Engaging Science Presentation
I just finished watching the first episode in the new season of Nova ScienceNow, hosted by astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, Director of the Hayden Planetarium in the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. The program was a splendidly entertaining mix of stories -- on asteroid collisions, transuranium elements, obesity, and an MIT mechanical engineer who is also a successful fiction writer. My wife and I, both scientists, were charmed and engrossed, but I think that the program tries to appeal mainly to bright high schoolers and middle schoolers.
Nova ScienceNow is funded by Google, NSF, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, all of which have strong interests and good track records in presenting science to young audiences. Tyson is a very stylish and articulate African-American, which surely won't hurt in appealing to the students of color whom we so badly need to attract to our university science and engineering programs. (According to his web site, he was voted "Sexiest Astrophysicist Alive" by People Magazine in 2000, but he's an active and distinguished scientist as well.)
More often than not, when we talk of public engagement the vector of partnership is predominantly from university to public. Here's a great example of the other way round: private and government foundations, and a charismatic scientist who works outside of traditional academia, doing things that will be of great benefit to universities.
Links:
Nova ScienceNow: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/sciencenow/
Neil deGrasse Tyson web site: http://research.amnh.org/~tyson/