Science & Civics – What Every American Should Know

The Science & Civics initiative is based on the premise that there is a gap in both civic literacy and scientific literacy in the United States. We believe that these two trends are connected – and that addressing them together is vital to cultivating a citizenry capable of informed self-government. We aim to help scientists become more powerful citizens, and help to enable citizens to make sense of the world and complex problems more like scientists.

Our goal is to ensure scientific literacy is interwoven with civic and cultural literacy – in both directions.

We are working with leading practitioners and communicators of both civics and science to explore what it takes to generate more citizens-as-scientists and more scientists-as-citizens. The ideas generated during this process will be synthesized into publications focused on what it takes to build bridges of knowledge and understanding between science and civics. We will bring these products to communities around the country in order to facilitate increased communication and collaboration between scientific and civic networks.