Science outreach

For example, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) now requires all of its projects to organize suitable outreach activities.

[6] Public talks can be part of a lecture series, given at a science festival or in cooperation with a special interest group such as a local astronomy club.

There are also less formal initiatives such as Café Scientifique, in which a café or bar is the venue for regular meetings involving guest scientists that come to talk about their work or take part in discussions with members of the public, and collaborations with museums [7] School students and teachers are an important target group for science outreach.

Outreach activities can include scientists visiting schools, giving talks at assemblies, discussions with students, or participation in events such as career fairs and science and technology camps.

[15] Using Canada as an example, it has been estimated that with sufficient organization, every classroom from kindergarten through graduation could in practice receive a visit from one or more scientists annually with participation from only 10-15% of the scientific enterprise.

[20] These may include activities using fast-growing plants that exhibit distinctive mutants with unique phenotypes useful to teach K–12 students about both Mendelian and molecular genetics.