npscience
commented
6 years ago Activities proposed (a selection of):
- You lost me. Science communicators aim to share new findings beyond the expert circle with plain-language summaries. Are these interesting? We invite participants to be honest about when they stop reading.
- Science whispers. As information is circulated and re-presented, the interpretation of the original content can change. Are plain language summaries of science clear enough to withstand misunderstanding or manipulation? Starting with a plain language summary of a research article, let’s play science whispers (aka telephone).
- Quick to the draw! Using visual descriptions in text provides accessibility to users of screen readers, but how well can these descriptions convey scientific information? We put this to the test with a game of Pictionary.
- Emoji all the science. The emoji dictionary is woefully short of pictograms for science. Can we communicate a scientific finding in emojis, and design new emojis to fill in any gaps?
- It’s all Greek to me! The use of jargon is exclusionary, but how do we know what is jargon and what is within reach of the audience? By asking MozFest participants to rank scientific jargon in order of understanding, we seek to challenge our assumptions as communicators.
daniellecrobinson
[ UUID ] 42306b2f-63c0-43c5-b45a-25cd6b80f64a
[ Session Name ] Hello, do you receive me? The other side of open science. [ Primary Space ] Openness [ Secondary Space ] Digital Inclusion
[ Submitter's Name ] Naomi Penfold [ Submitter's Affiliated Organisation ] eLife [ Submitter's GitHub ] @npscience
[ Other Facilitator 1's Name ] Stuart King
[ Other Facilitator 2's Name ] Elsa Loissel
What will happen in your session?
The internet enables us to share information, including science. However, it takes more than sharing content to make it accessible. The information must be comprehensible and usable too if the scientific enterprise is ever to become more inclusive. As professional science communicators, we are concerned that scientific texts are becoming less readable: https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.27725. We work to counter this by producing plain-language summaries of new research. However, so much of this process is untested, our assumptions about our readers’ requirements unchallenged. In this session, we invite all MozFest attendees to play, draw, design emojis, learn and explore current research, with various activities running in parallel (see comments) designed to help us test the merits and downfalls of science communication together.
What is the goal or outcome of your session?
We aim to collect honest feedback about the usefulness and performance of plain-language summaries of science – are we achieving our aims? We hope the participants will discover new ways to appreciate and follow the latest science, and enjoy doing so. And if we end up with designs for new emojis for science, that would be a bonus!
If your session requires additional materials or electronic equipment, please outline your needs.
We’ll bring along specific materials needed for the activities. Additional stationery (paper, pens, post-its) would be very useful.
Time needed
90 mins