Survey on Activities of FOEP Members

FOEP carried out a survey of its membership (and others) in autumn 2015. There were 343 responses from a membership of 1525. Of these 64 % held more senior positions (faculty, etc.) with the remaining 36% being students and postdocs.

An interesting question asked whether one’s department/institution encouraged or discouraged outreach activities. 77% said they were encouraged or mildly encouraged. From the written comments, it appeared that discouragement may instead be self-inflicted out of concern about distraction from career advancement. The results were almost identical when only students and postdocs were considered.

Of these survey participants, 89% said they had participated in outreach activities within the last five years. 36% would consider giving a ten-minute contributed talk at an APS meeting, and another 36% said they might consider it. If there was a peer-reviewed scholarly journal with articles written by and for scientists, specifically focused on outreach, 26% would and 47% might be interested in submitting articles.

Asked how they would like FOEP to serve them in their outreach efforts, the results were quite evenly divided among: a) Encourage support for outreach, b) Provide ideas for outreach, and c) Build community among those interested in outreach.

Concerning audiences for their outreach activities, respondents identified: students (6-12), general public, undergraduates, students (K-5), and teachers (6-12) as their top audiences. Somewhat further behind were women and minorities, where these activities were narrowly defined as being specifically designed for women or for minorities. Other significant audiences were: media, graduate students, families and faculty scientists.

Outreach activities covered an extremely broad range with public talks and/or public demos far ahead of others. These were followed by classroom presentations, lectures, science festivals, open houses, guided tours, websites, social media (incl. Blogs, Twitter, Facebook), summer institutes, ask-a-scientist programs, cafés scientifique, physics slams, videos/movies, and posters. Rounding up the outreach activities were: brochures, speakers bureaus, scout programs, books, masterclasses, virtual tours, and podcasts.

This was a very successful survey for FOEP.

Contributed by: Michael Barnett