Dave Parrot Takes His Teaching Skills on Tour

In 2016, I joined the Science Communication Fellows Program (SCFP) at the Natural History Museum of Utah. As I worked my way through the program, I realized this was exactly the kind of training I wanted and needed as I looked to my future as a professor. The only thing disappointing about the program was that it ended. But at the moment it did end, I was recruited to be part of another group of science communicators, the STEM Ambassador Program (STEMAP). As an Ambassador, I was trained in the best practices of bringing science to non-traditional audiences outside conventional learning venues. Not only that, but I got to take my new found skills on the road!

My first engagement event for STEMAP was at Sunrise Senior Living. I set up a table with an interactive display of my research and how it related to the plants growing by the Great Salt Lake. This allowed me to connect the residents to my research at the U of U, the lake and to Utah in general. It was a great first experience, but I was hungry for more. I followed that up by accepting an invitation to take my research to the Utah State Prison. As I couldn’t do an interactive display at the prison, I instead created an engaging talk and was blown away by the thoughtful and curious audience (much more engaged, in fact, than some of my current students!). It was a fantastic opportunity that taught me how to engage with an audience outside of academia. To cap off my STEMAP experience, I presented my work at the 2018 Homeschool STEM Camporee. I created hands-on activities for K-12 students with plenty of microscopes so students could perform some of the same experiments I did in the lab.

These experiences, while all very different from one another, have taught me how to present complicated science to both scientists and non-scientists, regardless of their scientific background. I find this especially valuable in my current role as an Assistant Professor of Biology at Westminster College. Engaging non-scientists is not unlike teaching freshman and sophomore college scientists, and having learned the skills necessary to present complex ideas in the most relatable way for a range of audiences, I have been much more successful in the classroom. But my SCFP and STEMAP training and engagement experiences have also instilled a need to take my science beyond the traditional classroom setting and out into the community. I have taken the knowledge I amassed from the programs, applied it to my current research and students here at Westminster, and started my own engagement events to engage the greater community. They have been a resounding success, and only possible because of my experiences with STEMAP.