The Department of Biological Sciences invites campus to its next departmental seminar at 4 p.m. Monday, Sept. 30 in 218 Hubbard Hall with guest speaker Dr. Matt Wilkins, CEO of Galactic Polymath, on “Societal Impacts: How to win grants, do outreach, and connect science to the unengaged”
Abstract:
It has never been more essential for scientists to connect their work to the public in meaningful ways — particularly those funded by NSF, with Broader Impacts requirements. In recent years, we have seen an upsurge in disinformation, and sophisticated efforts to undermine science, just as the planet faces myriad human-caused threats such as climate change, plastic pollution and the extinction crisis. Yet it has never been harder to reach audiences that aren’t already connected to STEM.
Over more than 15 years of concerted outreach effort, I have encountered these challenges firsthand — from writing blogs in graduate school, to starting and running a scicomm conference and Nerd Nite chapter as a postdoc, to teaching middle school in Nashville, and finally founding Galactic Polymath Education Studio (GP) — to facilitate the flow of knowledge and diverse perspectives from academia to K-12.
GP helps researchers perform outreach on funded projects with the power of a professional team backing them, and win grants by having stellar Broader Impacts proposals. GP specializes in translating current research into mind-expanding, open-access lessons and videos aimed at middle and high school classrooms. Since founding GP in the depths of the pandemic with my own savings, we have been part of 14 funded grant proposals, leading to the production and release of 12 educational units comprising 41 lessons, 55 videos, three web apps and two card games. Topics range from chemical engineering to photonics to conservation to ethnobotany.
In this talk I will highlight specific strategies and outstanding challenges for funding, performing and measuring outreach impact. I will also invite you to share some of your experiences and (hopefully) leave you feeling empowered to take action. We live in a time when mobilizing academic knowledge and growing public STEM engagement is absolutely vital, and our individual impacts will be magnified by working together.
Wilkins bio:
Matt is an evolutionary biologist who has won multiple awards for science communication, including the “Impact Goals Award” from NSF’s Center for Advancing Research Impact in Society. He taught middle school in Nashville, Tennessee for over 4 years and used this firsthand experience to found Galactic Polymath Education Studio (GP).
