Getting ready for Science Online 2010
On January 16th, I am convening a session on Casting a wider net: Promoting gender and ethnic diversity in STEM at Science Online 2010 conference. Science Online 2010 is an unconference, which means that it is built around audience participation rather than a succession of speakers getting up and giving monologues. I think this is a great format, but it does mean that the conveners have to do a bit of work in advance.
I’ve tentatively set out two goals for the session:
- Identify successful online and offline programs, and their commonalities, for recruiting diverse participants into STEM activities; and
- Draft a set of recommendations for individuals, employers, and STEM organizations (funders, professional societies, etc.) for supporting women and minority scientists and science students through social media.
I’m also collecting links of recent blogging that supports these two goals. Below are some of things I’ve run across, and I’d appreciate the addition of any other discussions or posts that are relevant to the topics at hand.
- Designing Faculty Websites for Diversity(Zuska at Thus Spake Zuska)
- Women Geoscientists and Blogs (Kim Hannula at All of My Faults are Stress Related)
- Planting seeds of science interest in kids of all ages (DNLee at Urban Science Adventures)
- Diversity in Science Carnival #5: Programs to promote STEM diversity among K-12 students and general audiences (STEM-ologist at STEMology)
- Diversity in Science Carnival #4: Increasing Diversity Among the College Ranks (DNLee at Urban Science Adventures)
- Opportunities for Enhancing Diversity in the Geosciences (by me at Highly Allochthonous)
Your thoughts are most appreciated. After all, not only is the conference about audience participation, but the session is specifically aimed at increasing participation.