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Science Communication Internship - Module 1, 2008 | |
From 28 January to 8 February 2008, eight participants from four countries and five of the Med-Vet-Net Partner Institutes, spent an intensive two weeks attending hands-on workshops enhancing and improving their skills in communicating their research to different audiences and stakeholders. Module 1, ‘Science communication – why and how?’ – consisted of two weeks of both in-house tuition by the Med-Vet-Net Communications Unit and external expert training. | |
They then spent two days examining the relationship between science, media and the public and theories of communication. The interns examined why it is important for scientists to communicate their work and the different ways this can be achieved. On the Tuesday evening, the interns made their first trip to London to attend an event at the Dana Centre, a café-type atmosphere where scientific issues can be presented to the public in an informal setting. The event for this week was ‘Punk Science: Know it All’, a rather different approach to looking at life’s big questions using comedy, music, live experiments and audience participation. After hearing quite ridiculous views on how birds evolved wings, how the universe will end and whether clouds are wet, the interns left feeling a bit bemused with the lack of scientific answers, but definitely with a more open view of ways of communicating science to the general public. After an introduction to the work of the Med-Vet-Net and more specifically the tasks of the Communications Unit, the interns were given an overview of the Society for Applied Microbiology (SfAM) by its Chief Executive Officer, Phil Wheat. They then examined a spectrum of internal communications tools that are used in the project including WebEx, Moodle (www.medvetnet.org/moodle) and the Med-Vet-Net members’ website (https://www.medvetnet.org/membersite/). They also looked at some Web 2.0 tools for online collaboration, such as Del.icio.us (http://del.icio.us/) and Google Docs (docs.google.com/). For effective communication, the key is to understand who your audience is and what key messages you need to get across. To appreciate this fully, the interns practised writing about their work specifically targeted at four different audiences: another scientist, a policy maker, a non-scientific stakeholder (such as a farmer or a teacher) and a 10-year-old child. They also watched an example of ‘scaremongering’ in a television report on European Bat Lyssavirus (EBLV) and compared this with a more scientific and balanced overview of research undertaken in the EC. The second week of Module 1 began with a two-day course in public speaking and presentation skills, in which the interns gained confidence by practising giving impromptu speeches and themed talks. This was followed by more writing, and examining the different structure when writing for scientific journals and writing news for a ‘lay’ audience. They learnt that to make writing easily understood, it is essential to avoid jargon and acronyms. Writing tasks included identifying the key questions that should be answered in the first couple of sentences of a news story (‘who?’, ‘where?’, ‘when?’ ‘what?’, ‘why?’ and ‘how?’), and then finding these in a journal article in order to write ‘news’ for themselves. The interns also discussed the value of corporate image and brand in communicating science and then had an introduction to public relations and tools that could be used to engage stakeholders in their research. During this session, the interns created the basis of a communications strategy for their own projects. As a final exercise, each intern prepared a talk to present to each other on their work. This was filmed and then reviewed back to give feedback on their ‘personal impact’ and tips on how to improve their presentation style. On the last evening together, the interns and the Communications Unit celebrated the Chinese New Year (Year of the Rat) by dining at a Chinese restaurant in Milton Keynes. Whilst the two weeks were very intense and packed with new information, there was still room for some social time. With the interns sharing three apartments, each with a mix of the four nationalities – Danish, Dutch, French and Italian – they enjoyed each other’s cooking and challenges at pool and table football. And, of course, shopping and visits to London! | |
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Page Contact: Jennie Drew - Last modified: 2008-03-19 |
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