My Sediments Exactly

Empowering Science Communication through Storytelling, One Quilt at a Time: An Interview with Prof. Laura Guertin, Penn State Brandywine University

• Medha Chaturvedi • Episode 6

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Summary

Professor Laura Guertin, a marine geologist and earth science educator, combines her passion for science with quilting to create science storytelling quilts. These quilts serve as a unique and engaging way to communicate scientific data and concepts to non-STEM audiences. By incorporating data sets into the quilts, Laura is able to captivate and educate people who may be intimidated by traditional scientific presentations. Her quilts have been well-received by various audiences, including students, senior citizens, and community groups. Laura also encourages her students to become science storytellers by using storytelling techniques to share their knowledge with others. Through her quilts and teaching methods, Laura aims to make science more accessible and relevant to everyday life.

You can follow more of Dr. Guertin's work here.

Her work with Penn State University can be accessed here.


Keywords

science education, quilting, science communication, data visualization, storytelling, engagement

Takeaways

  • Innovative powerful tools for science communication, making scientific data and concepts more accessible and engaging for non-STEM audiences.
  • Incorporating data sets into quilts allows people to visualize and understand scientific information through colors and patterns, rather than intimidating graphs and numbers.
  • Quilts can serve as a bridge between science and society, sparking conversations and raising awareness about important scientific topics.
  • Engaging students in science education involves showing them the relevance of scientific concepts to their daily lives and encouraging them to become science storytellers.
  • Effective science communication requires knowing your audience and using appropriate methods, such as storytelling, to connect with them and make complex information more understandable.

My Sediments Exactly. Follow us at @SpringerGeo and Springer Environmental Sciences at @SpringerEnviro on X , formerly known as Twitter. We would love to hear from you. If you have questions, comments or would like to be featured on this podcast, please send your feedback to medha.chaturvedi@springernature.com

Medha Chaturvedi (00:00.544)

Why did the geoscientist bring a quilt to the field? Because they wanted to cover all the layers.

 

Medha Chaturvedi (00:26.99)

And welcome to my Sediments Exactly, where we take nothing for granite. I'm your host Medha Chaturvedi. First of all, I know that I haven't been able to post an episode in a month and the reason for that is that much like the continental plates, I've been moving. So it's fair to say that like Pangaea, I'm not altogether at the moment, but I digress.

 

Have you ever wondered how science educators make research more accessible and consumable for the general audience? Some like to make videos, some turn it into art, and some even come up with, I don't know, podcasts? And then there are some who combine their passion for science with their passion in life to create something exceptional, like a colorful quilt representing climate data.

 

So I'm thrilled to spotlight one such extraordinary geoscientist, Professor Laura Guertin, who is a marine geologist by training and an earth science educator by choice. She's a trailblazer at the nexus of science, education and art, quilting important geo data with the communities affected by the changing patterns of geo activities. Laura is a distinguished professor of earth sciences,

 

at the Penn State Brandywine University and science communication is her quilty pleasure. She has in the past worked with communities affected by rising sea levels in the southern Louisiana coast and with their stories of climate resilience, she made one of her quilts, which was showcased at the American Geophysical Union in 2019.

 

I had a chance to interact with Laura at the AGU last December. And when I tell you that her earth science quilts are spectacular, I'm not fabricating. In her efforts to interface earth sciences with scientific literacy among non -STEM majors, quilting is her patchwork. Laura's work is a culmination of dreams and seams and earth science in between.

 

Medha Chaturvedi (02:45.422)

Her work spotlights those who are not getting a stitch of attention otherwise. Beyond academia, Dora wheels quilts as a canvas, stitching together the narratives of ocean science with an artist's touch. Her journey took a creative leap in 2018 after attending the Ocean .com event, leading her to intertwine quilting with scientific storytelling.

 

This innovative approach not only captivates new audiences, but also honors the monumental efforts of the International Ocean Discovery Program and the legendary voyages of the JOIDES Resolution Ship. Laura's quilts are more than just art, they're a vibrant dialogue between science and society, celebrating the legacy of ocean exploration and the collective quest for knowledge. So gear up for a conversation that

 

weaves through the fabric of science education and the art of quilting. Laura, it's fantastic to have you here today. 

 

Laura Guertin: 

Thank you so much for this opportunity to talk about science storytelling with quilts. 

 

Medha Chaturvedi:

Thank you, Laura. So let me start with asking you, how did this interest come to be? How did you decide to combine science literacy with quilting? 

 

Laura Guertin

It's been an interesting journey for me. I have been a crocheter for a number of years. And it was an activity that I shared with my grandmother. We used to be able to exchange crocheting tips and share our projects with each other. And when she passed on in 2006, the family gave me her sewing machine. And I really wanted to do something with the machine, but I hadn't sewn since I was back in the eighth grade. And that's when I started taking some quilting classes and the quilting activities though were separate from my science activities. In essence, those identities of science and the creative arts were always separate for me until I went to the ocean .com event. It was held at the Louisiana university's Marine consortium in 2018. And it was an opportunity for scientists and science communicators to come together and learn about the challenges being faced in the Louisiana coast from sea level rise to coastal subsidence.

(05:05.602)

to increasing storm frequency. And the theme of the conference was coastal optimism. And every one of us at the conference were challenged. After we met local residents and heard their stories and how they're adapting and being resilient to these challenges, we were told, find a way to tell the stories with others. And I wanted to do right by that because these people were facing such enormous challenges with what was happening in their physical environment. And you couldn't just pack up and move that they were there and they were finding ways to adapt. And I remember it was a very long flight home. were flight delays and I was so exhausted when I walked into my house and I saw my sewing machine sitting there on the table with an unfinished project. And for some reason, some light bulb came on for me. And I said, what if I tried to stitch some of the stories that I heard?

And that's what really started my journey into doing science storytelling with quilts. By the end, I had nine quilts I had created that told the stories of adaptation and resilience. And so I've called that collection Stitching Hope for the Louisiana Coast. That is so wonderful and such a fitting name for something so exciting and personal for you and for the communities that you worked with.

 

 

Medha Chaturvedi:

Now I would imagine that engaging students at a greater level in terms of looking at scientific data and how it can be interpreted and also made widely accessible can be quite challenging. Do you think that that plays a crucial role in creating these beautiful quilts so that your students can be more engaged with them, especially those who are from the non -STEM fields?

 

Laura Guertin:

Now, working with data and sharing data with others, I know can be a challenge because some people are very intimidated by numbers, by graphs. And unfortunately, as scientists, many times we lead with the data. And that's a great way to talk to other scientists, but not to non -scientists. So immediately they think it's math, they think it's hard and they shut down. So I've been able to take various data sets and put them into the quilts as well.

 

(07:23.59)

And immediately people are not seeing data. They're seeing colors, they're seeing patterns. And it's where I'm bringing them in with the colors and the layouts of the quilts. And then I kind of hook them with the science story and tell them about what I'm quantifying and what I'm showing behind it. I find it's incredibly successful with students, with senior citizens, with people I meet at local libraries.

 

It's a wonderful way to bring people into conversations about science, not having a standard XY axis with a graph on it, but actually using data in a quilt.

 

Medha Chaturvedi:

So now coming from someone who's a tad wary of numbers, I can tell you this would have been perfect when I was learning statistics back at university level. What has been the deception to your quilts, especially by students and as you mentioned, senior citizens and other non -scientists who come across these quilts? 

 

Laura Guertin

For me, it's been incredibly surprising, amazingly rewarding. So...I am trained in the fields of geology and oceanography. So my PhD is in marine geology and geophysics, and I've done scientific research. And in my current position at Penn State Brandywine, much of my research has been in the area of geoscience education or pedagogical work, where I've been looking at how new and emerging technologies can enhance student learning in the classroom. But then I started on this journey of doing science storytelling with quilts.

And I have to say, I have had more invitations to talk about my quilts than I have any of my science research or any of my educational research. It's been amazing. And it's opening a door for me to talk about geoscience and the ocean with audiences I've never had a chance to be in front of before. Many times I'm going to science conferences or I'm going to science outreach events.

 

(09:22.328)

but now I'm getting invitations to speak at libraries, to speak at quilting guilds, to speak at senior citizen friendship circles. And these are groups that never would invite a scientist to come speak in front of them. Now, granted they all require I bring my quilts, which is absolutely fine. Again, the quilts are that entrance way. It's a doorway for me to be able to then share not just with the community and I will say with my students as well. And in fact, this past year, I actually had my students collaborate with me on making quilts on how we can use the coastal zone as a solution for some of the global warming challenges we're seeing. That's a very interesting approach to involve students in something as important as looking at coastal data with the lens of global warming. Could you tell me more about this particular aspect of your quilting and your science education? Because this sounds remarkable. So I had made my, I'll start with the beginning of my quilting journey. So again, I started with my Louisiana quilts, the stitching hope for the Louisiana coast. And then after that, I started making what I would say mini quilts. So something that could fit on the front door of your house. And the theme for that collection was around Project Drawdown, which is a organization that is looking for how can we draw down the CO2 levels in our atmosphere? What are the different efforts that we can do in the transportation sector and the agricultural sector? And I made a collection of mini quilts for each of these solutions to what's going on. Because so many times we hear that, again, those doom and gloom stories about what's happening with climate change, and many people do not feel empowered or realize that there are actions and activities that we can do. Again, whether you're a student, whether you're an adult, any person can take an action to actually address the challenges we're facing on the planet. And what I did with the drawdown quilts originally was I did hang them on the front door of my house and I did have descriptions and words with them. And my house, actually I do something I call front door science and I use the quilts to educate my neighbors and everyone that goes walking around in my neighborhood too. And then the quilts have come to campus and they're now in my classroom. So it's...

 

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a great way to engage all audiences in seeing what we can do to not only myself as a scientist teach other science, but to engage them in discussions and have them realize that they too can take actions to help us create that sustainable planet Earth that we want to see moving forward. 

 

Medha Chaturvedi

Fascinating. Starting them young is always the key. Now one question that I have is related to an experience that I had a few years ago. I came across a climate scientist who used poetry as a means to talk about science. Now the problem was that the scientist was seen with a lot of condemnation by their peers who thought that they were diluting the data. What kind of challenges have you come across from people when they come across your quilt or your science communication strategies?

Has there ever been any negative experiences? Or has it always been very positive? Tell us more about that. 

 

Laura Guertin

I would say in terms of the quilts, the first thing that, and I would say the most important thing the quilts are doing is getting people to talk about the data, to talk about what's happening. Catherine Hayhoe is a climate scientist and one of my climate heroes that I look to and she has an amazing Ted Talk she's done that says the best thing we can do about climate change is to talk about it.

And it's a topic that so few people that are non -scientists are talking about. So when I put the data into the quilts and I bring the quilts to all these varied audiences, getting people engaged in learning about what the data is, where it comes from and how we know about it is important. And I'd like to share a short story about one of my data visualization quilts I made that

does not tie into sustainability, but got the youngest audience to become citizen scientists, if you will. So when I was on the scientific research vessel, Joyde's Resolution, I had the opportunity to Zoom, to connect through the internet back with classrooms in my hometown in Media, Pennsylvania. I connected with the elementary school there. And when I was on the ship with the students,

 

 (14:02.624)

One of the things we did was we went to the bridge of the ship and we met the second mate who was looking at the clouds every day. He was recording meteorological data to help support the scientific data we were getting from the cores we were collecting from the deep sea. And these kindergarten students were so fascinated that you could actually look at the sky and take cloud measurements. They weren't aware of this value before. And they decided at their elementary school, they wanted to take daily cloud measurements, just like we were on the ship. And for the rest of the school year, they were going out to their playground and they were collecting cloud data. The same time we were collecting cloud data on the ship and I was sending that data back to the teacher of the school. And so you have these really young kids that were now observing the world around them and realizing that they could collect data and they were making comparisons. And so that's one of the quilts I made. It was in honor of these kindergarten students, these really young kids that got excited about the world around them. And if we can start that young and getting them excited to be engaged with their own world, then they can continue to go on and continue to ask questions and collect data and look at that and question what it means. And again, then take that next step and be able to take actions to move forward for that sustainable planet we want. 

 

Medha Chaturvedi:

That's really interesting to hear. And the gender aspect that you highlighted right now has also been something that comes up in conversation so often and perhaps merits a more open discussion. Now, since you foray into science communication, my question is, how can professors and educators help inspire students to get more engaged and passionate about science in general and about data and sustainability issues which affect our day -to -day lives and which can have a profound impact on the future? 

 

Laura Guertin

Thank you so much for this question because I think it is an important one to address. I will say when I started doing these quilts, I was doing it for fun and it was fun to share the quilts and fun to make them.

 

 (16:16.418)

But then I realized there was some momentum going and that they were gaining popularity and it wasn't just scientists that were seeing them, but again, the non -scientists in my community across different areas. And the biggest challenge I would say was myself because as a female scientist, I have faced challenges just working in my field, whether it be in the field or at my university.

 

There's always challenges and working really hard to establish my credibility, to be able to have collaborators to work with. And here I am quilting and quilting is viewed as a very feminine activity. And I'm in the field of marine geology where there aren't a lot of females to begin with. So I was very, very nervous about having my identity being affiliated with quilts at the professional level.

 

but I decided, well, let's see how this goes. And so I did for a geology meeting, I brought a quilt. And so in the poster session at the conference, there's these rows of posters, right? With these giant sheets of paper that are put up on these bulletin boards. And instead of a poster, I hung a quilt and I had my abstract and a short description next to it. And I started describing to people that were coming by.

 

what was in the quilt and the story that I was telling. And I have to say at that conference, I had more people come to my quilted poster than to any presentation I had ever given at a conference before. It was so well received and people were so kind coming up saying, I have a quilt at home. And that's where I think the connection comes from that everyone has a favorite blanket or they have a story about a quilt that their grandmother made.

 

So in the science world, I had so many fears about bringing quilts into the conversations, into the forms of dissemination. Usually dissemination is done as a journal article or a talk that you give or a poster. No one's disseminating science with quilts, but I have to say it's been amazing, the reception that I have gotten. So I'm incredibly pleased that people are open to it.

 

 (18:39.946)

and realize that it is yet just another tool in our science communication toolkit that we can use to engage audiences to help society realize the relevance and the importance of why we need science and why we need scientific data to inform our decisions that we're making in our daily lives and our policy choices as well.

 

Medha Chaturvedi:

Thank you so much for elaborating on that, Laura. I have one last question for you. So now in your toolkit of research dissemination and science education, do you also have some traditional tools like publishing papers or poster presentations or lectures that you rely on to make your research accessible? 

Laura Guertin:

Again, this is another really important question. And at my university, I teach introductory level Geoscience, Earth Science courses for non -science majors. So every semester, every class I'm teaching is filled with students that are not going to become scientists. They're enrolled in my class because my university requires students as part of their, what we call their general education curriculum to take so many science courses. No matter what your major, you have to take science before you graduate from the university. So I have students in my class that...

 

Many of them don't want to be there. They're there because it's a graduation requirement. But I view this also as a golden opportunity to show students how science connects to their daily lives. And that's really the key with students is getting them to see how this is relevant, why this matters, how it impacts them now and how it will in the future. So.

 

I know when I went through my undergraduate degree, it was very much marching through a textbook. Here's our first chapter on minerals. Here's our next chapter on igneous rocks, then the next chapter on sedimentary rocks and so on and so forth. But if we can add a little bit more of that society component and showing students a little bit of why it's important to know about earthquakes, why it's important to look at volcanism and show how it connects to their lives, that's the first step.

 

(20:56.78)

The other thing I do within my classes is because my students are not going to be scientists in the future, I engage them in telling the stories of what they're learning as well. So instead of having them write a traditional science report that will have an introduction section and the methods and the results in the discussion, I engage them in storytelling. I actually teach them different storytelling techniques such as using the and but therefore template or the compass message box.

 

And with what they're learning in the semester, my students have to produce a story at the end, not a report. They produce a story and it will be either on paper, it'll be through an audio, they'll make an individual podcast file. Or as I mentioned last semester, we made a collaborative quilt with their stories about looking at climate solutions. And then this is something they will go and repeat onto others. Students aren't handing a laboratory report.

 

to their family or friends. But if I teach them some storytelling techniques and showing the relevance of their work, we're all storytellers by nature. And so now they are able to go forth and share the stories of what they learned so that their classroom learning doesn't stay within my classroom walls. I feel I fail them if that's all that happens. Everything stays between me and them. I want them to share their knowledge with others. And so that's where I think we need to make a big

 

a big effort in changing what we're doing with students in our classes. I have turned all my students into science storytellers and I'm going to continue to do that. And it's been so much fun hearing them share their knowledge with others. So I still do attend professional conferences like the Geological Society of America or the American Geophysical Union. And I will give

 

talks and I will give posters using those formats where I'm sharing the research that I've done on geoscience education within my classroom and with students and such. So I will use those methods to communicate with other scientists. That's the way we share our work typically at science meetings or I will publish my work in professional journals like the Journal of Geoscience Education, for example.

 

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But when I'm talking with non -scientists, that's where the creative part comes in. Because for me to give a 15 minute PowerPoint or a march through PowerPoint slides to a community group, that's not engaging. And that's gonna be disconnect. There's gonna be a huge disconnect there. So the most important part is knowing your audience and then figuring out what's the best way to communicate with them. For a scientist to talk to another scientist, it is still the giving presentations, presenting posters, writing journal articles. That's the way we communicate with each other in our community. But with that audience, that's the tool we use. If I'm going to speak to a group, for example, I just spoke with a group of seventh graders and showing them a PowerPoint slide after a PowerPoint slide is not the way to do it. So thinking about who your audience is and what's the best way to connect with them, engage them, and again, giving them some information and maybe building up a mini skill so that they can take what they've learned from you and share it with others. That's what I want to do with my community groups. So I still have my traditional dissemination techniques because I have been raised as a scientist and so I still share in my science world that way. But I also have these other tools that I really enjoy using to really broaden the scientific literacy of all that I come in contact with. 

 

Medha Chaturvedi:

Thank you so much, Laura. Before we end, just one last thing, what would be your advice to future scientists and science educators on being engaging and on talking about scientific research relevant to our world's most challenging problems?

 

Laura Guertin

This is a very hard question to answer because the challenges on our planet are changing very quickly, right? There's so much going on with extreme heat, extreme flooding events. And for us as scientists, we're trying to understand those events. And so how do we share those events with others and to make sure we're not sharing fear, but we're sharing helpful advice, ways they can prepare, ways they can be resilient as we're facing

 

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an increasing frequency with these events. So part of it is I would say know yourself, know what topics you're comfortable with, know which audiences you're comfortable with as well. For example, I know I was a Girl Scout when I was young and I went through the Brownies and Junior Girl Scouts. so that's because I came from the community of Girl Scouting.

 

I've been very comfortable speaking to Girl Scouts and talking to them about different science badges and helping them earn their science badges. it's knowing who your audiences are and knowing who you are and finding where is that common ground to be able to share your knowledge and then find ways to help them get access to the tools they need in those communities to be able to move forward for.

 

us to advance our sustainable practices, as well as just our basic knowledge. And I really think sometimes it just comes down to sharing information with others. We have to start talking about sustainability more in this context, and we need to engage in more conversations. So I think sometimes it starts with those simple ideas of knowing where your strengths are, knowing who your community is, and finding ways to be able to talk.

 

Medha Chaturvedi:

Thank you so much, Laura. This was such a pleasure to talk to you about science and science education and of course your quilts. And I must confess that when I met you at AGU last year, I didn't even know something like this existed until I saw this huge crowd gathered outside the pavilion where your quilts were displayed. And I was so excited to see that because as you mentioned earlier in the conversation, everybody has a favorite quilt and I had to think about mine.

I also was very much taken by the beautiful colors that you use to represent all the data that you and your team have gathered. So thank you for talking to us about this wonderful topic and about your own journey into this art form along with the science behind it. Thank you for this opportunity.

 

Medha Chaturvedi (27:38.2)

So there you have it. Just like a well -crafted quilt, Professor Laura Guertin pieces together stories, insights, and creativity, showcasing how art and science can come together in a beautiful tapestry of understanding. So whether you're tackling geological layers or sewing a cozy patchwork, it's all about embracing the connections that bind us together in the fabric of understanding.

 

This conversation doesn't have to end here. For more latest insights on all things Geo and Earth Sciences, follow and subscribe to My Sediments Exactly wherever you get your podcasts. This is your host Medha Chaturvedi signing off now. Remember that in the world of science, just like in quilting, there are no mistakes, only unraveled opportunities for creativity. So keep those quilting needles sharp and your curiosity even sharper.

 

And until next time, rock on.