Teaching Science Students to Communicate: A Practical Guide (SCOPE Group Resources to Accompany Book Chapters)

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Alice Motion edited this page May 15, 2022 · 10 revisions

Members (and honorary members) of the SCOPE Group have contributed three chapters to a new science communication book set for publication in 2022.

Teaching Science Students to Communicate: A Practical Guides is edited by Professor Susan Rowland and Associate Professor Louise Kuchel from The University of Queensland.

A brief paragraph from the Prof Rowland and A/Prof Kuchel's Website is found below, and you can read more about the book here:

'This peer-reviewed book is designed to change the way science students learn how to communicate. It will provide examples of active pedagogies that readers can use to teach important, specific aspects of communication. The book will guide meaningful, workplace-relevant teaching and learning of communication theory and practice within university science curricula. We envision that the book could be used by any teaching faculty member who wants to improve their science students’ and their own communication skills.'

All resources created to support each our chapters can be found below and freely accessed and used by others under a CCBY license.

Chapter Resources

One-line stories as connections between slides

Alice Motion, Yaela Golumbic, Reyne Pullen and Peter Rutledge

Worksheet 1: Short, Sharp Science Stories

Worksheet 2: One-Line Stories

Finding your authentic voice

Alice Motion and Ellie Downing

Worksheet 3: Finding your authentic voice

Put the slides to one side – replacing static slides with a prop

Alice Motion, Tom Gordon and Siegbert Schmid

Instructor Notes: Put the slides to one side

Worksheet 4: Put the slides to one side

Example Rubric 1: Put the slides to one side

Some examples of the use of props, demonstrations or models to communicate science:

Props

Water - Liquid Awesome: Crash Course Biology #2 - Hank Green

e.g. the use of costume and water glass as a prop at the start of the video

Breaking the Wall of the 'Climate Change is not real‘ Bubble - Stephanie Okeyo, Falling Walls Engage, 2019

e.g. use of a prop for emphasis of talk message

Of Little Details And Lunar Dust: Preserving Neil Armstrong's Apollo 11 Spacesuit - NPR

e.g. Neil Armstrong's Apollo 11 Spacesuit as an artefact

Element Collector - Periodic Table of Videos

e.g. samples of the elements of the periodic table

Demonstrations

Calculating Pi with Real Pies - Matt Parker, Numberphile

High Speed Collisions in Space: Experiments with a Carrot Gun - The Royal Institution

The Royal Institution YouTube Channel

RI YouTube Channel

Cool Chemistry Series - Alice Motion (nee Williamson) for the University of Sydney

Models

How To Understand the Black Hole Image - Derek Muller, Veritasium

Snatoms

Create your own (inspirations shared below):

Classic chemistry demonstrations (Royal Society of Chemistry)

Do Try This At Home (Institute of Physics)

Science at Home - Royal Society of Biology

Follow us at @SCOPE_RG on Twitter.