Filter by keyword: Bridging research, practice and teaching

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20 publications found

Apr 29, 2026 Conference Review

Science Communication, an Italian Job: Reflections from the "Convegno Nazionale di Comunicazione della Scienza 2025"

by Alessandra Fornetti, Ilda Mannino and Folco Soffietti

The 2025 edition of the Convegno Nazionale di Comunicazione della Scienza (Italian National Conference on Science Communication) gathered Italy’s growing science-communication community in a four-day event characterised by vibrant discussions, experimental formats, and an atmosphere of collective exploration.

Hosted at SISSA (International School of Advanced Studies) and across Trieste’s Porto Vecchio district, the programme combined plenaries, dialogues, hands-on laboratories, and mosaic sessions, covering themes ranging from risk communication and environmental justice to museum mediation, playful science formats, and digital strategies.

The conference showcased some of the most advanced research and applied techniques currently shaping the field and was marked by strong participant engagement, culminating in an appreciated social visit to the “Immaginario Scientifico” Science Museum in Magazzino 26 in the old port of Trieste.

Overall, the Convegno Nazionale di Comunicazione della Scienza 2025 demonstrated a dynamic, evolving landscape in which science communication in Italy continues to expand, diversify, and renew itself.

Mar 30, 2026 Book Review

Public engagement with science: a practical guide

by Kiran Tomas van den Brande, Emmy Vrieling-Teunter, Arnoud Theodoor Evers and Frank de Jong

Public engagement with science has gained institutional prominence while remaining conceptually fragmented and difficult to operationalise. This review evaluates Public Engagement with Science by Angela Potochnik and Melissa Jacquart as a field-level intervention addressing this condition. The book offers an interdisciplinary, pedagogically grounded framework for understanding, designing, and institutionalising public engagement. More steps regarding its theorization can be made, but the plentitude of strengths lies in conceptual integration and practical design.

Feb 11, 2026 Editorial

Editorial | Science Communication pursing the “unexpected places”

by Fabio Ribeiro, Sónia Silva and Thaiane Oliveira

Space is also communication. Widely regarded as an urban and daily space philosopher, Henri Lefebvre (1974) argued that space, as a physical dimension, is a shared platform to induce ower and lifestyle options, through a general social agreement. As such, Lefebreve proposed three perspectives: 1) conceived space (planned, technical, institutional); 2) perceived space (deeply rooted in daily practices); 3) living spaces (associated with symbolic and sentimental experiences). Years later, Michel de Certeau’s (1980) proposition of space as a “stable order”, “planned” and practice-oriented was then also studied by Marc Augé (1992), suggesting the concept of “non-places”, defined as the total absence of identity, relationships and historical meaning. Airports, shopping centres, hotels, walking circuits, just to name a few, were the symbol of such a lack of interaction, guided by visual and informative signs. Circulation, income and consumption are the key figures of these “non-spaces”.

Volume 25 • Issue 2 • 2026 • Science communication in Unexpected Places (Unexpected places)

Feb 11, 2026 Article

Exploring Chemistry: the impact of an interactive chemistry model on student motivation in non-formal education spaces

by Ariane Carolina Rocha, Ana Carolina Steola and Ana Cláudia Kasseboehmer

The negative image of Chemistry that students have, associated with chemophobia, reflects the decontextualized way in which the subject is often taught. This study investigates how an interactive chemistry model, developed for a science communication exhibition, can influence high school students’ perception and motivation to learn chemistry. Based on the Theory of Self-Determination, the chemistry model illustrates Advanced Oxidation Processes in a safe, interactive and accessible way. The exhibition was visited by 250 public high school students. Data was collected based on the responses of the participants who answered the Intrinsic Motivation Inventory questionnaire and took part in semi-structured interviews conducted as part of the study. The results obtained showed that the interactive chemistry model exerted a positive impact on the following intrinsic motivation factors: interest, perceived competence, effort, value, pressure/tension, and perceived choice. The science communication activity also stimulated the participants’ interest in pursuing university education, reinforcing the role of non-formal education in helping overcome chemophobia.

Volume 25 • Issue 2 • 2026 • Science communication in Unexpected Places (Unexpected places)

Feb 11, 2026 Practice Insight

Glaciers as classrooms: designing an outdoor lab as a learning space on ice

by Philipp Spitzer, Jan Höper, Martin Gröger and Volker Heck

This article presents the development of a hybrid educational format that integrates an outdoor glacier laboratory with a virtual learning environment. Grounded in Educational Design Research, the project enables students to investigate glacial and climate-related phenomena through hands-on experiments conducted directly on the glacier, complemented by immersive digital tools. Insights from pilot implementations with school classes informed iterative refinement. The approach illustrates how glacier environments can be transformed into accessible and pedagogically coherent learning spaces, promoting climate literacy and student engagement with real-world environmental change.

Volume 25 • Issue 2 • 2026 • Science communication in Unexpected Places (Unexpected places)

Jan 19, 2026 Article

Who supports STEM early career researchers' active science communication? A qualitative ego-network-analysis

by Lennart Banse, Fenja Heinke and Friederike Hendriks

Early career researchers (ECRs) are increasingly socialised in professional environments where science communication is seen as part of their academic role. ECRs respond to these expectations differently, shaped in part by social relationships within and beyond academia. This study uses ego-network interviews with 24 highly communicative STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) ECRs in Germany to examine how social relationships influence the importance as well as the integration of science communication in their professional identity. Results show that recognition and support often come from private contacts and the science communication community, while workplace environments are perceived as less supportive and formative. Moreover, different formats and processes of science communication seem to be tied to distinct networks and underlying communication motives.

Volume 25 • Issue 1 • 2026

Dec 16, 2025 Practice Insight

Strengthening practice-research connections to improve evaluation: perspectives of science communication practitioners

by Ana Godinho, Sophia Charlotte Volk and Mike S. Schäfer

Researchers and practitioners have emphasised the importance of evaluating science communication, but agree that, on the one hand, much research on evaluation does not find its way into practice, and on the other, researchers do not fully benefit from the wealth of data that practitioners produce. Using semi-structured interviews with heads of communications at different research organisations in four countries we show that practitioners agree on the importance of evaluation, but that obstacles to evaluation cut across organisational characteristics and countries. Our interviews suggest that communications leaders have a strong interest in working with researchers, and we discuss their proposals for practice-research interfaces that could improve evaluation practice.

Volume 24 • Issue 07 • 2025

Nov 26, 2025 Article

Exploring the role of partnerships in enabling public engagement by Long-Term Ecological Research programs

by John C. Besley, Alexandra Benitez, Kari O'Connell, Martha R. Downs and Cristina Lissette Mancilla

This study explores how organizations that conduct scientific research support communication activities, including activities aimed at fostering public engagement. It uses qualitative, thematic analyses of semi-structured interviews to propose an initial partnership categorization based on the degree to which communication support is embedded within or external to the organization, as well as the degree to which engagement resources are pooled across funding sources. It then discusses how different categorizations might be associated with several different metrics of public engagement quality. Findings suggest that partnerships with external groups that have shared goals can enhance engagement efforts in situations where the organization lacks the resources to build internal engagement teams and programs. These findings challenge past work focused on the value of internal communication infrastructure. However, the potential benefits and limitations of different approaches to within-organization versus external-to-organization communication support need further research.

Volume 24 • Issue 07 • 2025

Nov 10, 2025 Article

Walking the Faultline of Fear: How affect-inducing risk communication can help promote disaster preparedness.

by Caroline Rowe, Caroline Orchiston and Fabien Medvecky

This paper uses New Zealand’s AF8 [Alpine Fault Magnitude 8] program, designed to build resilience and preparedness for earthquakes, as a real-world example to explore how emotional appeals can affect preparedness intentions within the emergency management sector. Drawing on template analysis of 14 artifacts from AF8’s communication material and 34 semi-structured interviews with emergency management stakeholders (the AF8 material’s primary audience), the study examines how emotional appeals are strategically employed and perceived in practice. Findings contextualize theoretical understandings of how risk communication can balance fear and anxiety with positive emotions like fascination and confidence using tools such as vivid imagery, narrative framing, and certainty. The research offers empirical insights into how emotional appeals are used and perceived in risk communication, providing a foundation for developing future hazard communication strategies grounded in real-world application.

Volume 24 • Issue 06 • 2025 • Emotions and Science Communication (Emotions and Science Communication)

Oct 27, 2025 Book Review

Applying academic authority in public debates

by Brian Trench

Philip Cohen argues for social scientists to be active citizens, intervening in public debates with the legitimacy that their expertise gives them. His advocacy and advice for “citizen scholarship” are guided by his own experience.

Volume 24 • Issue 05 • 2025