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Compassionate Science Communication—Scicomm that Cares (Part 2)

9/16/2021

By: Jennifer Ma

Last week, I talked about how Compassionate Science Communication can provide value for and have lasting impact on our audiences. It requires the communicators to first learn what our audiences care about before offering a relevant scientific perspective. How? Let’s review the steps that guide the process:

Listen: Approach our audience with curiosity—ask questions, listen, try to understand their perspectives and acknowledge where they come from without judgement. This puts us in a much better position to provide information that would actually benefit our audience.
Relate: Identify something in common so we can better empathize, speak their language, and form a genuine connection.
Inform: Offer scientific information that is relevant to their values, questions, or concerns, in a way that is accessible.
Encourage: Provide actionable points & a sense of hope, highlighting what they have to gain from the actions to motivate and empower them.

Will it be worth it? Absolutely

Will it be worth it? Absolutely

What these steps look like in practice depends on your platform and your audience. Let’s break them down in a case study based on Gentle Facts, a project I started in March 2020.

Compassionate Science Communication—Scicomm that Cares (Part 1)

9/9/2021

By: Jennifer Ma

Imagine you have been wanting a pair of orange shoes for a long time. You finally find a pair that would go perfectly with your favorite orange outfit and are feeling pretty happy after trying them on! A salesperson then approaches you and says:

You shouldn’t get those orange shoes. They don’t pair well with outfits and you can’t wear them to work. In fact, a survey says 85% of employers would not allow orange shoes at their workplaces. You would be a fool to purchase them and you should reconsider how you shop for shoes. This pair of white shoes, though, is a much better option. You should get these instead!

How likely are you to take their advice, even if they might be right?

How are you feeling?

How are you feeling? Source: Gentle Facts.

Now imagine walking into another store and this is what another salesperson says:

Those look really cute on you! Are you looking for orange shoes specifically? Oh you have an orange outfit you want to pair them with, that’s so fun! I wonder if that would be too much orange though. These white shoes may go really well with it too and there’s a study that says white shoes are the most versatile, so you can wear them all the time. What do you think?

How likely are you to listen this time?

Back to the Lab This Fall? Don’t Forget Your SciComm Skills!

9/2/2021

By Nidhi Parekh and Sheeva Azma

The COVID-19 pandemic taught scientists that the way in which scientists communicate science impacts global communities. Lecturers that teach science communication (also called SciComm) at various levels draw upon and recognize the importance that all forms of science communication play in society — not just in their own lives, but in their students’ lives, too.

As more people around the globe are slowly coming out of summer holidays to start school once again, we thought this would be a good time to review different ways to improve students’ SciComm skills. Keep reading for a few SciComm tips for educators to consider on the way “back to school.”

Welcome back to school sign

Welcome Back to School. Pixabay.

How Teaching Arts Can Have A Profound Impact on Scientific and Critical Thinking Skills

7/29/2021

By Dennis Wesley

Advocates of the arts often talk about their transformative potential—for both the individual learner or practitioner and society at large. This is especially true in the context of improving scientific and critical thinking skills. Approaches employed in the arts can enable scientists, science communicators, and the general public to critically examine questions of method (scientific and otherwise), knowledge, and power. In doing so, the arts not only demystify aspects of the scientific method but can also inspire more young, keen minds to take up science.

Formal interdisciplinary training is one of the best ways to bridge the gap between the arts and the sciences. Today, “the Arts” and “the Humanities” are used interchangeably, and they are extremely wide-ranging in terms of their scope and concerns. In addition, most good Arts/Humanities programs today actively aim to bring the arts and the sciences closer. Many interdisciplinary modules are organized to this end. These modules would be a great way for scientists and science communicators to explore different ways of examining the scientific method.

Science Talk Q&A: Biggest Science Conversations on the Horizon

7/19/2021

From climate change, vaccines and virus developments to artificial intelligence, genetic engineering and diversity and inclusion: science is saturated with new research and technological advancements. So which conversations can we expect to steal the limelight over the next few years?

Science Talk’s Dr. Allison Coffin and Dr. Kiki Sanford sat down with Jessica McNellis from s2s Public Relations and Communications to discuss the biggest conversations in science communications to watch.

Graphic - top science conversations on the horizon

Learning from Pandemic SciComm in Action

7/15/2021

By Sheeva Azma and Nidhi Parekh

In our column, we’ve discussed ways to teach science communication in the classroom through lectures and classroom exercises. We’ve talked about the helpful do’s and don’ts in teaching SciComm in a classroom setting. In this article, we will highlight certain methods that were successful in the COVID-19 pandemic-related science communication.

In our last article, we discussed ways in which scientific research has helped advance the field of science communication. We introduced this concept in our previous blog post on evidence-based SciComm. As we explained in our post, and have learned through the COVID-19 pandemic, this is a relatively new field that still has a long way to go.

The pandemic, however, has provided us with an opportunity to informally evaluate science communication techniques. Throughout the pandemic, people around the world required outreach efforts to reach every corner of the globe. Scientists that followed the foundational findings of evidence-based SciComm were able to successfully advocate for science throughout the pandemic.

Using Evidence-Based SciComm to Improve SciComm Education

7/8/2021

By Sheeva Azma and Nidhi Parekh

Teaching through doing

We’ve talked at length about different ways that one can teach science communication in the classroom through lectures and classroom exercises. We’ve also written about helpful do’s and don’ts in teaching SciComm in a classroom setting. It’s great to teach students foundational skills that can help them explain complexities of science in a simple way to boost science understanding.

To maximize the effectiveness of science communication training, it’s important to understand how evidence-based science communication teaching actually helps communicate science better.

ChemTalk: Change the Way the World Thinks About Chemistry

6/24/2021

By: Christine DeRosa

What’s the first thing that comes to mind when you hear the word “chemistry”?

We asked, and the answers will probably not shock you. Out of the hundreds of people surveyed in our Perception of Chemistry Survey, positive responses like “It’s amazing” were few and far between -- our responses primarily ranged from “boring” and “difficult” to even outright “dangerous”.

Do’s and Don’ts for Developing Classroom SciComm Exercises

6/9/2021

By Sheeva Azma and Nidhi Parekh

In our column, we’ve previously blogged about lecturing about SciComm and different SciComm exercises you can do in your class. In this post, we provide some do’s and don’ts for developing a SciComm module or course for your students.

Science Talk Q&A: Science and Identity Politics

6/8/2021

Identity politics has permeated vaccine hesitancy, opinions on climate change, and society’s response to the COVID-19 virus. We are living in a moment in history where identity politics is playing its most prominent role in scientific conversations.

Science Talk’s Dr. Allison Coffin and Dr. Kiki Sanford sat down with Jessica McNellis from s2s Public Relations and Communications to discuss how a person’s political party can influence his or her scientific beliefs.

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