Wildlife education group spearheads new interdisciplinary course at U of G

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Sally Cheung with Einstein, the Great Horned Owl, speaking to a group of children in Branion Plaza prior to the pandemic. Designing effective public outreach is the core of Wild Ontario's mission. CREDIT: WILD ONTARIO

EMILY BRAY

As we move into the third year of the COVID-19 pandemic, scientific skepticism appears to be more widespread than ever within certain pockets of Canadian society.

Pandemic conspiracies constantly circulate online, anti-vaccination sentiment persists, and protests against COVID-related public health measures have been gaining traction across Canada.

Yet despite all of these developments, University of Guelphbased education group Wild Ontario has high hopes for the future of science-based public education.

The non-profit organization, which grew out of the Ontario Veterinary College in the 1990s, specializes in environmental education and outreach. Using non-releasable birds of prey, Wild Ontario staff members and student volunteers teach the public about the importance of wildlife conservation and ecological stewardship. In other words, they are experts when it comes to fostering an interest in science amongst members of the public and building strong relationships between scientists and the general populace.

Although rising public distrust has been difficult for many in the scientific community to contend with, Wild Ontario views it as a call to action. To them, public reactions to the pandemic have served as a much-needed wake-up call—one that has the potential to jumpstart positive growth and change within the academic world.

“It became abundantly clear during the pandemic how important science literacy in society is, and how much we needed to focus on improving it,” said Wild Ontario intern Kevin Morey.

The organization has wasted no time in rising to this challenge. Wild Ontario has become the driving force behind a new course at the U of G that will focus on teaching students how to communicate scientific information to the public and conduct educational outreach.

BIOL*3650 Applications in Biology: Communicating Science aims to provide students with the knowledge and skills necessary to rebuild trust between the scientific community and the general public. It was officially launched at the beginning of the 2022 winter semester and was created in collaboration with the U of G’s department of integrative biology, who Morey says were very receptive to the idea of creating a course based around effective scientific communication.

“We wanted to fill a gap that we recognized in formal science training,” said Morey. “Not just at the University of Guelph, but in academia at large. A lot of students who are trained in the sciences know how to communicate their ideas to other scientists, but they are not taught how to translate and communicate the information that they learn to people who don’t have a science background.”

Morey notes that this lack of effective communication skills can be especially dangerous when it comes to prominent figures in the scientific community.

“It’s become clear that the people who have been our scientific leaders during this pandemic don’t necessarily have a background in communicating information appropriately to the public. That has caused a lot of confusion and distrust.”

Wild Ontario therefore wants to ensure that the next generation of scientific leaders possess the skills to express their knowledge in clearer and more accessible ways, thus preventing another situation like the one we are seeing right now with COVID-19.

In order to foster these skills, the course will draw on communication-centered theories from the humanities and social sciences—topics that STEM students are typically not exposed to in the course of their studies.

“There’s been a lack of integration between the natural sciences and the humanities, which provide the understanding and skills that you need to be able to communicate your scientific passions and start changing minds,” said Morey.

“The course is introducing important concepts to students about effective communication. We’re discussing topics such as the barriers that exist in relation to communication, how to properly go about doing public speaking, and how to communicate information in non-traditional ways. That sort of humanities-based information makes up the theory base of what students are learning.”

Despite the fact that BIOL*3650 Applications in Biology: Communicating Science is running for the first time this semester, Morey says that the course has been going smoothly and that the reaction from students has been very encouraging.

“The students taking [BIOL*3650] this semester are really enjoying their learning experience. The engagement we’ve been able to get in class is great,” Morey said.

“Students have told us that they’ve really started to think more about the things that they care about and how they can teach it to other people. Which is ultimately the goal of the course—to impact our students in a positive way.”

As for the future of Wild Ontario’s involvement with course design at U of G, Morey says that the organization hopes to continue working with the university to provide students with new educational opportunities.

“If we were given the chance to expand what we can offer to students in this subject area, we would most definitely be interested in pursuing that,” he said.

“We really care about education. It’s truly the core of what we do and why we exist here at the university.”