The Science Literacy Initiative is bringing together all the academic disciplines and the three land-grant missions of teaching, research and outreach, she added.

“This is the kind of work for which we’re known and that people rely on for their land-grant university system to do,” Lodl said. The IANR Science Literacy Initiative includes a cross-disciplinary group of scientists focusing on four goals: improving science literacy among university students preparing pre-kindergarten through high school students for careers informing and engaging partners and stakeholders about programs and research and supporting the public as they interpret, reason and make decisions.

They are charged with bringing together the best minds across the university to think about the future and engage outside partners in science literacy efforts. Lodl, along with Mark Balschweid, head of the Department of Agricultural Leadership, Education and Communication, provides leadership for the IANR Science Literacy priority area. Science literacy is knowledge of science, as well as the scientific framework by which people make decisions based on facts, research and knowledge, not on opinion or hearsay, according to Kathleen Lodl, associate dean of Nebraska Extension. The University of Nebraska–Lincoln Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources (IANR) has long been planning to be sure it has the science-based information to be successful so future challenges can be met, like feeding 9 billion people by 2050. The people who will make those decisions already are taking over businesses and leadership positions, managing billions of dollars and charting the course for the future of the world. All eyes are on the future, when there is more and more information to consume, available through a voice-activated device or the click of a touch-sensitive button, with only the human brain determining whether that information is fact or fiction.

What is the science