R&D (Research and Discussion) Group
This interdisciplinary group meets weekly to discuss projects that bear on public engagement with science, broadly construed. Participants are invited to share their own public-facing work or outreach ideas for feedback and collaboration, and guest speakers are invited from around UC and beyond to share their experiences with public engagement with science. This is an opportunity for UC researchers to explore how their work and field bear on public engagement with science, to learn more about resources from other fields, and to collaboratively develop a research community focused on public engagement with science.
R&D is offered as a one credit undergraduate (HUM4001) and graduate (HUM7001) student course in both the fall and spring semesters. Anyone in the UC community can receive an invitation to R&D by requesting to join PEWS in MS Teams.
Recent R&D topics have included visits from the Civic Garden Center and the Cincinnati Nature Center, discussions of science communication in the contexts of medicine and journalism, and group feedback on participants’ recent grants and ongoing projects.
Members from the group also sometimes collaborate on research projects. A group led by Lucas Dunlap has investigated how to best conceptualize of the range of participatory research projects. A group led by Melissa Jacquart studied how learner-centered pedagogy applies to science engagement and education contexts.