Outreach channels for polar science： an expedition to Kerguelen Islands as a case study

摘要

Polar science outreach is strongly needed, because besides promoting the utility of polar studies for society as a whole, it can generate public demand for new projects and expeditions. The dissemination of polar discoveries should be reinforced in countries without polar territories and for which polar science might not be a priority. In this pilot study(N =182 participants) we have contrasted the opinions of polar scientists(French, Belgian, British, Canadian, Australian, German, Italian and Spanish researchers) with those of a potentially interested public(graduate students of pedagogy and biology), in order to assess if the communication channels employed by polar researchers to make their results public align with those used by non-polar experts for learning about polar discoveries. The results revealed that scientific publications and presentations were considered a priority by the researchers, and these scientific communication channels were preferentially employed. Only a minority of researchers thought that non-scientific publications might be a good communication resource. In contrast, both groups of students, which considered polar research important but not a top priority, employed the Internet as their main channel for information about polar discoveries. Students assessed the use of polar discoveries as positive for educational purposes at both Primary and Secondary levels. The information presently received by students was perceived as being too generalist and the main suggestions to improve outreach in this field, in addition to the use of Internet, were more rapid dissemination of new discoveries.