicate on social media to facilitate discussion within their groups and among other groups, discussing the fossils found on field trips as well as provide their thoughts on social media posts about paleontology. The FOSSIL Project has actively been uniting fossil clubs throughout the United States to create a Community of Practice (CoP). This networked CoP will “collaborate in blended learning, the practice of science, and outreach” (Crippen et al. 2014). Building on previous research presented at NARST 2014 (Crippen et al. 2014), this study defines a specific component of the FOSSIL Project’s Community of Practice: social media. While the fossil clubs engage in communication on their unique social media pages, the FOSSIL Project seeks to understand cross-group communication occurring on social media through the FOSSIL Project’s social media pages, more specifically, the FOSSIL Project’s Facebook page. This study uses the discourse of the FOSSIL Project’s Facebook followers as well as decriptive statistics to understand the ways in which amateur and professional paleontologists engage on social media