Stand up for Science: Practical Approaches to Discussing Science that Matters

Information about Monica Dus

What is your name, title, and role at the University of Michigan?

Monica Dus, Assistant Professor in Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology

Why are your public engagement efforts in education and/or outreach important (to you and/or to the cause you’re working to promote)?

My goal is to bring science and scientists to the people and to connect with the public in an emphatic way. In the undergraduate and graduate classrooms I strive to teach my students not only how to be scholars, but also communicators of science. I include outreach efforts in the class curriculum, in the form of webpages, podcasts or presentations for the public. In our lab, I encourage my graduate students to participate in university-led outreach efforts like FEMMES, BrainsRule! and MYELIN, that promote scientific interest and literacy to K-12 schools. I personally enjoy participating in programs that involve spreading the joy and enthusiasm for science to millennial and seniors, through events like ScienceCafe, Nerd Nite, Pint of Science, etc. I also favor using podcasts as a form of communication between science and society.

Monica Dus on Audience

Who do you interact with when working in education and/or outreach? What makes this audience different from other groups that you might interact with?

In my daily job I mostly interact with fellow scientists who hold similar values to mine. I hardly interact with society at large, and even my interactions with 400 students in genetics only represent a specific part of society. So, as an academic, I tend to be surrounded most of the time by people like me. By doing outreach I meet people who have lived through different experiences and realities; brainstorming how to connect to them via science, enriches me as a human being.   

What suggestions do you have for making interactions with educators, learners, and/or lay-audiences as effective as possible?

Don’t gavage people with facts, don’t act with superiority: just because you spent decades studying this subject and you are a professor at a prestigious university, it doesn’t make you a “better” human being. Your expertise has to be communicated with humanity, kindness and love. Facts don’t rally people, human connections do. You have to earn people’s trust.

What is the biggest challenge you face when trying to work with educators, learners, and/or lay-audiences? What is the biggest reward?

The biggest challenge is to not behave as a superior and to not have people treat you as one, but instead to connect to them to narrate a story about science that will make them understand on their own an important aspect of the work or the process.

What are you trying to accomplish when you write to or speak with educators, learners, and/or lay-audiences?

I think it is important to let people in, to part the curtains of our world in the lab and have people take a peek. Therefore, talking about the process is key, including the struggles, set backs, joy and accomplishment. We need to stop talking about science as a narrative where the solitary genius discovers something unique, a narrative where there is always steady progress. Science is done by groups of people shedding tears and sharing joys, it is a journey with many detours and deviations. Some of these detours take to Nobel prizes, others lead to nowhere. Science is really just another part of life.

Monica Dus on Messaging

When you’re planning to interact with educators, learners, and/or lay-audiences, how do you decide what you want to focus on?

I first focus on establishing a connection between us as ‘humans’, rather than relying on stereotypical relationships of authority between a scientist and a lay-person. I think the most important thing to do is to establish trust and to communicate to people that scientists are also humans. Some argue that scientists should not be perceived as humans by lay people because this compromises the perception of impartiality. I disagree with this and in fact, I think this is one of the reasons why the public often does not trust scientists. I think it is important to establish that we are not Vulcans or “computers,” but that we are part of humanity and that this, together with our expertise, makes us trustworthy and valuable to the world.

If a scientist wanted a single idea to “stick” in the mind of an educator, learner, or lay-audience, what advice would you give them as to how best to shape/pitch that idea? 

No, I don’t think it needs to build on specific kinds of knowledge, but I do think it has to be simple and it has to relate to the individual. Because we are primates, social interactions are critical for our brains, this is why when we communicate ideas, we ought to relate them to salient experiences that people know and understand. I don’t think this takes away from the facts on which the idea is based or our expertise about those ideas.

Monica Dus on Narrative

Do you use stories or narratives as a tool to communicate with educators, learners, and/or lay-audiences? If so, what kinds of narratives?

Yes, I use stories that show that I am a human, that scientists were not born with special science powers and that instead there was a long and tortuous road to science, full of derailments, mistakes and of luck and privilege too. I try to connect with people through our common experiences, joys and struggle as humans and show them where science fits in that puzzle.

What kinds of documents or presentations are most effective at capturing and maintaining an educators’, learners’, and/or lay-audiences’ attention?

A bad presentation is a lecture that enumerates countless facts without connecting them to people’s experiences of today. For example, with genetics, stem cells and climate change it is not helpful to gavage people with notions because we feel they are not educated or motivated enough to learn them. In fact, anyone could learn them on their own just by browsing content on the internet. Instead of just informing, I think it is important for presentations to connect the scientist and the public with a common goal, so to form an alliance to resolve a pressing issue, say climate change. It is appropriate for scientists to communicate some facts, but not to indoctrinate people. Our job is not to teach or to convert, but to inspire through trust, kindness and leadership.