Communicating Science

EART31001 Communicating Science 10 Full year Undergraduate Level 6 Stephen Covey-Crump Unit coordinator David Schultz Unit coordinator 1 FHEQ level (Framework for Higher Education Qualifications) ' Last part of a Bachelors ' European Credit Transfer & Accumulation System Rating : 5.0 Students play the roles of science communicators to a nonscientific audience. Lectures will present the principles of science communication to nonscientific audiences. In-class exercises will develop the students’ skills in communication. Discussion groups will form where groups of students choose particular vehicles and peer-review each others’ work. These groups present their ideas to engage with the public through various vehicles: story for a popular science magazine, newspaper article, television commercial or news story, policy brief for government, materials for school outreach, proposed layout for a museum display, or another similar vehicle. The students then produce a complete submission of their vehicle, receive feedback, revise the submission, then submit the revised submission and their responses to the feedback. The finished product must be suitably professional for publication on the department website or similar.  Students play the roles of science communicators to a nonscientific audience. Lectures will present the principles of science communication to nonscientific audiences. In-class exercises will develop the students’ skills in communication. Discussion groups will form where groups of students choose particular vehicles and peer-review each others’ work. These groups present their ideas to engage with the public through various vehicles: story for a popular science magazine, newspaper article, television commercial or news story, policy brief for government, materials for school outreach, proposed layout for a museum display, or another similar vehicle. The students then produce a complete submission of their vehicle, receive feedback, revise the submission, then submit the revised submission and their responses to the feedback. The finished product must be suitably professional for publication on the department website or similar.  The aims of this unit are to (i) allow students to communicate science topics to nonscientific audiences through an appropriate vehicle (e.g., newspaper article, podcast, policy whitepaper), (ii) receive feedback on an initial submission of their vehicle, and (iii) receive, reflect, and respond to feedback, as one would in a professional setting.  <figure class="table"><table border="1" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tbody><tr><td style="height:16px;width:481px;" colspan="2">On the successful completion of the course, students will be able to:</td><td style="height:16px;width:72px;">Developed</td><td style="height:16px;width:66px;">Assessed</td></tr><tr><td style="height:58px;width:63px;"> ILO 1</td><td style="height:58px;width:418px;">Communicate the take-home message from a peer-reviewed scientific journal article in a manner accessible to a nonscientific audience. </td><td style="height:58px;width:72px;">x</td><td style="height:58px;width:66px;">x</td></tr><tr><td style="height:66px;width:63px;"> ILO 2</td><td style="height:66px;width:418px;">Ensure an appropriate linkage between the article, message, audience, and vehicle. </td><td style="height:66px;width:72px;">x</td><td style="height:66px;width:66px;">x</td></tr><tr><td style="height:75px;width:63px;">ILO 3</td><td style="height:75px;width:418px;">Demonstrate the importance of a professional piece of work at all stages of development. </td><td style="height:75px;width:72px;">x</td><td style="height:75px;width:66px;">x</td></tr><tr><td style="height:75px;width:63px;">ILO 4</td><td style="height:75px;width:418px;">Receive, reflect, and respond to feedback professionally. clearly, and completely. </td><td style="height:75px;width:72px;">x</td><td style="height:75px;width:66px;">x</td></tr></tbody></table></figure>  Lectures on the following topics:How Science is Communicated to Nonscientific AudiencesHow to Write Science for Nonscientific AudiencesCommunicating Through the MediaResponding to Feedback and RevisionEffective Writing for Scientific and Nonscientific AudiencesEffective Graphics for Scientific and Nonscientific Audiences Group work on the assessment: Students choose and discuss popular science articles upon which to base their communication assignment.  Then, students break up into groups around mode of presentation (e.g., print journalism, TV production company, government policy change, museum display), present ideas to their peers, and receive feedback in a Dragon’s Den format.  This unit is delivered through a series of lectures that support the development of the primary assessment.  The students propose a vehicle to communicate the results of a peer-reviewed journal article to a nonscientific audience, describing the intended audience, the take-home message, and the vehicle. Through two rounds of reviews and three submissions, the student learn how to receive, reflect, and respond to feedback The finished vehicle must be suitable for publication on the department website or similar. There are no exams. The main assessment for this unit comprises an individual report written about how science from a specific journal article is communicated to the public. At Week 3, the students will submit their plans for the assessment, detailing the peer-reviewed journal article, intended audience, take-home message, and vehicle and receive a mark worth 10% along with extensive feedback from the instructor. At Week 6, the students will submit their initial assessment and be given a mark worth 30% and extensive feedback from the instructor. The students then must revise their assessment based on the feedback in Week 12 and provide point-by-point response to the instructor’s feedback. This draft–feedback–revision–response process is similar to that employed in the peer-review process and ensures that the students address the feedback and improve upon the draft submission. The final assessment and response to feedback will be given a mark worth 60%. 0 Other 60% 3 Report 10% 7 Oral assessment/presentation 30% <figure class="table"><table border="1" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="1"><tbody><tr><td>Assessment Type</td><td>% Weighting within unit</td><td>Hand out and hand in dates</td><td>Length</td><td>How, when and what feedback is provided</td><td>ILO tested</td></tr><tr><td>1. Individual report (essay)</td><td>10</td><td>Week 1, Week 3 </td><td>About 3 pages of text</td><td>Written feedback will be given via Canvas or email </td><td>2,3</td></tr><tr><td>2. Individual assessment of varied type (e.g., article, presentation, video, poster, podcast) </td><td>30</td><td>Week 1, Week 6  </td><td>1000 words or equivalent</td><td>Written feedback will be given via Canvas or email </td><td>1,2,3,4</td></tr><tr><td>3. Individual assessment of varied type (e.g., article, presentation, video, poster, podcast) </td><td>60</td><td>Week 1, Week 12  </td><td>1000 words or equivalent</td><td>Written feedback will be given via Canvas or email </td><td>1,2,3,4</td></tr></tbody></table></figure>  BSc (Hons) Earth and Plan Scie BSc (Hons) Earth (Geochemistr) Third Year Mandatory MEarthSci (Hons) Ea and Pl Sci MEarthSci (Hons) Earth (Geoch) Third Year Mandatory MEarthSci (Hons) Earth Industr MEarthSci EPS w IE (GeoChem) Third Year Mandatory MEarthSci (Hons) Earth Abroad MEarthSci EPS w YA (Geochem) Third Year Mandatory MEarthSci (Hons) EPS with Res MEaSc (H) EPS w R (GeoChem) Third Year Mandatory N Schultz, D. M., 2009: Eloquent Science: A Practical Guide to Becoming a Better Writer, Speaker, and Atmospheric Scientist. American Meteorological Society, 412 pp. [Freely available through the campus library at <a href="http://bit.ly/EloqSci.]">http://bit.ly/EloqSci.]</a>Gopen, G. D. and Swan, J. A., 1990: The science of scientific writing. American Scientist, 78, 550–558. [https://www.americanscientist.org/blog/the-long-view/the-science-of-scientific-writing.] Lectures 20 0 80 <div> <figure class="table"><table border="1" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="0"><tbody><tr><td style="height:68px;width:139px;"> </td><td style="height:68px;width:85px;">Type</td><td style="height:9.75pt;padding:0cm;width:169.5pt;" width="226">Example student activity  </td><td style="height:68px;width:75px;">Total Hours</td><td style="height:68px;width:160px;">New material</td><td style="height:68px;width:104px;">Consolidation and Practice</td></tr><tr><td style="height:39px;width:139px;">Contact time (students are in front of staff)</td><td style="height:39px;width:85px;">Lecture (new material)</td><td style="height:39px;width:75px;">Mostly listening & taking notes (mostly new material)</td><td style="height:39px;width:75px;">7</td><td style="height:39px;width:160px;">7</td><td style="height:39px;width:104px;"> </td></tr><tr><td> </td><td>Lecture (revision/examples)</td><td>Mostly listening & taking notes (no new material- revision of course)</td><td>6</td><td> </td><td>6</td></tr><tr><td style="height:101px;width:139px;"> </td><td style="height:101px;width:85px;">Practical (new material and practice. Typically 25-50% of practical time is spent on new material)</td><td style="height:101px;width:75px;">Interactive individual or group work (problem solving, experiments, watching demonstrations, describing and interpreting samples, paper-based exercises, computer-based exercises)</td><td style="height:101px;width:75px;">3</td><td style="height:101px;width:160px;"> </td><td style="height:101px;width:104px;">3</td></tr><tr><td style="height:101px;width:139px;"> </td><td style="height:101px;width:85px;">Tutorial</td><td style="height:101px;width:75px;">Interactive small group work</td><td style="height:101px;width:75px;">4</td><td style="height:101px;width:160px;">4</td><td style="height:101px;width:104px;"> </td></tr><tr><td> </td><td>Seminar/examples class</td><td>Working on and discussing questions </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td></tr><tr><td>Independent study time</td><td style="height:9.75pt;padding:0cm;width:131.5pt;" width="175">Pre/post lecture work  </td><td>Reading own notes, re-solving examples, prep work, revisit podcast</td><td>10</td><td> </td><td> </td></tr></tbody></table></figure></div>