#SciComm

Science communication is quickly becoming a necessary item on every scientist’s resume. It’s no longer good enough to convince other like-minded Ph.Ds that your research is worthwhile. You somehow have to get the general public to buy-in to the fact that the work you do is necessary and worth funding. And, no amount of graphs, statistics, and confusing jargon is going to accomplish that.
 
For those in natural resources, scientific communication is particularly necessary for accomplishing our research goals. Not only are most projects funded by tax dollars, but the long-term success of our work is only possible when a community wants to see the ecosystem restored and/or conserved. Simply put, I can restore the stream, but only the community can keep it healthy. 

Scratchboards are cardboard "canvases" that are covered in ink. When scratched, the black gives way to white. In my case, the tool of choice was #11 Xacto knife (no coincidence, that's the same blade as my telemetry scalpels).

Ironically, despite our jobs being so intertwined with the public, many of us in natural resources struggle to communicate our research outside of academia. I’m willing to bet that many of us, myself included, got into natural resource careers because we thought we would spend more time holding fish than shaking hands. So, now presented with the task of communication, we take entire workshops on using social media (Facebook, Twitter, etc.), writing to a lay audience, and hosting outreach events. Yet, it still feels like we’re pulling teeth sometimes. 

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First step was to draw on the image I watched the scratch. Unlike pencil drawings, there is very little room for error in scratchboard (once scratched you can't go back).

Thankfully, I enjoy telling stories. And, ultimately, I think that’s what scientific communication is about- telling the story of how the world works, including pieces of the plot that I think are still missing (i.e., my research), and convincing you that you also want me to solve that mystery. But, sometimes people don’t want to read the story.  Sometimes they just want to flip through the pictures. Enter science art. 

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Once drawn in, it's time to scratch...and scratch...and scratch. The line scratched in is about the same thickness as a line drawn with a pencil. So, you just keep scratching to make big blocks of white.

I started drawing some years ago while bored in a fish lab. It evolved into a little painting and, most recently, the scratchboard piece featured in this blog. The piece itself doesn’t tell much of a story. But, we don’t share long blocks of texts, graphs, or presentations over social media.  We share images. And, if someone happens to see the image and clicks on my website, then it helps communicate my science and tell my story. 

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The other story it tells it that our fearless leader is getting older! I don’t usually hang on to my artwork, and decided to give this piece to Ty for his birthday last week. Now I can haunt him forever! 

The finished product! I started working on this at the beginning of January and would put in about 5 hours a week until I finished it last week. I can count this as progress towards my dissertation, right?