Professor
Email nancy.longnecker@otago.ac.nz
Tel +64 3 479 7885
Nancy Longnecker has experience as an agricultural research scientist, professional science communicator and science communication academic. She has considerable experience obtaining research funding, conducting research, reporting and publishing results, supervising, mentoring, networking with industry, working collaboratively, developing curriculum and teaching. She has supervised 11 PhD, 16 MSc and 25 Honours student research projects to completion, including students from 17 different countries.
Professor Longnecker and her science communication students have created exhibitions and displays that have been seen by tens of thousands of visitors in Australia and New Zealand. She has established positive collaborations that have resulted in multiple exhibitions. Those at the Otago Museum include Dare to be Wise (a celebration of the University of Otago's 150th anniversary), Einstein, Well Balanced and Wai ora, Mauri ora.
Professor Longnecker's current research examines impact and effectiveness of science communication with varied audiences. Researchers in her group examine factors that affect peoples' attitudes towards and understanding of science and how information can be used to change attitudes and behaviour while respecting values and different sources of knowledge. Prof Longnecker has experience working with a broad range of communities, including people within primary industries, indigenous people, museum visitors and school students.
Current teaching
- BTNY 365 Research Skills
- SCOM 406 Science Communication Strategies and Resources
- SCOM 495 Thesis Preparation and Proposal
Research interests
- Motivations to Participate in Science and Impact of Science Engagement
- Different Perspectives and Ways of Knowing
- The Value of Stories and Storytelling
- Science Communication and its Education
Potential postgraduate projects
- Attitudes about and valuing different sources of knowledge
- Methodologies for evaluation of impact of science outreach and engagement
- Sense of identity and individual response to communication of information
- Responses to oral and text-based science storytelling
Current postgraduate student and student research
Current and recent PhD students
- Maria Tinger – Climate change communication through podcasting
- Ruth Warren – Experiencing an anatomy museum in person and virtually
- Kati Doerhing – A New Zealand register of on-land restoration actions to improve water quality: a tool to support sustainable management practices
- Jessica Davis – Fictional science in Hollywood: Does scientific accuracy matter?
- Alba Suarez – Poetry Podcasts: Effect of affect in communicating science
- Ekapong Sripaoraya – Visitor Behaviour and Impact of the Thailand National Science Museum's Science Caravan
- Nantida Sripaoraya – Participation in science outreach and its impact on programme presenters
- Daniel Solis – Exploration and Discovery: Learning at a Science Centre
- Jean Fletcher – Travelling Toward 2050; Visualising the Future and Sustainable Travel
- Patamasuda Intuprapa – Residential Camps about Biodiversity and Wildlife Conservation for School Children
Current and recent MSciComm students
- Nathan Hollows – Alternate reality games as a science communication platform
- Ruby Parker – Life and death on the Otago goldfields
- Danielle Parke – Science communication to support dissemination and implementation: a case study and conceptual framework
- Ellen Ozarka – Can successful collective action against Covid-19 increase support for collective action against climate change in New Zealand?
- Sam Hales – New Zealand Motoring Attitudes about Electric Vehicles
- Gemma McGrath – The history of New Zealand/ Aotearoa dolphins Cephalorhynchus hectori: Abundance and distribution
- Rachel Leeson – The use of regional accent in audio health communications
- Peter Naik (MSciComm) – Where fact meets fiction – The science mockumentary
- Rebecca John – Benefits and Barriers of Using Augmented Reality in Educational Resources
- Charlotte Panton – New Zealanders' Perceptions of Green-lipped Mussels and Sustainability
- Ellen Rykers – Communicating Conservation with Detection Dogs
- Samantha Smyrke – Source of expertise affects perceived credibility of an interview used in a medical documentary
- Emma Schranz – Perspectives on gaps in communication with breast cancer patients in New Zealand
- Jonas Godwin – Discovering nature through mobile gaming