Science communication is a branch of science awareness and literacy, where these two terms typically involve encouraging scientists and science enthusiasts to talk about new breakthroughs in research, debunk myths, and help build trust between the public and scientists. Science communication has a different definition. A paper written by Burns et al. (2003) describes science communication as using media, skills, activities and dialogues to promote awareness, engagement, enjoyment, opinion-forming, and understanding in STEM fields. It does provide similar outcomes compared to science awareness and literacy, but it focuses more on using different resources to promote and explain STEM fields rather than talk about specific research. In the past decade, science communication has become the norm to making the public aware of developments in STEM, and reaching out to political figures about the threat of global climate change and the impact humans are having on the environment. Science communication became so important that I started getting intrigued. I began listening to science communicators, reading blogs written by graduate students and scientists, and attending more research forums at my host institution. After speaking to some science communicators and getting involved in various outreach events, I decided to make science communication an essential skill for me to learn. In this blog, I want to tell you the story about how I got into science communication.
What Inspired Me?
I would say what inspired me to become involved in science communication was during my time as an outreach teaching assistant with the Center for Planetary Science and Exploration (now the Institute for Earth and Space Exploration) in 2018. I assisted in organizing and running planetary science activities, teaching grade 4 to 10 students about planetary science topics such as the celestial bodies on our solar system, how rovers descend and land on the surface of Mars, what happens when a meteorite or comet impacts the surface of a rocky body, and how radar can see through the thick atmospheres of Venus and Titan. Seeing how engaged the students were in each class I wanted to find out how I could get more involved in outreach. Even after my teaching assistant position for that term ended I still helped organize and run outreach activities, volunteered for PD days, and brainstormed new activities for camps and classroom visits. During my volunteer time, I was able to listen to other scientists and public speakers talk about different STEM fields and research topics. Seeing how they talked about topics in a way that everyone in the audience could understand completely blew me away. From the birth of galaxies to testing NASA's Orion spacecraft, these speakers were able to translate complicated research and tests into a language that everyone could understand. Professionals from other research fields, and the public could all follow their presentations and ask questions at the end. I found this skill fascinating, and I envied those speakers because I knew I struggled to talk about certain topics in my research field to outside audiences. I talked to a couple of these speakers, one of whom is Dr Parshati Patel who is the Institute for Earth and Space Explorations Outreach Coordinator. She is the person I look up to the most in science communication, and is the one who gave me the opportunities to get involved in outreach and science communication. If it was not for Dr Parshati Patel, I do not think I would be where I am now.
Image credit: Institute for Earth and Space Exploration
How do I stay involved?
I stay involved by finding time to write about my research on my website, post STEM-related research and discoveries on Twitter, and talk to other graduate students and young scientists from different departments about their research. Posting blogs on my website started when my supervisor recommended that everyone in our lab create a website. She explained it would help us improve our writing skills, which I completely agree! The best way to get better at writing is to keep practicing. Around the same time, I started listening to podcasts. I found podcasts to be an excellent way to stay up to date with recent scientific research and discoveries, planetary mission developments, and global issues. I listened to podcasts so much that I joined a graduate student run podcast and radio show at the University of Western Ontario. The podcast is called GradCast, and it involves hosts "interviewing" (episodes are conversational instead of pre-planned questions) graduate students from different departments (not exclusive to STEM, we also interview students from Arts & Humanities) and asking them about what their research is about, how they became involved and interested in their research, and what their day to day life is as a graduate student. Since joining the podcast I have learned how to ask questions that the listening audience will understand and how to listen carefully when the graduate students research is outside of my field.
More recently, I have been giving telecon presentations to grade 4 to 9 classes across south-western Ontario about space exploration to the Moon, how we study lava flows on other rocky bodies such as the Moon and Mars, and the Canadian Space Agency Junior Astronaut program. You can check out the videos on the media exposure section on my website.
Image credit: GradCast, Nick Handfield-Jones
How does it help my PhD research?
As I mentioned before, outreach and science communication has helped me with not only my presentation skills but my writing skills. Granted, I am still new to science communication and writing, but since I started my PhD I have noticed vast improvements in my writing structure, delivery and ability to remain on topic. Before, I struggled to simplify explanations and talk about my research aims and methods in an easy to understand way. I could not stray away from making sentences sound as complicated as possible because I used to think that the more complicated, the more professional it sounded. I now know that is wrong. If you find it difficult to talk about your work or explain a hypothesis or method in a simple manner then you do not completely understand it. If it was not for website blogs and involvement with outreach I think I would still be struggling to write manuscripts, grant proposals and conference abstracts (not to say I am amazing at it, but it definitely does not take me months to write a single manuscript anymore ;) ).
Outreach and science communication has also allowed me to meet new graduate students, young-scientists, professionals, and public speakers. When I attended the Canadian Space Summit (CSS) in November 2019, I got to meet so many interesting people! I learned how they got involved in planetary science research and outreach, how they talk about space policy and sustainability to the public and government figures, and how they were inspired to pursue careers in research, industry, or science communication. Meeting others can help you learn and develop your communication skills. If you listen to people speak and see how they format and structure presentations you can learn a lot. More than if you were on your own.
Group picture of the Institute for Earth and Space Exploration team attending the 2019 Canadian Space Summit. From left to right: Chimira Andres (MSc student, Western University), Gavin Tolometti ("me", PhD Candidate, Western University), Dr Parshati Patel (Outreach Coordinator, Western University), Bryan Southwell (MSc student, Western University), Xiaochen Zhang (MSc student, Western University), Hira Nadeem (MSc student, McMaster). Photo credit: Chimira Andres.
What resources do I use?
I would not call these resources, but there are a couple of sites and speakers you can visit and listen to if you are also interested in science communication:
A website with a collection of blogs talking about different STEM topics called From The Lab Bench, written by Dr Paige Brown Jarreau
Dr Salle Le Page, youtube science communicator
BrainCraft, hosted by Vanessa Hill
I hope you enjoyed my story, as short as it was :D. Maybe you will find a drive and passion for science communication, just like I have.
See you guys next time!
References
Burns, T. W., O'Connor, D. J., & Stocklmayer, S. M. (2003). Science communication: a contemporary definition. Public understanding of science, 12(2), 183-202.