1/11/19 The Science Communication Collaborative at Emerson College

The Science Communication Collaborative at Emerson College

The Science Communication Collaborative (SCC) is a network of early career scientific researchers (graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and early principal investigators) from the Boston area, who are paired with undergraduate students (majoring in disciplines of communication or the arts) enrolled in science courses at Emerson College for a series of communication exchanges and mutual training in science communication.

The Students:

In having the opportunity for sustained interactions with a scientist, students gain insight into the lives and work of a diverse subset of the scientific community on the frontiers of biological and biomedical research. Students get first hand accounts of how scientists identify, approach, and answer important questions and the research areas of the participating scientists drive the course content.  Students observe the scientists as they communicate, and build a relationship through interview, discussions, workshops in improv and science visualization.  Ultimately students communicate their partner scientist’s work in a variety of formats including press release, presentation, popular science writing, and creative visualization.

• Students will gain first-hand insight into the way scientists identify, approach, and answer important questions
• Students will have the opportunity to apply their communication skills and creative talents to the science they learn from primary sources, classroom discussion, and independent research.
• Students impact how the scientist approaches communication to a lay audience and makes his work accessible to a broader audience.

The Scientists:

Scientists hone their communication skills while impacting science literacy among non-scientists.   Participating scientists receive media training through the experience of working with future media-makers and via shared workshop experiences.   The work that students generate and scientists help to shape become tools for the scientist to use in communicating her work to a variety of non-specialist audiences.

• Scientists gain insight into the approach of media-makers, interacting with students who have diverse skills and creative talents.
• Scientists impact how the science communicator approaches scientific material and conveys scientific ideas
• Scientists gain experience translating their work to a lay audience

To Apply: Participants should be available on Tuesday or Thursday afternoons from 12-1:30 pm for participation in several communication events and training workshops at Emerson (typically 5-6 meetings between January 14 and May 1 on mutually agreed upon dates). Please respond to Amy (a_vashlishan_murray@emerson.edu) by Friday January 11 to express interest. Kindly (1) identify yourself, (2) describe your research area, and (3) indicate your availability to attend an informational meeting on either Tuesday January 15th at 4pm or Wednesday January 16th at 12pm.