Communicating Science to Children

Children are at the center of some of the most controversial topics in science communication. Science, health, and technology news stories often carry images of children—on topics ranging from vaccinations to climate change, nutrition, genetics, or digital media—and yet the audience for such reporting tends to be decidedly grown up. News media aside, however, a significant quantity of science communication is aimed at children, in school if nowhere else. The science communicated in school is noticeably less contentious than that found in science news, science so established that it is sometimes several decades (even centuries) out of date.

This entry's title might be too didactic for some tastes—communicating to children—but in many respects it is realistic. When it comes to science communication's more youthful audiences, the ...