Filter by section: Practice Insight

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72 publications found

May 26, 2025 Practice Insight

Survey-based analysis of a science of science communication scientific interest group: member feedback and perspectives on science communication

by Anna Hilliard, Nicola Sugden, Kristin Bass and Chris Gunter

Coordinated attempts to promote systematic approaches to the design and evaluation of science communication efforts have generally lagged behind the proliferation and diversification of those efforts. To address this, we founded the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) Science of Science Communication Scientific Interest Group (SciOSciComm-SIG) and undertook a mixed-methods survey-based analysis of the group one year after its founding. Respondents indicated ongoing interest and some participation in public-facing science communication while identifying specific barriers, and praised the role of the SIG in expanding access to information about evidence-based practices.

Volume 24 • Issue 03 • 2025

May 13, 2025 Practice Insight

Decide your Print, a workshop to foster systemic thinking about sustainability issues

by Monia Torre, Lucio Pisacane, Serena Tagliacozzo and Cloe Mirenda

The workshop “Decide your Print” engages high school students outside of classroom settings, with sustainability challenges, focusing on fast fashion’s socio-technical systems. Using collaborative decision-making and systemic analysis, the activity fosters understanding of sustainability’s interrelated dimensions — socio-ecological, technological, political, economic. Combining dialogue, evidence-based education and participatory approaches, it promotes critical thinking and actionable solutions. Conducted at the 2023 Genoa Science Festival in Italy, the workshop aimed to empower participants to propose multi-level strategies, showcasing the potential of informal education to address sustainability through interdisciplinary learning and systemic reasoning.

Volume 24 • Issue 03 • 2025

May 07, 2025 Practice Insight

Framing Food Waste: development and evaluation of a science communication format at the workplace

by Stefanie Nigg, Rebecca Kandut, Julia Serong, Monica Déchène, Kateřina Veselá and Carmen Klinger

The mitigation of the climate crisis demands effective communication strategies. Transforming food systems plays a key role in climate protection, not only by changing eating habits, but also by preventing food waste. While workplaces are commonly used for health promotion activities, they are a rare setting for science communication. This practice insight targets individual food waste reduction through a workshop at the workplace, including a lunch from rescued food, documentary screening, discussion, and expert presentation. It aimed to enhance participants’ self-efficacy and intention to reduce food waste. The effectiveness of the screening was tested experimentally by evaluating the effects of positive and negative framing. Exposure to negative framing was associated with higher intensity in negative affect, whereas positive framing appeared to be associated with higher self-efficacy. Furthermore, this practice insight provides strategies to foster science communication in workplaces.

Volume 24 • Issue 03 • 2025

Jan 27, 2025 Practice Insight

Scientists' views about relationship-based science communication strategies

by Nancy L. Staus, Julie Risien and Holly Cho

Scientists are increasingly expected to share their research with the public using learner-centered strategies that build trust, such as engaging in relationship-building activities. A growing number of science communication training programs have been developed to address this need but little is known about whether and how scientists value such programs. In this paper we examine scientists' experiences with the STEM Ambassadors Program (STEMAP), a science communication training program that aims to build relationships for open-minded exchange between scientists and the public. We discuss benefits and challenges for scientists when using the STEMAP model for public outreach.

Volume 24 • Issue 01 • 2025

Jan 20, 2025 Practice Insight

Co-creation in citizen science: sharing learnings and good practice from an indoor, airborne microplastics project

by Ana Margarida Sardo, Laura De Vito, Kirsty J. Pringle, Mark Hansen, Kathryn Lamb-Riddell, Sophie Laggan, Timothy Cox and Ben Williams

HOMEs was a citizen science exploratory project, aimed at investigating the presence of airborne microplastics in people's homes. Participants placed passive samplers in their homes, using low-cost microscopes to see and take pictures of their samples. The methods developed are promising, however there are a number of pitfalls to avoid and key considerations. This practice insight explores successful approaches and identifies barriers and limitations when embedding co-creation and participatory citizen science approaches to a research project. This piece focuses on the methods and engagement with participants, rather than on microplastics findings.

Volume 24 • Issue 01 • 2025

Jan 13, 2025 Practice Insight

Climate change is (NOT) funny: insights from a climate change comedy event

by James Riley and Alexander Hall

In recent years there has been an increasing call for new modes of climate change communication. These calls have gone beyond classic consensus-building and fact-sharing to addressing affective dimensions and meaning-making in relation to the climate crisis. In this article we reflect on a proof-of-concept climate change comedy project — “Climate Change is NOT Funny!”. Building on audience and performer insights, we reflect on the effectiveness and affective dimensions of comedy as a climate change communication method, as well as institutional and funding constraints on delivery. Finally, we introduce how we designed our project to go on making an impact beyond the grant's lifespan. By empowering professional comedians to embed new research-informed climate change material into their regular sets, we argue that our approach can amplify the reach of climate communication activities, and in turn provide new forums for individuals to engage with the most pressing aspects of the climate crisis.

Volume 24 • Issue 01 • 2025

Dec 16, 2024 Practice Insight

Harnessing multimodal and multilingual science communication to combat misinformation in a diverse country setting

by Kim Trollip, Michael Gastrow, Shandir Ramlagan and Yolande Shean

This practice insight explores how translation and multimedia formats, such as video and audio, can enhance science communication efforts to combat community-driven misinformation and build trust within communities. Focusing on a national HIV survey, it details strategies for countering misinformation spread via platforms like Facebook and WhatsApp, which falsely accused data collectors of criminal activity. The research team’s response included multilingual, multimodal digital communication and community engagement, demonstrating the effectiveness of this blended approach in restoring trust and dispelling misinformation in diverse social and linguistic settings.

Volume 23 • Issue 09 • 2024 • Special Issue: Public (dis)trust in science in digital media environments

Dec 02, 2024 Practice Insight

Potentialities of science comics for science communication: lessons from the classroom

by Cláudia Faria, Bianor Valente and Joana Torres

The aim of this pilot study was to understand how the use of science comics, centred on complex scientific knowledge, can promote students' engagement with science, in order to discuss its potentialities as a tool to communicate science for the general public. The qualitative study involved 175 students and 7 teachers. The results revealed that the use of comics significantly increases students' motivation and commitment to the learning tasks. All participants highlighted that the narrative nature of comics, with a mixture of text and images, offering a story to follow, contributed to their engagement with the scientific topic, regardless of their complexity.

Volume 23 • Issue 08 • 2024

Nov 06, 2024 Practice Insight

Talking genetic technologies and conservation: purposeful games as a tool to level the epistemic playing field

by Vicki Macknight, Marie McEntee and Fabien Medvecky

In New Zealand, the use of genetic technologies for environmental and conservation purposes is a highly contested issue yet genetic technologies, including RNAi and gene drives may offer technological advances for protecting New Zealand's vulnerable biodiversity. This context makes discussions on the use of gene technology for environmental purposes both challenging and necessary. Such discussions can be difficult, not simply because they are often contested, but also because people find the topic complicated, the language alien and overly scientific. This research, which sits at the intersection of science and publics, is part of a large national dialogue which aimed to better understand the public's thoughts and feelings around the use of genetic technologies for environmental or conservation purposes. To assist people to feel comfortable at the beginning of the dialogue sessions, we designed purposeful games before engaging in a facilitated conversation. These games are based on heritage games that most people are familiar with but altered to address several issues relevant to genetic technologies in an environmental context. This article provides an insight into how to design and use purposeful games to foster epistemic confidence in non-scientists. It acts as a helpful guide for others working in contested spaces where there is a need to effectively facilitate engagement of non-scientists in important science-society discussions.

Volume 23 • Issue 08 • 2024

Oct 21, 2024 Practice Insight

Strategic planning and evaluation for effective public engagement

by Xinnan Du, Karen Peterman, John Besley and Allison Black-Maier

Assessing the impact of public engagement with science (PES) programs has been a long-standing challenge due to the lack of explicit, audience-specific goals and a related lack of evaluation against goal-relevant outcomes. In this practice insight, we present the strategic planning and evaluation process for PES at KIPAC, detailing the steps of setting and assessing long-term behavioral goals, short-term objectives, and tactics. We provide examples to demonstrate the implementation of the strategic plan, and make recommendations for practitioners at the individual, program, and institutional levels to strategize, conduct, and sustain their PES efforts with intention.

Volume 23 • Issue 07 • 2024 • Special Issue: Communicating Discovery Science