As we enter a holiday season that will look and feel different from any other we have experienced, I am writing to share a way to spend time at home with your loved ones that also builds your scientific literacy and fuels scientific discovery about our most pressing community issues.

Broadly defined, scientific literacy is the ability to use knowledge about scientific processes, concepts and theories to inform individual decision-making and civic engagement. Now, as much as ever, scientific literacy is essential for helping us create cleaner, safer and more just communities. For example, scientific literacy about virus transmission could help you survive a pandemic and scientific literacy about greenhouse gas emissions could help reduce the threat of devastating wildfires in California over time. In these ways, scientific literacy is not only necessary for formally trained scientists, but for everyone who makes decisions about their lives and the lives of those in their community.