On a Tuesday evening, a crowd gathers at the Fat Frogg Bar and Grill. It’s not there for the oversized burger or a struggling local musician. It’s hardly there to socialize.
The people are there for science, and they are there because of Dave Gammon.
Gammon, associate professor of biology at Elon University, organized a group known as Tectonic Plates last year. The club is designed to foster conversation about the discipline for people who aren’t traditional scientists.
“I’ve always felt like my job at Elon is to take science out to the masses, and when I think ‘the masses’ I’m not just thinking Elon freshmen,” Gammon said.
A natural born scientist
A career in the sciences wasn’t always the plan for Gammon. Although he naturally gravitated toward biology, his decision to enter the field was gradual.
Gammon studied what he calls “regular old biology” as an undergraduate at Brigham Young University, followed by pursuing a Ph.D. at Colorado State University. Although his studies in the natural sciences were only finalized during his years as a student, he said he always had a passion for the field.
“All kids begin their lives as little scientists in embryo, and then some of them get it beaten out of them when they find out that understanding the world also comes with math and quantitative things and predictive and technical terms,” he said.
He’s figured out the reason behind the lack of enthusiasm from the public. Now his mission is to change it.
Applying knowledge beyond the classroom
Gammon’s ability to create meaningful connections between the natural sciences and the student body is a gift, according to Jeffrey Coker, director of general studies and associate professor of biology.
“(Science) underlies everything,” Coker said. “A huge proportion of political issues relate to science, stem cells, climate change, science and technology and their ability to drive economic progress. They underlie the economy, the military and human progress.”
Gammon recognized that most students are interested in these fields, and therefore need to understand science to survive in the workforce. This belief also influenced Gammon’s decision to create Tectonic Plates.
“The idea really appealed to me, of bringing a scientist into a pub or a restaurant, someplace that a scientist normally wouldn’t go, and talk with regular old people,” Gammon said. “And so I thought there’s no reason we couldn’t do something like that at Elon.”
He continued to develop a robust program of events, and in the fall of 2011, the university reassigned part of his time to organizing the group, with the first held in February.
Looking forward to a scientific society
Equipped with a deeper understanding of the natural world, members of society can make better decisions and lead fuller lives, according to Gammon. And he plans to make this transition stick.
The first way to make a more scientifically conscious world involves uniting the university’s disciplines.
“(Gammon) tends to bridge gaps, he builds bridges across the campus,” Coker said. “He’s trying to bring together natural science and the business school, to think specifically about the links between ecology and economics. Whatever the economy does is going to affect global ecology, and vice versa. They’re linked, but the two fields don’t work together at all.”
This disconnect is what Gammon said he’s trying to correct, and it doesn’t just occur on Elon’s campus. He said he feels science shouldn’t happen isolated from society.
“Whether we like it or not, all science happens in a society,” he said. “So you’ve got problems and boundaries. You’ve got scientists who don’t think enough about how their stuff that they understand well relates to the larger world. And then you also have a lot of people in the larger world who don’t understand why science is relevant to them.”
Gammon is tackling this through a series of efforts. He arranged a panel held Oct. 2 called “Science that Matters: A Nonpartisan Look at the Science Relevant to the 2012 Presidential Election.” The conversation brought faculty from across the university to engage in a conversation about science. Nearly 150 people were in attendance, helping to bridge the science gap.
He is also working with Mark Enfield, assistant professor of education, to host a science festival in April 2013. Similar to the North Carolina Science Festival, the event would ideally gather the community around a common interest — science. They hope to host the program outside McMichael science building, and near Elon Elementary School to establish the festival as a joint venture.
Establishing long-term relationships between the general public and science field is a goal Gammon does not take lightly. He is constantly brainstorming, trying to build upon the programs already in place.
“But all of these things are part of that much bigger effort to take science to the masses of people,” he said. “I feel like there’s a lot more we can do, and I don’t feel like I’ve even scratched the surface. There are so many more things we can do, things in the community, science moments to create.”
Living like a scientist
In his personal life, Gammon strives to live in agreement with his values as a science enthusiast. He rides his bike to work each day and has solar panels installed on his roof to heat water. But according to Gammon, these seemingly sustainable decisions are more common sense than anything else.
While his family enjoys the benefits of having a scientist in the house, Gammon said he gets satisfaction out of seeing science at work too. He gets to watch his children make connections and experience science firsthand.
“It’s as much fun on my end as it is on their end,” he said.
A few years ago, Gammon held his son in front of a mirror, when suddenly, the toddler in his arms made an incredible discovery.
“If I’m understanding, if I’m interpreting the data correctly, the boy got self awareness right at the moment, and that was exciting,” he said. “That’s all science is, you make some observation, and then you infer something from it. I could have looked it up in a book, but that wouldn’t have been science. That would have been somebody telling me what to think. Instead I got to experience something firsthand and make my own conclusions, and that’s what anybody can do.”