Science Communication

Sections in this Module

Introduction

Science communication as a term generally refers to the sharing of knowledge gained through scientific inquiry with others within and outside the scientific community. Scholars (e.g., Fahnestock, 2020) acknowledge the dissonance between the public and experts (scientists) on many important and impactful issues cutting across governance, public health and beyond. This dissonance is problematic since continuity, utilization and application of knowledge is dependent on the knowledge being communicated effectively. Science does not end in the lab, it is a multifaceted process with many moving parts, one of which is the communication of knowledge both to in-group participants—other experts, and outgroup participants—non-experts or the public. Communication centers hold a unique collaborative position to contribute to this work. Working alongside student scientists and science faculties to expand science communication.

Background Information

Learning Objectives

By the end of the training, participants should:

Understand the difference between group and individual consultations
Provide quality feedback to groups and their presentations
Identify issues that may arise with group presentations, and offer suggestions

There are two main approaches to science communication—information deficit model and the public engagement model. The deficit model operates on the assumption that the public is deficient in knowledge about scientific processes and information and that is why there is a lack of support for scientific and technological advancement. Imagine a presentation on climate change based on research. The presenter has compelling data, stunning graphs, and engaging visuals to illustrate the effects of human activities on the Earth's climate. They believe that providing scientific information would be enough to spur people into action. That presentation is built on the knowledge deficit model and even scientists with strong communication skills easily default to this. However, research has been pointing to the ineffectiveness of this model. Science communication is moving away from this to the public engagement model.

Using the same example of a presentation on climate change, imagine a presentation that is structured to include more than brilliant facts and statistics. This new version is more interactive, inclusive, and focused on building meaningful connections with the public. The messaging is framed to be invitational, allowing open discussions about climate change and its impacts on their daily lives while also including a pathway for community level organization and mobilization. The conversation builds on scientific information but also provides an avenue to hear the audiences’ perspectives, concerns, and experiences related to the environment. This type of communication structure is called the public engagement model and there is an increasing push to use this as it has been found to be more effective.

The communication center consultant wants to work with students and staff to communicate their work using the most effective models possible. Wirz et al. (2020) describe public engagement as “meaningful, inclusive communication and engagement among a diverse range of publics” (p. 861). The consultant, in working with student scientists, can help sharpen presentation skills (among other skills) to optimize for contextual meaningfulness (instead of information exchange), inclusiveness and an engaging style.

Consultants must understand this uniqueness of science communication and how to support scientists within the college environment to grow into effective science communicators.

Activity

Working with a partner, look at these two assignment sheets from non-communication focused classes (provide assignment sheets). Outline initial ethnographic questioning to decide on a possible approach to consulting for this client.

The Consultant's Role

Consultants who do not have a background in STEM often think they cannot consult with clients who are in the sciences. This is however not the case. STEM students and faculty coming into the center are in search of communicative competence help—an area where consultants have a lot of experience. Your job as a consultant is to help provide insight on structuring, message translation and presentation effectiveness. While an understanding of scientific jargon may provide some helpful clarity in supporting your client, the absence of this provides a different type of edge—the outsider perspective. if you, as the peer mentor are not able to follow the presentation, it is likely that it needs a lot more clarity and simplification. Supporting the student or scientist to simplify and clarify the content is one of the major ways of improving scientific communication.

The Audience and Audience Diagnostics

Has the scientist established who the message is for? Consultants should help client clarify and improve on this. A presentation or any other type of communication may be meant for an ingroup (i.e., other scientists with specialized knowledge of the issue, for example, fellow lab members, scientists involved in similar study and/or research), non-ingroup (other scientists or people with enough technical knowledge to understand the big picture and follow along), non-expert audiences (everyone outside of the other two groups).

The style, content and level of technicality of the presentation/communication will shift and change based on who the audience is.

The Goal

The consultant should understand that helping a scientist become a better science communicator directly affects them and their career by:

Encouraging confidence and contributing to staving off attrition (especially for early-stage student scientists): solid communication competence is integral to the scientist’s sense of agency and self-identity within their field.

Having both internal (e.g established and valuable research direction) and external (e.g. validation for work done) context is the starting point for creativity or productive work. One of the ways in which this understanding is projected is in your ability to communicate your position, interests and knowledge as a scientist, hence the need for communicative competence.

(Bawarshi, 2003; Beard, 2018)

Ensuring Research Continuity: (Alley, 2013). There is the need for scientists and technical experts to effectively communicate their work to politicians and other public audiences. Politicians and publics can be critical to continued science research. To reach these audiences, the importance of presentations demonstrating compelling content, passion for the topic, and audience awareness cannot be overemphasized.

“Skepticism about scientific findings along with mistrust of science as a guide for human action has stalled and sometimes reversed major scientifically grounded initiatives.” (Schwartzman, Kirchoff & Cuny, 2019). It is never to early for students to begin to develop communication competence to optimize for continuity and proliferation of their research.

Best Practices for Science Presentations

Use the following as a non-exhaustive checklist as you work with clients to optimize the communication of their work.

Great stories: brilliant data is important but compelling content needs more than data. As Schwartzman et al. (2019) explain, scientists tend to expect the data to speak for itself and should therefore need no “selling” through presentations. But that is not true. Great data can be made even better by talking about them in ways that are accessible. Read Schwartzman et al., 2019 (p. 89-91)

Good Titles: obscure, overly technical titles do not inspire as much interest as less jargony easy-to-follow titles. Help your STEM client settle on a title that gives some insight into the presentation. Martínez and Mammola (2021) reviewing over 21,000 scientific manuscripts found that the higher the amount of jargon in titles and abstracts of scientific papers, the lower the frequency of citation, even by other researchers.

Structure: this is especially true for presentations. It is easier for both speaker and audience when there is an identifiable structure to the presentation. There are several options to choose from—the ‘and, but, therefore’ structure is a popular one. Others include the problem/solution framework; cause and effect framework; Monroe’s motivated sequence, and many more.

Tips for Great Physical Presence for Presentations

(according to Bruce Kirchoff)

Face the audience.
Have an open stance, arms at your sides or held slightly open and toward your audience, feet slightly apart: a comfortable stance.
Smile, or at least do not frown.3. Smile, or at le
Speak loudly and with confidence so that you can be heard at the back of the room.
Enjoy what you are saying and show that enjoyment to the audience. This means that you must have done enough preparation so that you can enjoy your presentation.

(Excerpt from Schwartzman, Kirchoff, and Cuny, 2019, p. 86)

Reflections and Assessment

Pair up with another consultant. Pick any of the strategies taught and discuss ways this will translate within a consulting session with a student scientist.

Using a science presentation slide or science research article, work in pairs of groups of three to talk through possibilities for redesigning. Practice how you may give feedback to client about redesigning this slide or restructuring paper title/content in the case of a consultation session.

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