Turning undergraduates into science storytellers. What are the best practices?

Author: Mark Sarvary – Cornell University, United States

Co-authors:
Kathleen Gifford – Science Cabaret/Cornell University
Bruce Lewenstein – Cornell University

What is the role of science communication in the undergraduate science curriculum? This international panel will discuss key issues in teaching science communication at the undergraduate level, and how to bring public communication of science into science education.

Join this roundtable discussion with Merryn McKinnon and Will Grant from the Australian National University, Fabien Medvecky from the University of Otago, NZ, Kitty Gifford and Mark Sarvary from Cornell University, USA. Bruce Lewenstein from Cornell University will moderate the discussion.

Dr. Sarvary and Ms. Gifford organized this roundtable after they developed a course at Cornell University (USA) for science undergraduates covering how to build a science communication strategy plan. Their goal was to understand how undergraduates consume and produce scientific information, and to develop methods to teach communication skills to the next generation of science scholars.

Roundtable participants will discuss how scientific storytelling can be taught at an undergraduate level, and exchange ideas about how digital natives use technologies for science communication. Panelists will also discuss student involvement in public science events outside of the university walls. Instructors who teach science communication are especially encouraged to join this discussion, and bring ideas what has worked and what has failed in their classrooms. We look forward to discussing this topic with fellow science communication instructors, researchers and experts in this field.

Presentation type: Roundtable discussion
Theme: Stories
Area of interest: Teaching science communication