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Language science outreach through schools and social media: critical considerations

  • Lillianna Righter ORCID logo EMAIL logo , Hallie Garrison und Elika Bergelson ORCID logo
Veröffentlicht/Copyright: 20. August 2024

Abstract

As researchers who rely on federal funding and community participation, we have an obligation to return scientific knowledge to the community. Our outreach goals are to share information about language development and sensory impairments, introduce language science to future scientists, distribute scientific results accessibly, and illuminate the breadth of what science and scientists look like. We seek to achieve this in two ways: by sharing about language science beyond the ivory tower through short videos on social media and easy-to-read articles on our blog, and through educational outreach. For the latter, in recent efforts we designed and implemented after-school programming for young public schoolchildren, targeting early negative attitudes about STEM abilities. We presented profiles of underrepresented scientists in a range of fields, including language science, and discussed language modalities using observation games to help children appreciate science as a creative process of questions and failure – something they could do, not just “others” who do not look like them. We used the Draw-a-Scientist Task to assess our impact: children’s drawings were more representative after our program. In this article, we explore our missteps, difficulties, and successes.


Corresponding author: Lillianna Righter, Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, Duke University, Durham, USA; and Department of Psychology, 1812 Harvard University , Cambridge, USA, E-mail:

Award Identifier / Grant number: 2337766

Acknowledgments

Deep gratitude to Central Park School for Children, Southwest Elementary, and Pearsontown Elementary for their partnership and Daisja Honorable, Bella Liu, Serena Raj, Genia Lukin, and Jasenia Hartman for their help leading the program. Supported by NSF CAREER Award 2337766 to EB.

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Received: 2024-04-25
Accepted: 2024-05-22
Published Online: 2024-08-20

© 2024 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

Heruntergeladen am 30.9.2025 von https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1515/lingvan-2024-0078/html
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