Presentations and communication - missing the point?
A few weeks ago, I completed my last assessed piece of work before my final exams - a 10 minute presentation on my dissertation research, followed by 5-10 minutes of questions. And as part of this session I also listened to 15 other students' presentations.
As someone who is fascinated by science communication, I was really excited to explore how to change
But it was hard work. My main goal was to engage my audience of peers, making sure they could grasp my specific (and pretty niche) subject in just a few minutes. For me, by supporting all this information (which is new and possibly confusing to my audience) with a key story. Why this research means something - essentially why they should listen/care about what I was telling them.
But when I watched my peers, this story link was the key thing I thought was missing from all of their talks - why I should be listening? Why their piece of research helped to fill a gap in the knowledge we have in that field. Initially (and selfishly!) I felt this gap was a shame because, without this story and context, some of their beautifully explained concepts, methods and results just fell straight out of my head as soon as they had finished speaking - as I didn't have that hook to remember their work with.
But then this got me thinking - if I was struggling to understand, as a final year undergraduate, used to hearing talks in this type of subject and well versed in the 'language', then how could this talk possibly be accessible and engaging to the general public?
I think this shows how important communication is to the future of research and public engagement in science. Communication skills are vital for all scientists and researchers, to give them the tools they need to open the door and make science accessible and inspirational, and to be able to make it understandable to anyone in only a few minutes.
These two videos from WIRED both show an excellent example of how these conversations can be made accessible to all levels, without being condescending and encouraging each person to ask questions and discuss the future possibilities of the biology they discussed. I would recommend giving them a watch:
As someone who is fascinated by science communication, I was really excited to explore how to change
But it was hard work. My main goal was to engage my audience of peers, making sure they could grasp my specific (and pretty niche) subject in just a few minutes. For me, by supporting all this information (which is new and possibly confusing to my audience) with a key story. Why this research means something - essentially why they should listen/care about what I was telling them.
But when I watched my peers, this story link was the key thing I thought was missing from all of their talks - why I should be listening? Why their piece of research helped to fill a gap in the knowledge we have in that field. Initially (and selfishly!) I felt this gap was a shame because, without this story and context, some of their beautifully explained concepts, methods and results just fell straight out of my head as soon as they had finished speaking - as I didn't have that hook to remember their work with.
But then this got me thinking - if I was struggling to understand, as a final year undergraduate, used to hearing talks in this type of subject and well versed in the 'language', then how could this talk possibly be accessible and engaging to the general public?
I think this shows how important communication is to the future of research and public engagement in science. Communication skills are vital for all scientists and researchers, to give them the tools they need to open the door and make science accessible and inspirational, and to be able to make it understandable to anyone in only a few minutes.
These two videos from WIRED both show an excellent example of how these conversations can be made accessible to all levels, without being condescending and encouraging each person to ask questions and discuss the future possibilities of the biology they discussed. I would recommend giving them a watch:
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