Filter by keyword: Professionalism, professional development and training in science communication

Search results

• Date of publication Jan 29, 2020 Category: Conference Review

  Creating opportunities to discuss the nature of Japanese science communication

  by Mitsuru Kudo , Matthew Wood

  Build SciComm, an international symposium on strategies for fostering science communication in Japan held at the University of Tsukuba in November 2019, brought together academics and practitioners to discuss issues faced by the field in Japan and vision for future direction. Informally, the symposium was well received and generally considered to be a useful and stimulating event. We discuss issues to be considered for future incarnations and explain why this symposium provides an important forum for inclusive discussions on fundamental questions about the nature of science communication in Japan.

  Volume 19 • Issue 01 • 2020

• Date of publication Oct 14, 2019 Category: Practice Insight

  Telling stories in science communication: case studies of scholar-practitioner collaboration

  by Michelle Riedlinger , Luisa Massarani , Marina Joubert , Ayelet Baram-Tsabari , Marta Entradas , Jennifer Metcalfe

  Reflecting on the practice of storytelling, this practice insight explores how collaborations between scholars and practitioners can improve storytelling for science communication outcomes with publics. The case studies presented demonstrate the benefits of collaborative storytelling for inspiring publics, promoting understanding of science, and engaging publics more deliberatively in science. The projects show how collaboration between scholars and practitioners [in storytelling] can happen across a continuum of scholarship from evaluation and action research to more critical thinking perspectives. They also show how stories of possible futures and community efficacy can support greater engagement of publics in evidence-informed policymaking. Storytelling in collaborations between scholars and practitioners involves many activities: combining cultural and scientific understandings; making publics central to storytelling; equipping scientists to tell their own stories directly to publics; co-creating stories; and retelling collaborative success stories. Collaborative storytelling, as demonstrated in these case studies, may improve the efficacy of science communication practice as well as its scholarship.

  Volume 18 • Issue 05 • 2019 • Special Issue: Stories in Science Communication, 2019 (PCST Stories)

• Date of publication Sep 30, 2019 Category: Commentary

  Catch 22 — improving visibility of women in science and engineering for both recruitment and retention

  by Laura Fogg-Rogers , Laura Hobbs

  There is a significant under-representation of women in STEM which is damaging societal progress for democratic, utilitarian, and equity reasons. However, changing stereotypes in STEM requires a solution denied by the problem — more visible female role models. Science communicators are critical to curate the conditions to bypass this Catch 22. We propose that enhancing self-efficacy for female scientists and engineers to mentor others will generate more supportive workplaces. Similarly, enhancing self-efficacy for public engagement improves the visibility of diverse female role models for young girls. These social connections will ultimately improve the science capital of girls and other minorities in STEM.

  Volume 18 • Issue 04 • 2019

• Date of publication Sep 09, 2019 Category: Practice Insight

  Science live — articulating the aims and ethos of science event practitioners in the U.S.A. and U.K.

  by Laura Fogg-Rogers , Ben Wiehe , Dane Comerford , Julie Fooshee , John Durant

  Live science events engage publics with science in a social context. This article articulates the aims and ethos of this growing sector within a research context. Semi-structured interviews (N=13) and focus groups (N=77) were conducted with event practitioners (both professional and volunteers) in the U.S.A. and U.K.. Inductive thematic analysis indicated that event producers aim to raise awareness of and professionalism in the sector. In particular, they seek to develop research into long-term impacts of events for both audiences and practitioners.

  Volume 18 • Issue 04 • 2019

• Date of publication Jul 01, 2019 Category: Article

  Touching the stars: improving NASA 3D printed data sets with blind and visually impaired audiences

  by Kimberly Arcand , April Jubett , Megan Watzke , Sara Price , Kelly Williamson , Peter Edmonds

  Astronomy has been an inherently visual area of science for millenia, yet a majority of its significant discoveries take place in wavelengths beyond human vision. There are many people, including those with low or no vision, who cannot participate fully in such discoveries if visual media is the primary communication mechanism. Numerous efforts have worked to address equity of accessibility to such knowledge sharing, such as through the creation of three-dimensional (3D) printed data sets. This paper describes progress made through technological and programmatic developments in tactile 3D models using NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory to improve access to data.

  Volume 18 • Issue 04 • 2019

• Date of publication Aug 22, 2018 Category: Conference Review

  The land of rising science communication: the first Japan Scicom Forum

  by Ayumi Koso , Amanda Alvarez

  The first Japan Scicom Forum in Tokyo on April 20, 2018 gathered nearly 120 attendees to discuss the growing need and demand for English-language science communication in Japan and Asia. Keynotes and workshops addressed both the philosophy and motivations for scicomm in Japan and also the best practices for international outreach. Global science communication has reached a critical mass in Japan but securing sustainable funding, integrating the community and retaining momentum present ongoing challenges. As an online community and (hopefully) a recurring event, Japan Scicom Forum will foster a network of science communicators, professionalize and legitimize the field and boost English-language science communication in a country where it is still nascent.

  Volume 17 • Issue 03 • 2018

• Date of publication Jun 11, 2018 Category: Article

  Speaking about science: a student-led training program improves graduate students' skills in public communication

  by Melissa D. Clarkson , Juliana Houghton , William Chen , Jessica Rohde

  We present an assessment of the Engage program, a graduate-student-created and led training program at the University of Washington. Using a pre-course/post-course study design, we examined student ability to deliver a short presentation appropriate for a public audience. Based on both self-assessments and assessments by external reviewers, we show that Engage trainees had an increase in their ability to employ effective communication techniques.

  Volume 17 • Issue 02 • 2018

• Date of publication Feb 27, 2018 Category: Conference Review

  WCSJ2017: a bridge to the developing world

  by Paula Leighton

  The 10th World Conference of Science Journalists (San Francisco, U.S.A., 26–30 October 2017) was the most successful to date in terms of participants and probably the one with the largest presence of journalists from the developing world among its attendees and speakers. In agreement with the times, its themes were marked by ethical dilemmas in the communication of science, fake news and climate change, among others.

  Volume 17 • Issue 01 • 2018

• Date of publication Dec 13, 2017 Category: Commentary

  Universities, science communication and professionalism

  by Brian Trench

  This essay examines several distinct roles universities play in science communication, with particular reference to professionalisation in the field. It identifies the ways in which universities have facilitated, even driven, that continuing process. But it also notes the potential and actual contradictions between some of the roles of universities, reflecting current developments in higher education across many different contexts.

  Volume 16 • Issue 05 • 2017

• Date of publication Dec 13, 2017 Category: Commentary

  Universities as living labs for science communication

  by Caroline Wehrmann , Maarten van der Sanden

  Science communication research and education programmes worldwide exhibit notable differences as well as similarities. In this essay the authors claim that this diversity is not a problem. They argue that universities can contribute well to the science communication field, theoretically and in practice, if they invest in building collaborations and make use of the ‘networked pattern’ connecting various actors, contexts and contents. As critical nodes in the networks, universities can enable practitioners to deliver real-life cases, students to participate to find solutions and researchers to investigate and explain. Universities can also prepare their students and (future) practitioners for lifelong learning in the dynamic context of science communication, helping them to become adaptive experts. These two aspects will be illustrated in the case study of Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands.

  Volume 16 • Issue 05 • 2017