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"Communication is not something you add on to science, it is the essence of science"--Alan Alda Center for Communicating Science

OR&R’s Ken Finkelstein took an all-day Science Communication Workshop at Dartmouth College on September 12, 2014.

The program was organized by the North Atlantic SETAC chapter and enlisted instructors from the Alan Alda Center for Communicating Science located at Stony Brook University. It was very well organized with lectures, improvisation, incorporating student input on how to get their points across. Here are several recommendations:

  • Get to the point early. Don't build up to the conclusion, just the opposite. It’s not a journal article. Stress meaning, not details.
  • Get to the "So What" question early. Story first, details second.
  • Know your audience. To do so, ask them some questions (but not too many) like how many are scientists, or how many know about climate change, etc. Watch their reaction.
  • Tell them why it matters.
  • Use everyday language. Tell them what they want to know. Not what you want to tell them.
  • Evoke emotion.
  • Tell some stories/anecdotes that fit the presentation. You get remembered that way.
  • Be aware of the curse of knowledge. Do not be condescending or a know-it-all
  • Do not use the metric system. Rather, give people a visual; e.g., "it is two football fields long" or "the moon landing required 68,000 kilobytes in that old computer but we use 100,000 times more computer memory now."
  • Use memorable words. Usually you can eliminate the Latin genus species. Pictures are good!

For those interested see Alan Alda Center for Communicating Science. Also see the OR&R blog, Changing Technology Changing Science Changing Us, which also covers effective science communication and the Alan Alda Center for Communicating Science at Stony Brook University in New York. Go back to OR&R Weekly Report.

Last updated Tuesday, November 8, 2022 1:50pm PST