I was reading my most recent EOS and came across this Forum article, written by Professor Seth Stein, a geologist at Northwestern University. You have to be an AGU member to access the online version, but in it he discusses the importance of selling earth science. I usually dislike references to academics or science using marketing terms, but I found his argument very compelling.
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I thought it was crap.
What part in particular, or why? I agree I dislike thinking in marketing terms (makes me feel all dirty), but there is a point there. At least in the US, most students don’t come to college with any idea what geology is or what geologists do, I certainly didn’t. I was good in science, so I was directed towards biology (chemistry being the other option). If I was also more math focused, I would have been directed towards physics. Geology? No one needs to really sell those fields, everyone knows how important they are, but the same isn’t true with geology. Even if the students don’t become geologists, they will become future voters, city council members, etc., and I would be thrilled right now if the average person thought geology was an important, dynamic, and exciting discipline. OK, now I need to go wash the marketing cooties off.
No specifics, no numbers, no details or methods of verifying/disproving what he says.