---
title: A Good ‘Word’ for Public Engagement in Science
date: 2024-07-09T14:41:00-04:00
author: University of Maryland
canonical_url: "https://today.umd.edu/a-good-word-for-public-engagement-in-science"
section: Articles
---
# A Good ‘Word’ for Public Engagement in Science

*July 9, 2024* — by [Karen Shih ’09](/author/karen-shih)


> UMD, D.C.-area College Students Conduct Interactive Studies at D.C. Language Museum

*Language Science Station Charlotte Vaughn 06272024 DS 0386 1920x1080 — Lisa Odom of Alexandria, Va., takes a photo of her daughter, 10-year-old Josie, as she wears a functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS) cap, while UMD human development doctoral student Gavkhar Abdurokhmonova holds a laptop showing the most active parts of her brain. The project is part of the Language Science Station at Planet Word, a UMD-led series of public facing, interactive experiments conducted at the museum.*

As the summer sun beat down, the family scrambled to assemble a desert island survival kit, each calling out a suggestion: a water filter, tent, compass, hatchet, lighter.

But just as they were feeling good about their list, they hit another snag.

“Surprise! You now have to remember what your team brought,” said Mikoalis Bedrosian Kajen, a linguistics graduate student from Gallaudet University.

Their test wasn’t one of survival, but of memory, part of a research project to understand how familiarity helps with recall in conversation. They were at (the blissfully air-conditioned) Planet Word, where students and researchers from the [Language Science Station](https://sites.google.com/umd.edu/planetwordresearch/home?authuser=0) were conducting four interactive experiments with visitors to the Washington, D.C., museum.

Led by University of Maryland Assistant Research Professor Charlotte Vaughn, [the Language Science Station is a National Science Foundation-funded collaborative project](https://today.umd.edu/nsf-grant-funds-research-at-planet-word-museum) with Gallaudet and Howard universities, in partnership with Planet Word. Since 2022, researchers have run nine studies on various aspects of spoken and written speech at the museum, engaging over 4,900 visitors and counting.

“We have planetariums and zoos and natural history museums for other disciplines, so it’s a linguist’s dream come true to have a place where language is the topic of conversation,” Vaughn said. “At Planet Word, visitors are already curious about language, so they’re primed to be sharing and interacting.”


*People sit in chairs in a circle and listen to instructions with a big blue light globe behind them — The Yuen and Hankin-Wei families listen to instructions from Gallaudet linguistics graduate student Mikoalis Bedrosian Kajen as they play the "Word Island" game, part of the Language Science Station experiments.*


*A teen wearing a yellow lei looks at a tablet while sitting in a circle with other participants — Derek Yuen tries to remember which team members suggested which survival items during the "Word Island" experiment.*



**Sidebar note:**

Want to join an experiment? The [Language Science Station](https://sites.google.com/umd.edu/planetwordresearch/home?authuser=0) will be at Planet Word, which has free entry, on most Thursdays and Saturdays in July and August. Check out its posts on social media [@LangSciStation](https://x.com/LangSciStation) for the most updated times and schedule. If you can’t attend this summer, don’t worry—the LSS will resume on weekends in the fall.





**Topics:** [Research](https://today.umd.edu/tags/research)


**Tags:** [Languages](https://today.umd.edu/topic/languages), [Linguistics](https://today.umd.edu/topic/linguistics), [Human Development and Quantitative Methodology](https://today.umd.edu/topic/human-development-and-quantitative-methodology), [Research](https://today.umd.edu/topic/research)


**Units:** [College of Arts and Humanities](https://today.umd.edu/topic/college-arts-and-humanities), [College of Education](https://today.umd.edu/topic/college-education)