From Hashtag to High School: How Viral Tweets Are Inspiring Young Scientists To Embrace STEM
-
Authors:
Jocelyn E. Swift1,
Brian Lovett2,
Christine E. Koltermann1,
Chelsey L. Beck1,
Matt T. Kasson2,*
-
Received 06 April 2020 Accepted 09 August 2020 Published 12 November 2020
- ©2020 Author(s). Published by the American Society for Microbiology
-
[open-access] This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ and https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/legalcode), which grants the public the nonexclusive right to copy, distribute, or display the published work.
- *Corresponding author. Mailing address: G103 South Agricultural Sciences Building, West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV 26506. Phone: 304-293-8837. E-mail: [email protected].
Abstract:
Social media is an increasingly important professional tool for scientists. In particular, scientists use their social media profiles to communicate science and build communities with like-minded scientists and nonscientists. These networks include journalists who can amplify social media science communication, disseminating it to new audiences on- and offline. Our experience with an outreach project where Peeps marshmallows were inoculated with diverse fungi, which we called #FungalPeeps, has demonstrated that these networks can be an effective conduit between researchers and high school students. Following popular science journalism, #FungalPeeps, a project initiated at West Virginia University, inspired a mycology research project in Notre Dame High School in San Jose, California. Herein, we describe how this connection between academia, journalists, and the high school classroom happened, and how everyone involved benefited from this educational collaboration. We further suggest ways that modern social media networks could be leveraged to incorporate more such practical learning experiences into progressive science curricula to better cultivate young STEM scientists.
References & Citations
Supplemental Material
No supplementary material available for this content.

Article metrics loading...
Abstract:
Social media is an increasingly important professional tool for scientists. In particular, scientists use their social media profiles to communicate science and build communities with like-minded scientists and nonscientists. These networks include journalists who can amplify social media science communication, disseminating it to new audiences on- and offline. Our experience with an outreach project where Peeps marshmallows were inoculated with diverse fungi, which we called #FungalPeeps, has demonstrated that these networks can be an effective conduit between researchers and high school students. Following popular science journalism, #FungalPeeps, a project initiated at West Virginia University, inspired a mycology research project in Notre Dame High School in San Jose, California. Herein, we describe how this connection between academia, journalists, and the high school classroom happened, and how everyone involved benefited from this educational collaboration. We further suggest ways that modern social media networks could be leveraged to incorporate more such practical learning experiences into progressive science curricula to better cultivate young STEM scientists.

Full text loading...
Author and Article Information
-
Received 06 April 2020 Accepted 09 August 2020 Published 12 November 2020
- ©2020 Author(s). Published by the American Society for Microbiology
-
[open-access] This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ and https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/legalcode), which grants the public the nonexclusive right to copy, distribute, or display the published work.
- *Corresponding author. Mailing address: G103 South Agricultural Sciences Building, West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV 26506. Phone: 304-293-8837. E-mail: [email protected].
Figures

Click to view
FIGURE 1
Initial #FungalPeeps viral thread (A), including the Peeps brand engagement (B) and final updates (C).

Click to view
FIGURE 2
Data and images generated from the investigation of R. stolonifer. (A) Aaverage colony width measurements on PDA supplemented with 1 to 10% potassium sorbate, with no potassium sorbate as a control. Error bars indicate standard errors. Lettering indicates groups with significant differences (p<0.05; Student’s t-test), comparing individuals (n=3), and the pink dashed line indicates the maximum width of the plate (6.25 cm). (B) Final observation of an R. stolonifer sample grown with a 1% potassium sorbate treatment for 2 weeks. (C) Representative photograph of microscopic features (sporangia and sporangiospores) applicable for identifying R. stolonifer.