ASC2018 - 11-15 Nov, Sydney

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Engaging Regional Communities with Science – the Power of the People

When: Monday 12th November, 11:55am – 12:55pm
Where: Theatre, Level 2 down the stairs to the right of the registration/foyer area
Hashtag: #M7

How can we bring science to where people go? Find out how Inspiring Australia fosters lasting collaborations with regional communities to take science to new audiences. Learn how to grow science engagement activity and infrastructure through working with established networks. Discover what works and what doesn’t, the importance of working in partnership with local communities and understanding stakeholder needs.

Science engagement from the ground up – the NSW experience
Building STEM capacity in a rapidly evolving, global innovation system requires national effort on many levels – particularly at the grass roots. Inspiring Australia’s NSW Regional Science Hub network offers a low-cost response to this challenge. With modest funding support that is matched by partner investment, Science Hubs involve hundreds of organisations that come together at a local level to share skills and explore scientific issues. This capacity building approach helps increase scientific literacy through the delivery of creative and engaging public programs led by local communities. Discover how Science Hubs take the lead to create, collaborate and connect scientists with a diverse public, through festivals, events and programs that provide rich and memorable experiences for people of all ages. 

Finding our way through discovery and creativity – the SA experience
Inspiring South Australia has experimented with a number of regional engagement strategies and has found a few to be especially effective in engaging communities with science. Its regional Science and Arts Working Together program is designed to tell the stories of science through the arts, bringing together science and arts organisations, groups and practitioners to create fascinating projects that feature local stories and discoveries while engaging the community in the development and in the telling. Another effective regional program is a partnership between Libraries SA, the Children’s Discovery Museum and Inspiring SA that equips librarians to deliver science programs to 3-5 year olds. Covering a range of concepts, Little Bang Discovery Club empowers both children and their accompanying adults as co-learners and collaborators in the investigative process.

Session Producer, Session Chair, Presenter

Jackie Randles, Manager Inspiring Australia NSW, Inspiring Australia

Presenter

Sheryn Pitman, Programme Manager Inspiring South Australia, South Australian Museum

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University of Sydney Mathematical Research Institute Launch

When: Monday 12th November, 6:00pm
Where: Sydney University

The University of Sydney will be launching its Mathematical Research Institute at 6pm on Monday 12 November. The institute will be led by world-renowned mathematician Professor Geordie Williamson, who this year became the youngest living fellow of both the Royal Society and the Australian Academy of Science.

It aims to be a high-level mathematical resource for all of Australia and be considered with similar regard as the Max Planck Institute for Mathematics in Bonn and the Institute for Advanced Studies in Princeton.

ASC Conference attendees who would like to report on or blog about this launch – or who are particularly focused on the mathematical sciences – are invited to attend the event.

Please send enquiries about attending to Marcus Strom marcus.strom@sydney.edu.au

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Case studies: Education

When: Wednesday 14th November, 8:45am – 9:45am
Where: L3, Level 2 to the left of the registration/foyer area, down the hallway and through the doors on the right
Hashtag: #W5

Science education in schools and of the public is so important in this day and age so how do we effectively educate our children and the general public. Hear from our speakers who are working on ways to get science to the people.

The session is structured into four 10-minute talks and will wrap-up with a 20-minute Q&A for delegates questions and comments.

The session will include the following talks:

Session Producer

 

Session Chair

 

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The Rescue Project Podcast – Stories of Kind Acts of Environmental Rescue

When: Wednesday 14th November, 10:20am – 11:20am
Where: Theatrette, Level 2 behind the registration/foyer area
Hashtag: #W6

**Have you ever rescued a riverbank? A tract of bush, an eroded beach, a waterway, some farmland, a garden or a native tree? A native animal or bird? What do you feel as you tend to tired earth, or engage with the intrinsic value of an old-growth giant, or as you look into that creature’s eyes? And, in some way, do these things rescue you?**

The Rescue Project is citizen storytelling in online and podcast form.
Launched in early October it is a public invitation to contribute a 500-word story to the Rescue website – a collaboration between Landcare Australia and Gretchen Miller/UNSW. The stories are currently growing there with opportunity for anyone to read and respond.
The next stage will be The Rescue Project Podcast, beginning production in early 2019 – 10 of the stories read aloud by the writers and set to sound. The podcast series will also include an audio documentary focusing on one special habitat rehabilitation site selected from the uploaded stories.
“Rescue” is an organic, living website, changing by the day and inviting its contributors to feel a part of something bigger. It functions as an online clubhouse for discussion of the personal power of taking action to benefit habitat, animals and the humans who get involved. The intention is to reflect the rich experience, both practical and psychological, that engaging with environment brings, building a deeper recognition of how little things can grow bigger ones.
https://landcareaustralia.org.au/rescue

Session

Case studies: Environment and community engagement

Presenter

Gretchen Miller, Rescue Project Director/Producer, Media Consultant, Gretchen Miller Media

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TasAgFuture: Mobilising Tasmania’s agriculture and food sector to help determine future scientific research

When: Wednesday 14th November, 10:20am – 11:20am
Where: Theatrette, Level 2 behind the registration/foyer area
Hashtag: #W6

TasAgFuture is a social research project that is informing future research to support prosperous and sustainable agriculture and food sectors.

Through the TasAgFuture project, the Tasmanian Institute of Agriculture (TIA) has mobilised the Tasmanian agriculture and food sector to have their say in the sector’s future through in-depth interviews and an online survey. As a result, agrifood peak bodies, the State Government and TIA will better understand goals of the sector, and the research, development and extension (RD&E) needs into the future.

This presentation outlines the strategy and impact of TasAgFuture’s communications through the traditional media, social media and stakeholder engagement – a significant contributor to the project’s success.

Session

Case studies: Environment and community engagement

Presenter

Claire Baker, Research Communications Officer, Tasmanian Institute of Agriculture (TIA) – a joint venture of the University of Tasmania and the Tasmanian Government

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Risk Communication in the Risk Society

When: Wednesday 14th November, 8:45am – 9:45am
Where: L2, Level 2 to the left of the registration/foyer area, down the hallway and through the doors on the right
Hashtag: #W4

Modern society is governed by consideration of risks. Social, economic and environmental risks abound and their impact enhanced by social media. In this session, Mary Anne Waldren interviews Kate Hughes about how risks of pollution remediation are communicated by experts to the public. Kate’s recent research inquiry finds that scientists need more than scientific literacy to communicate risks because, all risks are ultimately socially constructed. Kate’s insight about social literacy are worth hearing. They are new, and draw their pedigree from her experience of remediation at the Homebush Olympic site in Sydney, and the adjacent and infamous dioxin contaminated site once owned by Union Carbide. When it comes to risk, it’s context that matters, and this session really starts a new conversation about experts’ risk communication.

Session Chair

Mary Anne Waldren, Consultant, MAW Action Pty Ltd

Presenter

Kate Hughes, Research Communications and Advocacy, Right To Know Publications

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Disruptive Sci Comm; How the Arts can help Scientists Escape Deficit-Model Communication

When: Monday 12th November, 10:25am – 11:25am
Where: L1, Level 2 to the left of the registration/foyer area, down the hallway and through the doors on the right
Hashtag: #M5

The deficit model is deficient. Facts are dead. Feeling is the new thinking.

Meet the science communicators that are harnessing the arts to connect with their audience in a non-educational way. Although many scientists see the way the arts appeals to the emotional side of their audience as anathema, these are examples of science pitched straight at the heart and soul. But does it succeed? And what is success anyway?

Come prepared to take part, heckle and debate with:

Dr Phil Dooley, musician and storyteller for Phil Up On Science. He wants to know what Schrodinger’s cat thinks about still being a box 100 years later.

Craig Cormick, fiction writer and immersive science communicator.

Heather Catchpole, co-founder Refraction Media, who poetry to encapsulate ideas using minimum words and maximum effect. With poetry, humour and music she hopes to create empathy towards science.

Michael Mills, stage performer and alter ego to the singing palaeontologist Professor Flint who has been connecting local communities to their prehistory through music and storytelling.

Dr Michael Leach and Rachel Rayner who will challenge us to debate and create our own science-inspired visual poetry. If the right energy is supplied – swing dancing – Rachel may also undergo a phase transition from solid to liquid to gas.

David Harris, science communicator and artist. It’s an uneasy truce…

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Using Smartphones to Turn Students into Scientists

When: Wednesday 14th November, 8:45am – 9:45am
Where: L3, Level 2 to the left of the registration/foyer area, down the hallway and through the doors on the right
Hashtag: #W5

Governments are cutting education funding, student anxiety is increasing, and student performance in STEM is at an all-time low. Add to this a shortage of skilled science teachers and it is easy to see that our education system is failing students. Recognizing that 94% of students own a smartphone and 45% of these can’t live without one, Arludo is using the resources that students are most drawn to – smartphones – in unique ways to become a leading innovative education company. Arludo is developing a library of mobile applications that use the full range of smartphone sensors and cameras to create immersive social learning experiences in STEM. From single and multiplayer games, to group games that use augmented reality, to applications revolving around problem-based learning, each unique mobile application allows students to explore a singular topic. The mobile applications are designed to encourage students to work together, and as they interact, students collect scientific data that are displayed in real-time on a dashboard. Using these real-time data visualizations, teachers can easily lead class discussions about the topic being taught by working through the data students collected. Teachers thus quickly become science experts and students intuitively become data-literate scientists through meaningful social experiences.

Session

Case studies: Education

Presenter

Michael Kasumovic, Associate Professor, UNSW

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Yes, Scientists can be Brilliant Science Communicators. Ask Us How!

When: Wednesday 14th November, 10:20am – 11:20am
Where: L1, Level 2 to the left of the registration/foyer area, down the hallway and through the doors on the right
Hashtag: #W7

At Mater we believe that scientists speaking about their own research make the best science communicators.

Effective communication skills are critical to create awareness of research beyond the scientific community, yet researchers rarely receive training to help them better engage with the general public.

The inability to communicate science to a general audience can decrease the impact and translational potential of research. Consumers also represent a critical—and often overlooked—engine of research funding.

To improve researcher interaction with consumers and attract interest from potential donors, Mater has launched the BRIDGE program.

This program provides scientists with comprehensive training on how to effectively engage with consumers and convey the importance of their research in an accessible way.

Workshop Facilitators

Shannon Ryan, Engagement Coordinator, Mater Group

Mark Ryan, Senior Manager Engagement – Strategy, Mater Group

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STEMpunk Podcast: Live at ASC

STEMPUNKWhen: Tuesday 13th November, 12:45pm – 2:00pm
Hashtag: #T7

STEMpunk podcast investigates what STEM is, who does it, and why.

The format of the show is like a panel show where we ask Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths questions, as well as a question from our previous guests. STEMpunk has also run a number of successful live quiz and trivia events.

STEMpunk is not like most other Science podcasts, choosing to interview not only people people involved in STEM, but others outside as well. And for those involved in STEM, we ask them questions about things outside of STEM. We have interviewed some fantastic guests like Dr Katie Mack, Dr Karl, Dr Margaret Wertheim and Professor Brian Schmidt.

This session will be an informal chat with the STEMpunk hosts interviewing expert practitioners at the ASC conference about what STEM is, and who does it. The hosts will encourage audience participation and questions to make the podcast as interesting and conversational as possible.

This session will be released as an episode for the STEMpunk podcast.

http://stempunkpodcast.blogspot.com.au/

Session Producer/Session Chair/Presenter

Tom Gordon, Producer/Host, STEMpunk

Presenters

Christie Mcmonigal, Host, STEMpunk

Shane Hengst, Host, STEMpunk

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Questions? Please contact Kali on asc2018@asc.asn.au.

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