Skip to main content

Outcomes

Results and Publications

Program Results

  • 177 scientists trained as STEM Ambassadors
  • Over 2,000 members of the public reached
  • 65 unique community venues engaged

Ambassador Experiences

  • Over 90% of Ambassadors reported gaining new skills in public engagement as a result of their participation in STEMAP
  • Over 95% of Ambassadors described their experience in the program as valuable or highly valuable
  • Over 85% of Ambassadors indicated that STEMAP increased their interest in reaching out to new communities

Focal Group Experiences

  • Over 70% of focal group participants said their interest in science and desire to participate in science events increased after attending a STEMAP engagement activity
  • Over 90% of focal group participants felt the Ambassador did a good job communicating

BioScience Publication

Nadkarni, N., Weber, C., Goldman, S., Schatz, D., Allen, S., Menlove, R. 2019. Beyond the Deficit Model: The Ambassador Approach to Public Engagement. Bioscience 69: 305-313.

JCOM Publication

Weber, C., Allen, S., Nadkarni, N. 2019. Scaling training to support scientists to engage with the public in non-traditional venues. Journal of Science Communication 20: N02.

Summative Evaluation Report

Workshops and Trainings

  • STEM Ambassador Program Training, Salt Lake City, UT (April 23, 2016)
  • STEM Ambassador Program Training, Salt Lake City, UT (Feb 11, 2017)
  • STEM Ambassador Program Training, Salt Lake City, UT (March 4, 2017)
  • STEM Ambassador workshop at the iUtah Broader Impacts Forum, Salt Lake City, UT (March 31, 2017)
  • STEM Ambassador workshop at the National Alliance for Broader Impacts Summit, Stevenson, WA (April 26-28, 2017)
  • STEM Ambassador workshop at the Fulbright From Lab to Market seminar, Salt Lake City, UT (May 24, 2017)
  • STEM Ambassador Program Training, Salt Lake City, UT (March 2, 2018)
  • STEM Ambassador Program Training, Salt Lake City, UT (March 9, 2018)
  • STEM Ambassador Program Training, Salt Lake City, UT (April 13, 2018)
  • STEM Ambassador Program Training, Salt Lake City, UT (May 11, 2018)
  • STEM Ambassador workshop at the Ecological Society of America, New Orleans, LA (August 6, 2018)
  • STEM Ambassador Program Training, Seattle, WA (August 17, 2018)
  • STEM Ambassador Program Online Training (June 27, 2018)
  • STEM Ambassador Program Online Training (July 13, 2018)
  • STEM Ambassador Program Online Training (August 17, 2018)
  • STEM Ambassador Program Online Training (August 31, 2018)

Posters and Presentations

  • Former Program Manager Toth presented a poster at the annual meeting of the National Alliance for Broader Impacts (NABI), Philadelphia, PA (April 20-22, 2016).
  • Program Director Nadkarni and Toth presented a poster at the biannual meeting of NSF/AISL Principal Investigators, Washington, DC, (Feb 29-March 2, 2016).
  • Nadkarni and Program Manager Weber presented during Portal to the Public Network webinar (Jan 13, 2017)
  • Weber presented poster at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), Boston, MA, (Feb 16-20, 2017).
  • Nadkarni and Weber presented during the Center for Math and Science Education Exchange, Salt Lake City, UT (March 9, 2017)
  • Nadkarni and Weber presented during Union of Concerned Scientists webinar (Aug 31, 2017)
  • Nadkarni presented keynote at Workman’s Compensation Fund annual meeting, South Jordan, UT (Jan 26, 2018)
  • Nadkarni participated in panel discussion at American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) annual meeting, Austin, TX (Feb 18, 2018)
  • Nadkarni participated in panel discussion at Kennedy Center Arts Summit titled “The Future States of America: Using the arts to take us where we want to go,” Washington DC (April 16, 2018)
  • Nadkarni presented keynote at Seattle Urban Forestry Symposium at University of Washington Botanic Gardens, Seattle, WA (May 15, 2018)
  • Nadkarni presented keynote at Art/Science Retrospective titled “The last biotic frontier on Earth,” San Francisco, CA (May 19, 2018)
  • Nadkarni Osher Fellowship in Informal Science Education at the Exploratorium, San Francisco, CA (May 21-May 26, 2018)
  • Nadkarni presented keynote at Pennsylvania Patient Safety Authority and the Hospital Health System Association of Pennsylvania titled “Dynamics of Disturbance and Recovery,” Harrisburg, PA (June 5, 2018)
  • Nadkarni presented keynote at the International Symposium on Sustainable Resource Management titled “Preachers, Poets, and Prisoners: Weaving new threads into the tapestry of sustainability,” Snowbird, UT (June 19, 2018)
  • STEMAP hosted Summit of advisory board members, research team, staff, and external experts, Salt Lake City, UT (Sept 7, 2018)
  • Nadkarni presented in Ecology Department Seminar at Utah State University Ecology Center, Logan, UT (Sept 12-13, 2018)
  • Nadkarni interview on Science Friday on NPR, Salt Lake City, UT (Sept 15, 2018)
  • Nadkarni participated in panel discussion at National Geographic Nights titled “Into the Canopy,” Washington, DC (Sept 20, 2018)
  • Nadkarni and Weber presented on SciEngage call (Sept 21, 2018)
  • Weber presented at SciOut18, New York, NY (Oct 4, 2018)
  • Nadkarni presented keynote at the Northwest Nature and Health Symposium at the University of Washington Center for Creative Conservation, Seattle, WA (Oct 24, 2018)
  •  Nadkarni presented keynote at the Entomology Society of America titled “Citizen Science in a Changing World: Successes and Challenges Across Projects and Institutions”, Vancouver, BC (Nov 13, 2018)
  • Other Presentations in academic venues that describe STEMAP (Nadkarni):
    •  U.S. Forest Service (mediated by the University of Colorado at Boulder)
    • Ecological Society of America Annual Meeting, Ft. Lauderdale, FL American Museum of Natural History, Student Conference for Conservation Science, NY
    • Association for Zoological Horticulture, Cincinnati, OH
    • Brown University Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Dept., Providence, RI
    • Aldo Leopold Lecture, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI
    • Project Learning Tree Annual Conference, Salt Lake City, UT
    • University of Virginia Medical School, Charlottesville, VA
    • University of Pennsylvania, Environmental Humanities Program, Philadelphia, PA
    • Great Salt Lake Audubon Society, Salt Lake City, UT
    • Chautauqua, New York
    • EcoArts Conference, Melbourne, Australia
    • National Geographic Live!, Olympia, WA
    • Logan Unitarian Universalist Church, Logan, Utah
    • Nebraska Statewide Arboretum, Lincoln, NE