Introduction

In Rosalind Franklin and DNA, author Anne Sayre noted, "The public has the right to know, and the duty to ask; scientists have the responsibility of telling."

I believe it is imperative that public science play a defining role in our deliberations, discourse, decisions, and in and for our democracy. Our current era of viral misinformation, disinformation, and outright conspiracies, demands effective, responsive, and responsible public enlightenment by scientists. I successfully integrated public science requirements and activities into my high school and college lecture and lab courses utilizing multiple media (newsprint, journals, radio, and social).

I required and trained my students (high school and college) to engage in public science. For example, by (a) creating video descriptions of their early research experiences, (b) writing about their research experiences in local newspapers, and (c) having Grade 10 students (i) write elected officials about environmental issues and concerns, and (ii) create environmental public science announcement (PSA) videos. In addition, our 2016 ACS Symposium book The Power and Promise of Early Research has a chapter written by several students in their own words called Lab Tales: Personal Stories of Early Researchers.