CITIZEN SCIENCE AND SHARED PERSONAL NARRATIVES: KEYS TO COMMUNICATING SCIENCE TO DIVERSE AUDIENCES

Lisa A Murphy; NPS - Yosemite; rangermurphy@gmail.com;

Connecting data with an experiential activity and sharing personal experience narratives are powerful ways to engage diverse audiences in science. Personal stories give people something to which they can relate. Once they have connected through personal stories, you can engage them by sharing data. Inviting the public to become directly involved with a project and create a shared experience is also powerful. We did just that by developing an auditory bat monitoring citizen science project in Yosemite. We found the combination of personal experience and shared narratives to be incredibly successful at engaging young to old across a diversity of cultures.

Communicating Science to Diverse Audiences