The website is colorful and attractive, and it provides easy access for users to create their own content. One of our priorities is a low entry bar, making it easy for a non-web-savvy person to create content extremely quickly. When we receive a contribution, we provide feedback and suggest edits to the author, and we help them find related web material—videos, pictures, stories—to illustrate concepts in compelling ways. Our goal is to help researchers amplify their message by making it meaningful to a broad audience, without sacrificing scientific accuracy. Most researchers are excited to reach a broader audience, and the presence of Google Analytics lets contributors see how many hits, reads, likes their posts acquire.

Post from Funsize Physics: Picture of a skyrmion from Spins and Skyrmions, by Alexey Kovalev

Q. What advice would you give to someone writing up their research for a general audience?

We have a set of specific Dos and Don’ts on the website, but in general we ask contributors to imagine explaining their research to a curious and intelligent middle- or high-schooler. While our target audience is considerably broader than that, this is something most researchers can relate to, and it provides a good litmus test to gauge the scope and level of their writing. We endeavor to make all content on the site understandable, appealing, and meaningful to a bright and curious middle-to-high-schooler. To instill interest and enthusiasm among this age group, we use colorful, dynamic graphics and we encourage a conversational tone. In one focus group, students liked the fact that the titles used cool words and made connections to things they know about (e.g. Legos, waffles). And we’ve found the same qualities that make the site appealing to young students also attract science enthusiasts of all ages, as well as the science-curious public.

Q. Is the audience of your website primarily from the US or do you have a global impact?

Our core focus is to highlight NSF-funded researchers, so most of our contributors work in the U.S. or have collaborators here. The audience for the site is global, and our site analytics indicate we are indeed reaching a worldwide audience.

Q. What is your favorite thing about the work you do?

Working with researchers to prepare and refine their posts is tremendously rewarding. Because contributing to Funsize Physics is an easy way to fulfill the broader impacts requirements of grants—and we encourage researchers to use it in this capacity—not all of our contributors are experienced in outreach. Very often, they are initially a bit unsure about how to share their work with non-scientists, and some are even skeptical that it can be done without compromising the accuracy of the content. When they receive our suggested edits to their post, many experience an “aha” moment – “Oh, that’s how you do it!” We work with our contributors to ensure everything is exactly as they want it before their post is published, and we’re adamant about making the research meaningful to non-scientists without sacrificing accuracy. At the end of the process, many of our contributors tell us the experience not only helped them develop a better sense of how to explain their research to a broad audience, on Funsize Physics and elsewhere, but they had a lot of fun doing it!

Q. What do you find most exciting about outreach? Most rewarding? Most difficult? Most important?

We are excited that so many researchers around the globe, particularly younger ones, are eager to share their research and outreach activities with the world. Some of the most rewarding aspects of this project are the positive comments we receive from both contributors and readers. At the moment, our biggest challenge is sustaining the stream of new posts. Everyone is busy, and setting aside time for a first draft can be difficult. In the future, we aim to connect to the broader public through cross-referencing with other science blogs and websites with established followings. To get attention from well-known blogs and websites, however, it is important that we develop content which is of current and immediate interest. We are especially interested in expanding the Funsize Classroom section, enabling researchers to learn from prior outreach work and share their successful activities with one another. Our ultimate goal is to make Funsize Physics a known source of cutting-edge science content which reflects the most recent developments in the discipline, and which is also presented in a form that is compelling and meaningful to the public.

“Some of the most rewarding aspects of this project are the positive comments we receive from both contributors and readers.”