Poster presented on March 6-8, 2002 at the conference on Communicating the Future: Best Practices in Communication of Science and Technology to the Public, co-sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science, and NIST. Poster topics were selected as "best practices" through a formal peer review by a committee of distinguished science writers, educators, and researchers.

Beyond Discovery: The Path from Research to Human Benefit
Program conducted by: National Academy of Sciences

Abstract
The National Academy of Sciences’ Office on Public Understanding of Science has managed the Beyond Discovery project since its inception in 1995. The project currently produces two products: eight-page, four-color print articles, and a web site that contains the text of all articles with links to additional high-quality information about each topic. Each article costs approximately $60,000 to produce including printing and dissemination.

The articles describe the often-unanticipated role basic research plays in the development of a medical or technological breakthrough. The project is intended to raise awareness of the importance of basic research and to help the reader understand the processes of science.

The primary audience for the series is “influential” individuals, including members of the media, government and political officials, industry leaders, educators, and the science-interested lay public. We print and distribute each article to approximately 12,000 members of this audience.

Professional science writers draft the Beyond Discovery articles. The articles are vetted through an extensive review process that includes, when possible, scientists who made the discoveries described. OPUS staff manage each article through several rounds of reviews to ensure that the articles are accurate and clear for a lay reader.

Evaluation of Articles by Focus Groups of Lay Readers

• Conducted in February 1996, by Lauer, Lalley, Victoria, Inc.
• Feedback from two groups of college-educated, non-scientifically trained people—one all men, the other women
• Tested the "ozone depletion phenomenon" prototype—group comments determined series title, layout, and language use
• Additional findings:
  • Both groups liked the concept and the material
  • Both groups wanted to know more about the source of the article
  • Male group interested in self-knowledge; Female group interested in how they could inform their families and friends, in addition to their own education
  • Both groups were inclined to link science and technology

Assessment by Middle and High School Teachers

• Conducted during 1997- 1998 school year
• Sponsored by the Burroughs-Wellcome Foundation
• 4 Beyond Discovery articles were distributed to 913 middle or high school teachers who were members of the North Carolina Science Teachers Association
• Follow-up survey evaluated teaching styles and use of the Beyond Discovery articles

Results of Assessment by Middle and High School Teachers

• 215 members responded to the survey
• Over 85% of the teachers used the articles with the majority using them as materials for professional development or to augment class discussion
• High school teachers found the articles more useful than middle school teachers
• Many of the teachers requested additional materials such as lesson plans or study guides

Beyond Discovery Web Site

• Located at www.BeyondDiscovery.org
• Contains the full text of the articles with links to high-quality sites and pdf versions
• Receives over 40,000 unique visits per month
• Visitors can sign up to be on a listserv in order to get updates on new additions to the web site. Listserv subscribers are asked to complete a voluntary demographics survey
• Translations are available in Chinese, German, and Croatian

Advertising Campaign for Beyond Discovery Web Site
Between March 2000 and April 2001 advertisements for the Beyond Discovery web site were placed in the following publications:

• The American Biology Teacher
• Atlantic Monthly
• Discover
• The Futurist
• Issues in Science and Technology
• The Physics Teacher
• Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
• The Science Teacher

Results of the Advertising Campaign

• In order to assess the effectiveness of the advertising, visitors were asked to respond to an online survey asking where they heard about the site
• Discover magazine and Issues in Science and Technology received more responses than the other publications
• The largest category of respondents found the site through a search engine or a link from another page
• A large number of visitors found the site through CyberSafari, an online scavenger hunt for students and their families

Results of Web survey (March 1, 2000 - April 1, 2001):

Usability Test of the Beyond Discovery site

• Conducted by internal web maintenance group in January, 2001
• Six users performed a variety of tasks designed to test the navigation and lay out of the Beyond Discovery web site
• These results combined with suggestions of additional features from informal focus groups resulted in the redesign of the site
• The redesign was launched March, 2002

Redesign of Web Site

• Redesign of the web site navigation
  —Articles are now arranged by topic
  —Feature article highlights new or newsworthy topic
• Additional features
  —Summaries of articles with internal links
  —Glossaries of scientific terms
  —Interactive timeline
• Ability for Expansion
  —Close-ups allow for expansion into multi-media presentations

Future Directions

• Articles in production
  —auctions and game theory
  —encryption and number theory
  —insect traps and pheromones
  —sensors
• Translations
  —Japanese
  —Spanish

Authors
Erika C. Shugart
National Academy of Sciences

Donna Geradi Riordan
University of California, Santa Cruz

Contact
Erika C. Shugart
National Academy of Sciences
2101 Constitution Ave., N.W., Room 269
Washington, D.C. 20418
Phone: 202-334-1575
Email: eshugart@nas.edu

Web Site
http://www.BeyondDiscovery.org

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Created: 5/31/2002
Last updated:8/17/2002
Contact: inquiries@nist.gov