March Mammal Madness and the power of narrative in science outreach

March Mammal Madness is a science outreach project that, over the course of several weeks in March, reaches hundreds of thousands of people in the United States every year. We combine four approaches to science outreach - gamification, social media platforms, community event(s), and creative product...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:	eLife Vol. 10
Main Authors:	Hinde, Katie, Amorim, Carlos Eduardo G, Brokaw, Alyson F, Burt, Nicole, Casillas, Mary C, Chen, Albert, Chestnut, Tara, Connors, Patrice K, Dasari, Mauna, Ditelberg, Connor Fox, Dietrick, Jeanne, Drew, Josh, Durgavich, Lara, Easterling, Brian, Henning, Charon, Hilborn, Anne, Karlsson, Elinor K, Kissel, Marc, Kobylecky, Jennifer, Krell, Jason, Lee, Danielle N, Lesciotto, Kate M, Lewton, Kristi L, Light, Jessica E, Martin, Jessica, Murphy, Asia, Nickley, William, Núñez-de la Mora, Alejandra, Pellicer, Olivia, Pellicer, Valeria, Perry, Anali Maughan, Schuttler, Stephanie G, Stone, Anne C, Tanis, Brian, Weber, Jesse, Wilson, Melissa, Willcocks, Emma, Anderson, Christopher N
Format:	Journal Article
Language:	English
Published:	England eLife Science Publications, Ltd 22-02-2021 eLife Sciences Publications Ltd eLife Sciences Publications, Ltd
Subjects:	Adaptation Animal behavior animal ecology Animals Behavior, Animal Cognitive ability Communication Core curriculum Ecology Education Education - methods Education and Outreach Gamification Genetics and Genomics Humans Mammals Military personnel Morphology Narration outreach performance science science communication Scientists Social discrimination learning Social Media Social networks Students Tournaments & championships ecology education genetics performance science animal behavior outreach informal learning genomics animal ecology human science communication
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Summary:	March Mammal Madness is a science outreach project that, over the course of several weeks in March, reaches hundreds of thousands of people in the United States every year. We combine four approaches to science outreach - gamification, social media platforms, community event(s), and creative products - to run a simulated tournament in which 64 animals compete to become the tournament champion. While the encounters between the animals are hypothetical, the outcomes rely on empirical evidence from the scientific literature. Players select their favored combatants beforehand, and during the tournament scientists translate the academic literature into gripping "play-by-play" narration on social media. To date ~1100 scholarly works, covering almost 400 taxa, have been transformed into science stories. March Mammal Madness is most typically used by high-school educators teaching life sciences, and we estimate that our materials reached ~1% of high-school students in the United States in 2019. Here we document the intentional design, public engagement, and magnitude of reach of the project. We further explain how human psychological and cognitive adaptations for shared experiences, social learning, narrative, and imagery contribute to the widespread use of March Mammal Madness.
ISSN:	2050-084X 2050-084X
DOI:	10.7554/eLife.65066