ASC2018 - 11-15 Nov, Sydney

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Stereotypes: A Choice

When: Monday 12th November, 10:25am – 12:55pm
Where: L2, Level 2 to the left of the registration/foyer area, down the hallway and through the doors on the right
Hashtag: #M6

Does gender matter when it comes to science communication? What about intersectionality? This session will explore how identity and demographics can influence opportunity for science communicators (and professionals within STEM more broadly) and what strategies can be employed to target self-perception and reframe gender stereotypes. This interactive session is designed to get you thinking and talking to others in the field in engaging, thought provoking activities.

Presenter

Merryn McKinnon, Lecturer, Centre for the Public Awareness of Science, The Australian National University

 

 

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What’s next: Taking your sci com career to the next level

When: Tuesday 13th November, 4:00pm – 5:30pm
Where: L2, Level 2 to the left of the registration/foyer area, down the hallway and through the doors on the right
Hashtag: #T15

So you’ve been in science communication for a while, and wondering what to do next. This session is a group brainstorm of career directions, opportunities and inspirations.

Where are the influential jobs? What are the big challenges developing for sci com? Should I go freelance? Can I make enough money from sci comm to have a secure future!?

Everyone’s answers will be different, but hopefully you will make connections and get inspiration to get you on the right path for you.

Session Producer, Workshop Facilitator

Dr Phil Dooley, Galactic Commander, Phil Up On Science and ASC National co-vice-president

Attendees

Anna Attard, Research Assistant and Masters Student, University of New South Wales
Anne-Sophie Dielen, The Australian National University
Dr Astha Singh, Vice President | ASC NSW, ASC
Bobby Cerini, Questacon – The National Science and Technology Centre
Broderick Matthews, A/g National Programs Manager, Questacon
Caleb McElrea, University of Melbourne
Catharina Vendl, University of New South Wales
Dr Catherine Dorey, Consultant, Fish & Fisheries | Science Communication | Campaign Strategy
Catherine Healy, Science Communication Advisor, Environment Protection Authority Victoria
Catherine Somerville, Doherty Institute
Emma Saville, EPA Victoria
Errol Hunt, FLEET: ARC Centre of Excellence
Jane Ilsley, Econnect Communication
Jasmine Fellows, CSIRO
Jen Martin, Educator and radio personality, The University of Melbourne
Jessica Heinemann, Centre for Biopharmaceutical Innovation – UQ
Jun-Ting Yeung, University of Melbourne
Kimberly Cullen, Managing Director, Crafting Astronomy Communication
Laura McCaughey, UTS
Lee Byrne, Victorian Comprehensive Cancer Centre
Matt Nurse, Masters degree candidate, CPAS, Australian National University
Meagan Vella, NPWS
Melina Gillespie, Communication Advisor, CSIRO Energy
Micaela Jemison, Science Communicator, Smithsonian Institution
Michael Helman, Communicatrium
Michelle Neil, Australian Citizen Science Association
Michelle Riedlinger, Associate Professor, University of Fraser Valley, Canada
Naomi Koh Belic, University of Technology Sydney
Nicole Fetchet, Questacon – The National Science and Technology Centre
Rachel Rayner, Science Communicator, Australian Volunteers Program
Rebecca Blackburn
Richard Chi, Sydney Observatory – MAAS
Ruth Redfern, CRDC
Sally Grosvenor, CDPC, University of Sydney
Sarah Buchan, The Mullion Group
Sheryn Pitman, Programme Manager Inspiring South Australia, South Australian Museum
Susan Rauch, Lecturer, professional writing (science and technology), Massey University, School of English and Media Studies
Tom Rayner, Griffith University
Taryn Laubenstein, ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies
Dr Tsuey Cham, Communication & Stakeholder Manager, CSIRO GISERA
Tyrone Anderson, ASPIRE – UNSW
Vanessa Fuchs, The Royal Botanic Garden Sydney

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Tell me a Story

When: Wednesday 14th November, 8:45am – 9:45am
Where: L1, Level 2 to the left of the registration/foyer area, down the hallway and through the doors on the right
Hashtag: #W3

Storytelling is an intrinsic part of human societies and cultures. Whether through the many and varied art forms, religion, architecture or media, the influence of storytelling is everywhere. Stories reflect and reveal values, dreams, desires, fears, prejudices, knowledge and wisdom. Stories capture our pasts and envision our futures. Storytelling is often said to define and bind our humanity; it is possible that humans are the only animals that create and tell stories.

In essence storytelling is about making sense of the world, which is probably why stories so fascinate humankind. If you tell your audience a story with integrity, the chances are you’ll gain their support, create a following and inspire them to believe and act. A story gives people a reason to care about what you have to say.

Our team is using a ‘show and tell’ format to explore storytelling in just some of its wondrous diversity, selecting genres and technologies highly relevant to science communication. Between us we explore the power of the narrative and performance to engage and inspire, and the development and use of technology (including artificial intelligence) to turn scientists into expert communicators. We demonstrate and discuss why good story telling matters and is essential to effective science communication.

We are not only interested in more effectively engaging with the audiences we have, but also in connecting with new audiences including the ‘less science-engaged’. We are all experimenting and innovating in this space and have some great stories to tell!

Session Producer/Presenter

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

Presenters

Michael Mills, Creative Director, HeapsGood Productions

Andy Stapleton, CEO and Founder, verbalize.science

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A small mouse study? Or, the most important discovery for pregnant women since folate?

When: Tuesday 13th November, 2:00pm – 3:30pm
Where: Theatrette, Level 2 behind the registration/foyer area
Hashtag: #T9

(Work in progress/preliminary findings)

Introduction: News media reporting of scientific research is often derived from press releases rather than from journal articles. Press releases are quicker and easier to understand than the increasingly complex language used in scientific journal articles. Additionally, press releases are more easily accessible than scientific articles which can initially be under embargo and once published, often only accessible via subscription or payment to the journal publisher. Since it is known that news media coverage of scientific research is often based on press releases rather than on journal articles, it is important to investigate and understand how the translation process occurs from the journal article to the press release to the news media reporting. We chose to investigate this specific case study because it received controversial news media coverage and we sort to understand the translation process that led to this contention.

Methods: An in-depth qualitative text analysis was undertaken to compare a journal article (published in the New England Journal of Medicine), the corresponding press releases and all of the subsequent online news media reporting. The journal article, the two press releases and the 60 online news media articles (sourced from Google news) were imported into NVivo version 12. Each document was read multiple times to identify common themes for text analysis. An inductive approach was used to code each of the themes in the documents. The themes were labelled, and quotes were selected to represent each theme.

Preliminary results:

  • Many news media articles copied sections of the press release word-for-word.
  • Many news media articles did not clearly explain the study published in NEJM.
  • Few news media articles sourced independent commentary of the research outside of the quotes published in the press release.
  • Some news media articles omitted the role of mice in the study.
  • Some news media articles made potentially harmful clinical recommendations about vitamin supplementation for pregnant women which were not supported by the NEJM article.
  • The misrepresentation of the study in the news media had an international reach.

Conclusion: As news media reporting of scientific research has the potential to impact human behaviour (in ways that can be both beneficial and harmful), it is important that news media coverage of scientific research is clear, balanced and accurate. Whilst it is not possible to determine if the misrepresentation of the NEJM article in the news media reporting was a direct result of the press release, we can hypothesise that in line with other research in this field, a more objective and representative press release may have resulted in more balanced news media reporting.

Session

Case studies: Lessons from the experts

Presenter

Georgia Dempster, PhD Candidate & Senior Ethics Advisor, The University of Melbourne

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21st century comms: emerging digital, technical and social trends to anticipate: Simulation case studies from AIE

When: Tuesday 13th November, 9:15am – 11:15am
Where: Theatre, Level 2 down the stairs to the right of the registration/foyer area
Hashtag: #T2

This presentation focuses on emerging digital, technical and social trends in Virtual and Augmented Reality as 21st century communication technologies. We will first introduce the facilities and infrastructure used in a number of pioneering research projects in the last 15 years at the Virtual Reality (VR) lab and the Simulation Hub of Macquarie University, and explore Academy of Interactive Entertainment’s educational philosophy and involvement in digital content creation. Then, explaining the differences between Virtual, Augmented, and Mixed Reality concepts, we will discuss emerging trends by reviewing a number of most recent VR & AR market reports and survey results. Finally, we will demonstrate a number of simulations developed by VISOR (Virtual and Interactive Simulation of Reality) team at Macquarie University, reflecting on our past experiences in research funding. Thus, we hope to be able to project what might possibly be in demand and get funded in the near future.  Survey results state that startup founders, tech executives, investors, and consultants expect gaming to attract the most investment for the coming year. More social and collaborative applications of AR and VR are expected to appear as well as smartphone applications. High prices, overhyped hardware, and lack of compelling content are seen as the biggest missed opportunities in this domain. Number of headsets sold are expected to increase and AR market is predicted to be four times bigger than VR, due to its accessibility. The top unsolved problems include comfortable locomotion, light and inexpensive headsets, as well as quality content. We will conclude the presentation by listing the challenges ahead as well as the potential solutions to these. Major challenges are listed as lack of skills due to the face pace of technology and being up to date with the practical skills, low number of domain experts, the number of start up funds and the size of grants, the limited amount of proper digital content, high costs of hardware, as well as mindset of corporates. Solutions we suggest are university and vocational education courses focusing on VR and AR content development, collaboration and close-knit partnerships to build learning communities, novel subscription models for sharing infrastructure and expertise, tech industry friendly immigration laws allowing knowledge transfer, better and easier access to large funding, easy to use VR and AR libraries and toolkits, and encouraging the corporates to take risks for long term benefits rather than short term rewards. We recommend to build an Australian version of Silicon Valley and a large VR and AR Training Center to drive innovations and industry access to talent.

Presenter

Associate Professor Manolya Kavakli, Academic Director of AIE Institute (Academy of Interactive Entertainment) and Director of the Virtual Reality Lab at the Simulation Hub, Macquarie University

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Actions, Not Words – Achieving Gender Equity in STEM

When: Monday 12th November, 1:55pm – 3:25pm
Where: L2, Level 2 to the left of the registration/foyer area, down the hallway and through the doors on the right
Hashtag: #M12

The Australian Academy of Science and the Academy of Technology and Engineering are developing a Women in STEM Decadal Plan – a 10-year roadmap for sustained increase in women’s STEM participation and progression from school through to careers in all sectors. Science communicators are uniquely placed across multiple sectors, giving them a broad ranging perspective of challenges faced by female and female identifying members of the STEM community. They are also likely to be part of the mechanisms involved in implementing any form of plan or strategic initiative to enhance gender equity in STEM, a challenging communication task. For any Plan or initiative like this to succeed it requires sector, and societal, ‘buy in’. This interactive session will provide participants with an opportunity to see an exposure draft of the plan and discuss its implications and challenges for those working in the STEM, and science/STEM communication fields. How do science communicators best communicate within their sectors to elevate female participation in STEM, engage the necessary stakeholders and collaborate to enact change which will shape future STEM participation in Australia?

Session Producer/Workshop Facilitator:

Merryn McKinnon, Policy Analyst, Women in STEM Decadal Plan, Australian Academy of Science

Workshop Facilitators:

Sandra Gardam, Policy Analyst, Australian Academy of Science

Emily Finch, Research and Policy Officer, Australian Academy of Technology and Engineering

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Human language meets machines: how does this work in 2018?

When: Tuesday 13th November, 2:00pm – 3:30pm
Where: L1, Level 2 to the left of the registration/foyer area, down the hallway and through the doors on the right
Hashtag: #T10

Is learning language complicated?

If humans struggle with it, how is it that computers understand, interpret and manipulate human language?

How far have we come with the capacity to have our machines work with human language?

When we talk about computers interfacing with human language we talk about “natural language”. Natural Language Processing (NLP) is the branch of artificial intelligence concerned with getting computers to do useful things with human languages.

In this talk we take a look at what it means for a machine to understand or use a natural language like English, German or Chinese. We will look at six key areas in the marketplace today: speech technologies, conversational agents, text analytics, machine translation, natural language generation, and text correction. In each case we provide examples of what is possible, separating the reality from the hype that surrounds artificial intelligence technologies; and we mull over what might be coming down the road towards us.

Presenter

Robert Dale, NLP Consultant, Language Technology Group

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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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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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The Art and Science of Collaboration – Three Case Studies on Finding Innovative Partnerships for Science Communication

When: Tuesday 13th November, 9:15am – 11:15am
Where: Theatrette, Level 2 behind the registration/foyer area
Hashtag: #T3

You have a message and you know who you want to reach, but you have little to no budget or resources. Partnerships are often the best way to maximise your science communication efforts, but how do I make it happen?

From the world’s largest museum to the smallest of conservation non-profits, organizations big and small face this very same problem. Micaela Jemison will present three case studies from her time at the Smithsonian Institution and Bat Conservation International (USA) to shed light on the process of finding the right partners and the potential benefits and pitfalls of these collaborations.

The case studies span a range of corporate, government/non-profit and media partners, as well as individual collaborators you may not expect. The result is an annual North American bat conservation campaign reaching more than 24 million people, integration of conservation science messages into one of the world’s most popular online games for kids, and a virtual reality experience bringing a “Batnado” to the rest of the world.

Session

Case studies: Cultural Institutions and Festivals

Presenter

Micaela Jemison, Science Communicator, Smithsonian Institution

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

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© 2018 Australian Science Communicators

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