Alan Alda Center for Communicating Science
Website Decription:
Actor, author, and activist Alan Alda’s lifelong passion for science spurred him to host the PBS show “Scientific American Frontiers.” On the show, he used his improvisational theater training to help scientists he interviewed relate to him. In talking to him, they explained their work in ways that Alan and the show’s viewers could understand.
By building personal connections, Alan got scientists out of lecture mode and into conversation.
After 11 years on the show, Alan wondered why scientists struggled to switch from lecturing about their work to having real conversations about it. He thought exposing them to improvisation might help.
In 2009, the Center for Communicating Science at Stony Brook University opened to test his theory. The Center was the result of collaboration between Alan, Stony Brook, and Stony Brook’s School of Journalism, with Brookhaven National Laboratory and Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory.
Categories: BEHAVIOR, Information/Facts, KNOWLEDGE, Learning, Learning from Failures, Other People Exist, Science, Social Skills, and The Scientific Method
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