Randy Olson’s book, Don’t Be Such a Scientist: Talking Substance in an Age of Style , was used to supplement a senior seminar in nanomaterials. While students learned about the chemistry behind useful properties of nanomaterials, they also analyzed how nanomaterials applications are presented to the public through advertising, science news, and popular culture artifacts. By using Don’t Be Such a Scientist , students learned how scientists can fail at communicating with the public and how they can become more effective communicators. To experience communicating to nonexperts, they presented outreach projects such as a video, activity, or discussion on nanomaterials. Example student projects in nanomaterials are discussed; however, Don’t Be Such a Scientist could easily be incorporated into a variety of scientific courses to include effective scientific communication to the public, a meaningful skill for all scientists and science students.

St. Angelo, Sarah K. Encouraging the Art of Communicating Science to Nonexperts with Don’t Be Such a Scientist. Journal of Chemical Education 95, no. 5 (2018): 804-809. https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.jchemed.7b00963

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