Conversations in Science
for K-12 Educators

A program conceived and organized by the Wisconsin Initiative for Science Literacy at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, with the collaboration of the Madison Metropolitan School District and the Edgewood Sonderegger Science Center.

Reporting on Science and Technology

Ron Seely
Lecturer, Life Sciences Communication:

About the conversation:

Seely will speak about the importance and the challenge of covering science for the daily press. Using examples from his 30 years of experience meeting deadlines for Wisconsin's second largest daily, he will talk about the value of providing readable and accurate science news to the average person. And he'll discuss the difficulties -- from scientists who seem to speak a foreign language to the changing nature of newspapers -- of writing science.


About the presenter:

Ron Seely, 53, has been a reporter for the Wisconsin State Journal since 1978. He has been a regional reporter covering news in the state and in the Upper Midwest, a project and investigative reporter, and, for the last 15 years, the newspaper's  science and environment reporter. He's won many awards over the years, for everything from  his coverage of a 1980 tornado in Barneveld that killed nine people to the struggle of the Ojibway Indians in Wisconsin to re-establish treaty rights. His investigation of the unsafe condition of the state's aging public school buildings resulted in legislative changes and the construction of dozens of new schools. As the paper's science and environment reporter he has written extensively about many issues of the day including the study of human embryonic stem cells on the UW-Madison campus, chronic wasting disease in the state's deer herd, and threats to Wisconsin's groundwater. An investigative series earlier this year resulted in major changes in the operation of Madison's public water utility. Seely also teaches science writing in the UW-Madison's College of Agriculture. He lives in Madison with his wife, Doreen, and is the parent of two children, Anna, 15, and Will, 19.