In this post we are going to introduce the scientist profile format. The profiles will eventually be posted on the blog where the students and teacher can access them. I will send out instructions by email for logging in and posting your profile.
The purpose of the scientist profile is to give the students a little bit of background on you and your work before the chat session (more on the chat in Nuts and Bolts Part III). The hope is that the profile will help the students to both feel a little more comfortable engaging with you and will provoke them to think of questions to ask you.
Because the profile will be in a blog post, it will be easy to embed photos, movies, or hyperlinks into the profile. We encourage you to do this. The best way to use the profile is to prime the students for what you will be discussing with them in the chat session. For instance, I am planning to talk to the students about live imaging, so I will be posting a short video of myself preparing cells and the microscope for a live imaging session. If any of you would like assistance shooting or editing a video for this purpose, let me know and I will be happy to help.
Here’s a rundown of the questions we are going to ask. When it comes time for you to fill out the profile, I will walk you through logging into the blog, finding the profile template, filling out the fields, adding any links or media, and uploading the post.
Picture of you We ask for a picture so that the students can put a name to a face. Your Salk Directory picture is fine, or you can have a coworker snap a picture of you working away at the bench. Or a picture of you out kayaking or running or whatever! It’s up to you. We just ask that you be conscious of your audience- these are elementary school students. That means that if there happens to be anything referencing alcohol, foul language, sex, violence, or anything else not PG-rated at your workspace, please keep those things out of your picture.
Name
Hometown
Hobbies This and the above two are pretty self-explanatory. These questions are icebreakers.
What do you study?
Why is it important?
What do you like about being a scientist?
For each of these questions, we ask that you keep your blurbs to 100 words. Try to remember your audience here, and limit jargon. In our experience, it is best to step back a bit from the specifics of your research and speak more generally about the questions that your laboratory or your field are focused on. This is fine! None of the students or teachers will think that you are “taking credit” for the work of an entire field by taking a broader view. Think you have a simple, jargon-free description of your work figured out? For a gut check, try putting it into this biology-to-English translator tool. If you find that you are way off, try using the Up Goer Five text editor to rewrite your statements using only the 1000 most common words in the English language. Sound extreme? It is, but you may find that it helps you to get to the core of what you are trying to explain!
Feel free to include photos (.jpg format), movies (hosting on Vimeo works best for the students) or hyperlinks. If you do include any additional media, please include a short description of what the students are looking at.
My profile will be up on the blog shortly.