March Mammal Madness and the power of narrative in science outreach

摘要: March Mammal Madness is a science outreach project that, over the course of several weeks in March, reaches hundreds thousands people United States every year. We combine four approaches to - gamification, social media platforms, community event(s), and creative products run simulated tournament which 64 animals compete become champion. While encounters between are hypothetical, outcomes rely on empirical evidence from scientific literature. Players select their favored combatants beforehand, during scientists translate academic literature into gripping "play-by-play" narration media. To date ~1100 scholarly works, covering almost 400 taxa, have been transformed stories. most typically used by high-school educators teaching life sciences, we estimate that our materials reached ~1% students 2019. Here document intentional design, public engagement, magnitude reach project. further explain how human psychological cognitive adaptations for shared experiences, learning, narrative, imagery contribute widespread use Madness.