{"id":3013,"date":"2014-04-09T12:11:50","date_gmt":"2014-04-09T12:11:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/per\/?p=3013"},"modified":"2014-04-09T12:11:50","modified_gmt":"2014-04-09T12:11:50","slug":"evolving-science-communication-theory-and-pracice-what-happened-next","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/weblab.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/per\/archives\/3013","title":{"rendered":"Evolving science communication: theory and practice … what happened next?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\"Photograph<\/a>
Dr Clare Wilkinson<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

On Friday 4th April 2014 the Science Communication Unit<\/a> (SCU), at the University of the West of England, Bristol <\/a>held its second Evolving Science Communication<\/a> conference. I talked about the run up to this conference in a previous <\/a>post<\/span>.<\/p>\n

The conference celebrated 10 years of science communication programmes based at the SCU and it was lovely to see that around a fifth of delegates on the day were our graduates.<\/p>\n

The programme was packed with interesting plenary talks, vibrant presentations and quick paced PechaKucha chats. The Science Communication Unit @SciCommsUWE<\/a> Twitter feed captures some of the online discussion, and we've also created a\u00a0Storify<\/a> of the day.<\/p>\n

In my first blog post I talked about the combination of theory and practice and as I expected this was implicit in a good deal of the discussion. Whilst I can\u2019t cover all who presented on the day, there were a few presentations where this theme was particularly relevant.<\/p>\n

Jennifer Garrett<\/a>, a graduate from 2013, discussed her MSc project research, in a talk titled The Building as an Exhibit: Communicating Environmental Sustainability in Science Centres<\/em>. Jennifer\u2019s work is fascinating, she examined how science centres, in particular At-Bristol, deliver sustainability communications in their own actions. As Jennifer put it: \u201cHow does what they preach match practice?\u201d<\/p>\n

As with many of the presentations on the day it was impossible to consider how Jennifer\u2019s project would have worked without embedding current theory and relating that to the context of practice. Theory was crucial to her research. In turn her research provides recommendations to be taken up in practice. As Jennifer said in the context of sustainability, \u201cknowledge and action equals power\u201d and arguably the same might be said of the role of such science communication projects, which generate knowledge that in turn promotes practical action.<\/p>\n

Melanie Knetsch, Deputy Head of Communications at the Economic and Social Research Council<\/a>, questioned whether academics can really engage \u201chard to reach audiences\u201d. As Melanie intended, the concept of \u201chard to reach\u201d provoked all sorts of opinions among delegates and their practice, which she sought to capture in her opening interactions with the audience.<\/p>\n

However, the importance of theory and its role in activities was influential in other ways. Melanie discussed her motivations to undertake postgraduate science communication training a few years ago, one of which was that to make an academic argument for research communication \u201cyou need to know the theory\u201d. Whilst some social science research has implicit applied implications (Melanie presented an absorbing Celebrating Impact<\/a><\/em> prize video that captures this), as with all areas of research, some academics are interested in the \u201cacademic questions\u201d alone. Thus for those professionals like Melanie, mediating those differing perspectives between theory and practice is also important.<\/p>\n

Ellen Dowell, who is based at the University of Surrey<\/a> and Imperial College, London<\/a> showcased an impressive collection of \u201ccreative, collaborative and playful approaches\u201d to public engagement which she has produced for Einstein\u2019s Garden<\/a> at the Green Man Festival. With focuses as diverse as low carbon technologies, the endocrine system and vascular system, the examples Ellen presented did not shy away from vibrant, dynamic, artistic performances that scientific and medical researchers were an integral part of.
\nPersonally, I was completely enthralled by the video clips Ellen presented, including\u00a0Blood Lines<\/a><\/em>, a collaboration with the National Heart and Lung Institute and a textile designer.<\/p>\n

The video clips reminded me of a statement Emeritus Professor Frank Burnet<\/a> made in his opening plenary \u201cone quote is worth 15 pie charts\u201d. However Ellen, like many of the other presenters on the day, hadn\u2019t left it there. For example, you can find a fuller evaluation of projects she\u2019s been involved in, like Pedal Power Physics, via the British Science Association's Collective Memory<\/a>.<\/p>\n

As Imran Khan <\/a>asked us what we\u2019d like the British Science Association to do over the next ten years, I wondered what sorts of questions we might be considering then. Five years on from our last conference, some topics have shifted in emphasis: community partnership, interdisciplinarity, behaviour change and nudge are newly emerged, while old friends like PUS to PEST, employer needs and the role of the media still crept on to the agenda.
\nWill theory and practice still be relevant? I expect so but it will be interesting to see if developments in social media, open access and research impact influence the debate if we revisit it then.<\/p>\n

Finally, there was one last reminder to me of the combination of theory and practice in our graduates work. Antony Jolliffe, who carried out his MSc research on the work of Sir David Attenborough a couple of years ago, and who currently works for the BBC\u2019s Countryfile<\/a>, kindly showed me a photograph <\/a>of a signed copy of his MSc dissertation, surely an indication of the relevance of both theory and practice.<\/p>\n

\n

Clare Wilkinson<\/a><\/em> is a Senior Lecturer based at the Science Communication Unit, University of the West of England, Bristol. Clare is a growing expert in the field of research communication and a committed and innovative educator. Her work has been funded by a variety of funders including the ESRC, British Academy and Wellcome Trust. Clare\u2019s research has been published in journals including Science Communication, Public Understanding of Science and PLoS One. In 2009, she co-authored <\/em>Nanotechnology, Risk and Communication<\/a> with Alison Anderson, Alan Petersen and Stuart Allan for Palgrave Macmillan. <\/em><\/p>\n

The Science Communication Unit is internationally renowned for its diverse and innovative activities, designed to engage the public with science, as well as its commitment to training would-be science communicators via dedicated postgraduate courses and knowledge exchange activities. The SCU is a UWE Centre of Excellence and branches two UWE faculties, the Faculty of Health and Applied Sciences and the Faculty of Environment and Technology.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On Friday 4th April 2014 the Science Communication Unit (SCU), at the University of the West of England, Bristol held its second Evolving Science Communication conference. I talked about the run up to this conference in a previous post. The conference celebrated 10 years of science communication programmes based at the SCU and it was ...continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1001029,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38,3],"tags":[15,89,33,97],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/weblab.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/per\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3013"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/weblab.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/per\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/weblab.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/per\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weblab.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/per\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1001029"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weblab.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/per\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3013"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/weblab.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/per\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3013\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/weblab.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/per\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3013"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weblab.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/per\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3013"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weblab.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/per\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3013"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}