Make it Personal

I think especially for someone like me, who has a hard time identifying as a scientist still because I'm not teaching in a college and I'm not actively doing research. This has been good for me to make sure that I'm promoting women in science, and younger people in science, and weird people in science. Not being that cookie-cutter. So that's a big, big thing I'm very thankful for with my shop.

I really do think that buying stuff is one of the ways that we show what has value, almost quite literately. Its also one of the ways that we remember things. Its one of the ways that we join groups, or show support for things. There's so many-this is just something that I don't stop thinking about this. The consumerism aspects I think are bad, but the-my gut tells me that its superficial, but I think it is actually so, so meaningful. What we buy, and what we give to people, and what we wear is who we are, and who we care about, and how we, it's almost a love language sometimes. Buying gifts for birthdays and new babies, and for weddings and things like that. It can be very, very personal, and very, very emotional.

this is just the way I've always thought of it, is working off of what is already the foundation of humanity, which is curiosity. Sharing knowledge. If we don't share knowledge, then we wouldn't be where we're at today. So, why do we get so offended when somebody tries to tell you something you didn't know? I've always-that's where I'm coming from, and I have to come from that way being in the art community, where people are super anti-ads, they hate Silicon Valley, they hate Pride month because of every corporation trying to make money off of it. So, that's kind of a little thing I have to pay attention to. I'm not saying-Marketing has stuff to offer, I just don't think it's the, "Wow, we have to learn from them," because I think there's a lot of different things we can do. But it's not making people want to do something, I just want people to go with the gut they had when they were a kid and they were asking "why" five times over and

The Marketing people know what they are doing, and they do it very well because everything about our culture is consumerism right now. They're doing it right and science should learn from where it's working and adapt it to our own. It may or may not be a little bit [inaudible], but I couldn't believe he said that about how it was not emotional. I was like, "No." Everything we buy is emotional. Even from choosing a different toilet paper brand or something like that, or ketchup. My husband, he bought Hunts instead of Heinz, and I was like, "No. Why did you do this to me?" It reminds me, there's a part in Tina Fey's book, it might be a generational thing. I got the impression that he was of an older generation than us perhaps. It may be a generational thing because there's a chapter in Tina Fey's book where she talks about her dad. And one of the things about her dad was that, she describes his generation as having no brand loyalty. Where he wouldn't be a Barnes and Noble person, what's the other one that went out of business, or a Border's person. There was no, it was like," It's a bookstore, there is no difference. But that's for us, our generation, everything is about emotional connections to brands and identity and being a part of a group and whatever Peloton is doing, I want to do that for science. That's just one of, there's probably a hundred different examples that we can pull from. But they're doing things very, very well, and we could learn about how to do that for science, and I think, do a lot of good in improving our community hopefully.

I think there's a commonality of human engagement. Even when you're online, even when you have the splashboard, you're still engaging with people. How can we still have this human connection, especially now in this, after this pandemic everybody's looking for connection. I think that this is, I think one way to make science accessible is to make sure we bring our humanity and our whole selves. Especially, I think what intrigues people about certain merchandise, it somehow invokes some kind of memory they have or something, some connection that they already had in their past, and this augments that.

Yeah, I think what I'm hearing that I really love about your story, Charity, is that you are redefining who is a scientist. And, what science looks like. Because, I think, it's both areas. It's also professional scientist are doing-and then people are like, "Oh but I'm not a professional scientist." But you are. Because science is an inquiry process. And I think that students, definitely kids, can really understand, "Oh maybe I didn't do well in school, but I really love curiosity. I really love asking questions." And that's actually what you need to do be a real scientist, is asking questions and following your curiosity. So, I think that, that's great. That is the best way to really break down those barriers, especially in a city that's so academically science. To show another place of science is probably really, really needed for everybody who doesn't feel like they belong in those big echelons of science.

There was this very brief moment at the beginning of the morning, or just early in the shift where this young woman came into the store. And I have to say she was overcome with joy at all of the items in the store. She got really giddy and excited and said something like, "I love every single thing here." And then Charity was engaging with her about what she was doing and she said she was going to Salem and then was going to come back. And so she didn't want to purchase anything at that moment, but I felt there was some gift that the store gave to this young woman in having objects that really connected with her. I mean, really connected on this emotional level. That I was kind of taken aback by how happy she was and it made me feel happy. It was contagious.

the whole experience from the beginning, middle, and end was positive, but the feeling at the event itself and I contrast that with lots of other public events that I go every week. In a couple days I'll be at the NASCAR race in Phoenix for Friday and Saturday, and I've been to hundreds and hundreds of NASCAR races and big sporting event. And many of those events because they are a little more transactional than the interactions with fans and people, and people selling licensed merchandise and Dale Earnhardt sweatshirts aren't personally invested, so it's much more a retail transaction. You don't get those same feelings. So I think it's important to recognize that it was a positive event and Charity and Laura were positive people

Yeah, I think there's just something about the level of excitement that people have when they're in a place that they know, "Okay, I like science or someone I care about likes science and I'm in a place where the person running the store or shop or whatever is like, I like science too." And so they get really free. And this woman came in and she was talking about her wife who's actually a science teacher or her friend was a science teacher but her wife works in science. And she, I forget what the brooch was, but it was Marie Curie or Annie Jump Cannon, it was one of the female scientists. And she was like, "I'm going to buy this and she is totally going to have an orgasm over this. Can I say that is that okay?" And she was so funny because she was so excited that this small thing was going to be so important to someone that she cared about and being able to share and express their love of science and respect for that. In such a funny and silly way. Yeah it was a Rosalind Franklin. Because she's like, "Oh, who's this?" And Laura's like, "Oh, Rosalind Franklin discovered the double helix structure of DNA." And she was like instantly, "Yes, I want that."

I think that there's another category that could be explored that's just about Charity's identity. We've now spent some time together, like no, we don't know each other, but I feel like she's a really interesting person and I think that bringing out her identities of artist and scientist is another part of the selling of science. Like who is a scientist and not all scientist consider themselves not artists. Many scientists are also artists, and so to have someone who had a biography in the shop or who proudly display information about other scientists who have these dual identities, like maybe someones a scientist and a rock climber, whatever. Scientists have very many, many things, they're multidimensional, so I think that, that's another point of opportunity to have emotional connection that could be explored with The Science Boutique, but in other types of retail environments, is emphasizing the person who is a scientist.

as much as I want to sell and engage with people who don't know science, the shop did start to make females in academia feel more comfortable expressing themselves in fashion. Because it's something that I had gotten criticized for, was wearing heels and make up, by my department head, that's why I left that department. So, there is also the component of not just the general public, but also making people feel more comfortable in a lab setting or when they have to go to campus and most of the people in their class are men and are people that they don't talk to. And they'll be like, "Oh, I like your uterus necklace. Where'd you get that?" And can make friends in academia that way, so there's that component too

There's a lot of nuances to what I do. One of them being... And it's so hard to explain unless you're in the science world, is I'm an artist and I think it's always been a hard thing for me because I'm part of academia, but I'm also an artist and my husband's a professional artist. So I'm in two worlds at once and this is me trying to blend them together. Just as much as I try to engage artists in science, I also try to engage science in art.

I just have to stress this because this is a big part of The Science Boutique, is it's not and nor will... It probably never will be a thing marketing towards kids, by any means. Because in my research I found that once you make something like, "Oh here it's for families and kids," then the older crowd, the young adults, singles, couples avoid it. and that's my audience so I don't want to make it something they'd want to avoid. I by no means alienate kids, but... The science engagement that I have in my mind and plan to do is very much for young adults and adults. And I think my demeanor, and this is something that we were talking about the other day too, is geared well towards those people, like having my personality be out there more when it comes to a science engagement can only do good, which is exciting.

And when we look at marketing and advertising and consumer marketing, there's two main classifications. One involves media impressions, so the metric is impressions. So, big companies, I'll say Ford, so they spend a billion dollars creating impressions which will be TV commercials and print commercials so those are brand informational impressions. But they also spend many, many millions of dollars on interactions. And so in general a human interaction or consumer interaction is much more expensive than an impression, but there's clear research that shows in the right environment with the right targeted audience it's also much, much more cost effective. But when you're doing an interaction you don't need to just convey information, because impressions can do that. The idea is to use an interaction to create emotional connectivity because when you have a live event, it's live. And in the case of The Science Boutique not only were the items for sale, but Charity as a scientist with a background in astrophysics was a live person and so being able to have more live interactions because the contact point is the human interaction.

I really enjoy being able to explore my neighborhood in that way. And I think that because it's such a busy thoroughfare, because the beltline is right there, in Atlanta, you can easily just go around all the mats. And I think that it was wonderful and I think that it just made me want to spend more time in my neighborhood and want to spend more time walking down certain streets that aren't major thoroughfare. Just beautiful roads and go to some parks in my neighborhood. It just made me want to just get back into the infrastructure of where I'm from in ways I never had before, because I think that it's all about the car and then getting there and then these aren't easily backable areas either. So I think the event opened my mind up to different ways of experiencing my neighborhood in ways that are really affirming ways to experience my neighborhood too.

One thing that jumped out to me that I thought was really cool when listening to the Atlanta conversation was there was a part about discussing Clif bars and REI came in and it was talking about REI was an obstacle course. And I was like, "Wow, that sounds a really cool thing." But then the conversation was around this isn't reflective of the neighborhood or this store isn't here or something like that. And I may be misspeaking on that, but it was interesting because we had a previous year, a rock climbing wall at a similar event at Dwight whenever we were there for the fall festival, I believe. And I was like, "It's interesting because this is from the parks and rec department, which these kids are already super familiar with and they know these people because they bring in movies in the park in the summer as well." So I was just thinking of really similar amenities that we brought, but really being important by who in the community is bringing that in and how it's received.

I mean, I have a very small, quick vignette. I think being in that space reminded me a lot of my own childhood. So I did feel like an amazing amount of nostalgia when I was there. I grew up in the Bronx in a pretty under served, under resourced neighborhood, and I really could appreciate and my neighborhood was also the kind of neighborhood where all of the people knew each other. My mom would look out the window and see who was outside and then determined whether or not we were allowed to go outside because everybody who was there would have parented your children for you. I saw a lot of that in the Dwight community, and it kind of made me nostalgic and it made me miss home, miss my friends, miss my neighbors. So I don't know, I found that really moving, and I'm also saying this as someone who was completely an outsider to the Dwight community, I was like one of the only white women, just like walking around trying to be as small and unintrusive as possible. But it was clear I did not belong. So it was balancing this amazing the nostalgia especially when the woman broke out with a baton, and I was just thinking about how we used to have choreographed dance routines with batons in our courtyard of our buildings. I also sort of said, I was waiting for them to break out the double Dutch rope because I would have been right there doing that. So I don't know, I loved it. I thought it was a wonderful experience for me in terms of just making me remember being a little kid again.

as soon as people hear you say you're from Yale, it's an immediate off switch almost, people don't want to hear what you have to say, which I'm not trying to say that isn't like what was me, but it's just knowing your audience and not obscuring things but meeting people where they are and knowing that to get the most out of the things, the really cool things that you have to do interact with them with, that you may not want to talk about your pedigree coming from, I'm a graduate student at this prestigious institution, because that's not who we are at that event. I'm just a neighbor that happens to have a table with some slime.

The science that was happening behind that table was really cool and there were a lot of complex concepts behind it, but it was not rocket science, not to say it in a cliche way. It was thinking through density, thinking through molecular stuff, this is like middle school level science that folks that are familiar with. You don't have to be getting your PhD in neuroscience or biology to be able to engage in this way, right? So it could be folks from the [inaudible] department, the sociology department. It could be folks from across the university who could still engage with young people in this way, and there are a lot of people in sort of the social sciences that care about equity and inclusion, and a big piece of that is equity and inclusion of people of color in STEM and in tech because we know that that yield different educational opportunities, different job opportunities that eventually address some of the economic disparities that communities of color face.

the families and the young people interacted in a really positive way. I think the step further to that though is justice. You could react in a positive way, you could have great engagement, it could be fun, I did science I learned something new but there is this sentiment and I just share it personally as a black woman who was a black child of being able to see and experience things and look across the table and say wow, that person looks like me and is doing science, or wow, that person looks like me and knows all these things. There's more of a I can do that, I can do this, I can be this when you're able to see people who look like you.

I was thinking, about how we have some very emotional reactions from observers, that I didn't anticipate. Including Bart, it seemed that you had an emotional response that you shared with us in the first reporting. I really appreciate that, because it was spooky to me how closely it neared, several of the observers were like, "This reminds me of my childhood, and this childhood experience I had." And it's like, "How's that possibly happening in all across all these different, weird, barely connected settings?" The short version, is communities make you feel like you're in a community. That's the whole point in being in a place that is a community, that has a sense of identity, and belonging, and all that good stuff.

So I think I'm going to get a little bit real for a second. I think I'm among the generation where being a nerd wasn't socially acceptable. Being a science enthusiast meant Dungeons & Dragons kit and all of that sort of stuff. There was this real ostracism and trauma associated with that, and to walk into this community with overt celebration of education and pop culture all in one place was actually powerful for me, and to hear people talk directly about what this meant to them, and having body issues, or esteem issues or anxiety and saying like, "This community makes me feel good about myself," that was a real moment for me. So I was actually touched.

A couple of cool quotes I took were, one was from a woman who ended up winning a prize for technical work, she was in this Victorian era Captain America costume and she said, "I work in clinical trials, and cosplay and knitting and lace making is a lot like that. It feels to me like a puzzle." There's this iterative process of testing and problem solving and that she loves it for the challenge, and that felt interesting to me. And then other people had a lot of technology built into their costumes, and they talked about they were doing it for the tech, that this allowed them to take their technical skills and be creative with them, that this was how they could express themself. And they talked a lot about the soldering and programming and all this other stuff, and that felt like yeah, this maker STEM aspect felt stronger to me.

And so thinking in that way of how each of the individuals embodied their character, quote-unquote, you can't see my air quotes. I would say that in the way that we presented science it's like, "Here's the thing you're learning in the middle of all of these other shenanigans." And the subtle message there is that science is more serious, I think, or less inventive than these people dressed as plutonium and Einstein as a skeptic. I think there's still some more development to be made in the ways that we present the planets, if we're sticking with planets again next year. In that we were saying how Venus, she kind of played up on that feminine energy, and I think adults especially responded to that, because they had that connotation already. And so I think in addition to how we deliver messages, I think also considering how participants are the message can help people reach that understanding that science is embedded in all things.

And I think it's important to remember also the larger political moment that we're in, which is, a lot of people who do science don't feel that what they do is necessarily highly valued in the dominant structures of power in our society. So having science in public is really, really powerful, and I overheard a woman saying, "Yes, I work in science. I have a very good job. I really love science." She was sharing that with us, which just seems crazy, but she was shouting it to everybody. I never would have expected something like that would happen. That was somebody in the parade audience? Yeah, exactly. So there was that feeling of recognition. You all are parading, you all represent science, and I'm also a science person, I'm connected to you. And everybody around her was laughing like, "Yes. Okay. That's great."

my emotional reaction I think was of awe almost, like, "Wow, so many people are really, really excited about seeing science here." And so it was a shock almost that in this very fun, to be blunt, and kind of cartoon superhero fantasy, this very performative space, that science was so highly cheered, even seeing people cheer for the word science on the sign, that was interesting to me. As someone who knows science is in all of these things, but it's less explicitly stated. I think when you're looking at a Chewbacca costume or R2D2, you're looking at the fantasy not the science. I'm still trying to piece together how people receive science in these contexts, because science is so categorized as one distinct discipline away from our everyday life, that I'm not sure how to even process what people were getting from it, if that makes sense.

You feel like a rock star in that moment. Imagine what a boost that is for these kids. And you have to remember, I interviewed a number of these coconuts and robotics team kids. And they came into this whole robots thing not knowing anything about it, not feeling confident about what they could ever hope to do, not being extroverted by any means in a lot of cases, and yet we're asking them to perform, to be on stage and they are loving it. And it just encourages them to do more of that and to speak out and it makes them feel so good that people really respect and value what they're doing, what they're saying, what they have to offer. It's such a powerful reinforcement for these teenagers who this is kind of new to them and it's so encouraging.

You have to have a commitment of people who will get involved in the planning, the preparation for the demonstration, or whatever it is you plan to do and be on hand to staff the event, the event and engage with others. You also want to make sure you've got the right kinds of people. We have a lot of brilliant scientists who may not be the right kinds of people to put in the mall and talk about what they're doing. You have to think about who's giving the presentation. They may be great in creating the idea of what to use and what the learning takeaways are but are they the right people to be out in front.

at one point in the parade, I went up on a balcony in one of the downtown hotels and I wanted to catch what was going on from a bird's eye view when our float came through. It was amazing. Our float was crawling so slowly because the kids wanted to be engaging with the crowds so much. Our festival board members were doing what they did. They showed up. They were very organized. They're handing out stickers and they were holding the banner but the kids were the one that connected with the crowd and brought smiles and cheers and just had a really great heartwarming feel.

What's really important to the Festival of Science is being able to show people like themselves involved in pretty amazing things. It seems to be important and important hook if people can engage with scientists or see themselves as scientists or see themselves in the lab coat or in a situation, in the field research station, in the laboratory, in the observatory, that seems to be really important to see somebody like themselves doing science. That was our real angle this time in the festival parade.

We had those teenagers up on the float, some of them down on the street interacting with the crowd. That, to me, that youthful playfulness was so important. We have a lot of volunteers on our board and elsewhere for the Flagstaff Festival of Science who are scientists and educators. These are seasoned professionals. They're adults. They're serious. They bring an amazing amount of talent to the festival itself but what's missing is that youthful spirit that you can only get as a teenager or a young adult that these other kids bring. That was such an important element to engage with the crowd.

I feel like I've made friends, but I will add a more personal thing. I will self disclose a little bit. I identify as gay, and I also identify as a scientist. This was my first pride event ever, and so it really was quite something for me. I started in the life sciences, switched over into the social sciences, but I did all of that without any particular ... How to put it? Mentors that were like me. I have never really seen very much of: We are scientists, and we support the LGBTQ community in such a direct way. And so that really meant something for me to see now and especially as an adult and someone who is working their way up the academic ladder. As I saw all of it, it really struck me with, okay, this is important. This is a place where we should be as scientists. This is a community that we should talk to as scientists. And so it meant a lot to see you all doing that.

we have an external audience that is our official target audience, which is the public from that whatever community that is or event or whatever. But we also have our internal audience, our scientists, our volunteers, our just committee members or whatever. And we're in choosing to participate in a variety of different kinds of events, it is an opportunity to activate their interests.

I just think we need to acknowledge and I think science still has that stigma where it's this thing that other people do, that really smart people do or a certain kind of person does. So being there, we're breaking those stereotypes and we're showing who are actual scientists and we're involving people that are just showing up for a general public event. And they're actually involved with science by wearing these refraction glasses or learning something about the stars or whatever it is that science is not separate from the rest of the community. And I think that was one of our big takeaways that, yeah, by all means we should be in places like this.

I was just thinking about emotion and effect and how it's such a big part of what's happening at these events. And I think that just really reflecting back on what Vaughn and others I've just been saying and rereading the transcript Dragon Con briefing about how well okay, maybe the team wasn't necessarily able to convey the content of a scientific demonstration, but there were other things that were being conveyed that also matter. And yeah, that sense of connection, of excitement, of connectivity through emotion. I mean, I do think the learning experts should jump in. But I know, that's a big part of how I learned or how I care about things. And as we've all been learning in the last year and a half, it can be actually really hard for students to stay connected to learning on Zoom, because part of what's actually really hard is to get that feeling of connection to happen on Zoom. I mean, obviously, some of us we have to do it for our livelihoods, but it's hard for students to feel that they have skin in the game, sometimes through the tiles. And so, yeah. I think if part of what the engagement and the outreach is about is really creating a connection, creating a spark, that can then lead to reconnecting other events, other relationships. That is part of what parades are good at and what festivals are really good at is getting us to associate something with other things that we love or learning that we love something we didn't know we loved.

another outcome that was unexpected from our end, was that this was use... Well, it helped to recruit new partners for our science festival. Specifically, the DJ who happened to be a scientist on our float now is involved with our social media group and they are kicking butt. And that reminds us well, one, if you're having fun, people are going to want to join your group because why volunteer if you're not having fun. Secondly, because he's a scientist and he plays music on the side, but he's passionate about social media and it reminds me that, I love to raise money, but when I'm volunteering, I like my other capabilities to be tapped into, my love of music or art or whatever. And it just reminded me that unexpected outcome of that particular individual, but it's a great recruitment tool too.

So I think one of the take ons for me was I appreciate that I'm a scientist and I know I'm scientist and I know science is important. And I as a human being, I go to parades, I go to gigs, I go to events. And quite often you don't realize that those two things can and should interact.

I think for me, knowing that I'm coming in as an observer and separate, I found myself getting caught up in it. And especially with little Pluto and with earth and the moon, and giving them encouragement and really ... It was in spite of myself. I was surprised by how connected to the parade. I felt, even though I had given myself the pep talk, I was like, "Okay, here's what you look for." And I came in with a very academic or detached view of things, like, "This is not something I am attending, this is something I'm working at." But even then it was just impossible to avoid getting caught up in all of the energy and the positivity and the fun and the joy that was happening. So that's something that I think I'm ... And I've been telling all my friends about it since I came back, and very surprised by that. I wasn't expecting to be so involved, or to feel so involved.