At Science, Still More Reaction to Framing

In the March 14 issue of Science, a letter was published responding to our April 2007 Policy Forum essay and our October 2007 cover article at The Scientist. In her letter, Ruth Cronje emphasizes that it is important for the public to understand science as a process and method, a goal that is best accomplished through formal education where you have (usually) a motivated and attentive audience and (hopefully) well designed content.

Cronje is on the faculty at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire and I look forward to discussing the topic with her further when I am in town next week giving a series of campus talks.

More like this

You don't have to be a social scientist to recognize that the distribution of opinion among people who comment at Scienceblogs is very different from the perspective found among the wider science community and even among leaders in the atheist movement. The reality of this perceptual gap was…
After writing up yesterday's post about some folks trying to get Illinois State University to not allow their RAs to have live-in girlfriends, I thought I'd follow it up with another story involving RAs at a public university. The University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire decided in July to tell its RAs…
Over the summer I addressed by video conference a meeting by the National Academies on state science policy advice. They've now produced a report based on that meeting and it is free as a PDF download. Chapter Five of the report focuses on the communication of science advice at the state level…
For readers in the Madison-to-Minneapolis region, on Thurs. March 27 I will be giving a talk at the University of Wisconson-Eau Claire. I will be covering much of the same ground that was featured on the two AAAS panels I appeared on earlier this month. In the talk, not only will I be focusing on…

Folks interested in this topic might also be interested in the "Understanding Science" website that will be launched this fall. Previews that I've seen of the site make it look amazingly effective at teaching just what's mentioned here, science as a process engaged in by a community of people using an iterative cycle to define and redefine the best ideas about a subject. If you know and love the "Understanding Evolution" site, then keep on the look out "Understanding Science" from these same folks (or contact me in advance of the official ribbon-cutting and I can pass along what I've been lucky enough to see so far).

By Natalie Kuldell (not verified) on 21 Mar 2008 #permalink