ASC2020 - 16-19 Feb, Melbourne

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Applying Behaviour Change to Science Communication: Lessons from BehaviourWorks Australia

This is a two-part workshop on science communications using a behaviour change approach, sharing insights from BehaviourWorks Australia (BWA), a university-based behaviour change research enterprise that works with government and industry to find behavioural solutions to real-world problems.

The workshop will begin by taking attendees step-by-step through a model of behaviour change which can be applied to science communications (the “Comms Mini Method”). The second part of the workshop will focus on the practical side of communications, sharing learnings from BWA’s science communications experiences.

This workshop is based on BWA training to develop capability in science communications among new behavioural insights teams in government and industry.

 

Structure

The session will consist of three sections.
(1) The first section will focus on applying the BWA Method (https://www.behaviourworksaustralia.org/the-method/) of behaviour change to science communications. Kun Zhao or Mark Boulet will present this behavioural approach to communications, dubbed the “Comms Mini Method” and its three stages of “Exploration”, “Deep Dive”, and “Application”.

(2) The second section will focus on the practical side of BWA’s experiences in behaviour change communications with government and industry. Geoff Paine will present on BWA’s own communications activities and products, as well as learnings, issues, and challenges.

(3) The third section will be an informal Q and A discussion with the audience around the content in the first two sessions, plus some of the common issues that are encountered in this area of science communications (e.g., how do we manage expectations and communicate what behavioural insights can do?).

 

What will participants gain from attending your session?

The session aims to provide attendees with a practical understanding of how behaviour change methods can be applied to the communications planning process. This is done by taking attendees step-by-step through the Comms Mini Method.

The session also aims to share with attendees BWA’s own experiences from communicating about behaviour change with government and industry, including practical tips, learnings, and remedies for common problems. It is intended that attendees can draw from the BWA perspective and apply these to their own communications challenges and issues.

As the Comms Mini Method is relatively new, the session presenters also wish to receive some feedback from attendees on the Comms Mini Method (e.g., what could be improved, what other contexts it could be applied, what are some potential shortcomings with the approach).

 

Presenters

Kun Zhao, Research fellow, BehaviourWorks Australia, MSDI

Mark Boulet, Research fellow, BehaviourWorks Australia, MSDI

Geoff Paine, Content Curator, BehaviourWorks Australia, MSDI

 

When: Monday 17th February, 2:00pm-3:30pm
Where: Room G31, Learning and Teaching Building, 19 Ancora Imparo Way, Clayton
Hashtag: TBC

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Creativity in Science Communication: What we can learn from 23 of the world’s leading science organisations

Animal mascots. Enormous sculptures made of rubbish. Digital storytelling. Radio programs on lemurs.

In 2018, Kate Cranney travelled around the world, interviewing science communicators from 23 organisations. She spent time with the Smithsonian Institute, the Monterey Bay Aquarium and the David Suzuki Foundation, to name a few.

She asked each group: How do you communicate your work in creative and innovate ways? What are the bright spots in your organisation—what communications campaigns were successful and why? And how do you collaborate with the public, especially with artists and children?

This presentation provides a tasty smörgåsbord (Kate visited Sweden!) of some of the most creative science communication happening around the world.

Kate’s fellowship was funded by the International Specialised Skills Institute and the George Alexander Fellowship: www.issinstitute.org.au.

Presenter

Kate Cranney, Communications Advisor (Land & Water, Energy), CSIRO

 

When: Monday 17th February, 2:00pm-3:30pm

Where: Room G01, Learning and Teaching Building, 19 Ancora Imparo Way, Clayton
Hashtag: TBC

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A business model canvas, self-belief and accountability: Useful tools for one journey into scicomm business

Jumping in to business can be exhilarating and terrifying. From freelancing as a side hustle to going into it full-time, there are lots of opportunities for building communication-related businesses. Having a plan for starting is useful to achieve traction as soon as possible. And luckily, there is a lot of good advice freely-available about starting a business. Heart and grit are also elements that come into play for the journey of self-discovery that is launching a business. In this talk, Claire Harris will share some of the tools she’s used (and help she’s needed) to start and run a small scicomm business.

Topics covered:
• Getting started on a business journey.
• How a business model canvas can help you.
• Why you should consider a self-directed (or with a team) business bootcamp
• Why accountability buddies are gold
• Avoiding feelings of isolation and how to keep moving forward.

 

Presenter

Claire Harris, Founder and Marketing-Communication Specialist, Innovate Communicate

 

When: Tuesday 18th February, 11:15am-12:15pm

Where: Room G21, Learning and Teaching Building, 19 Ancora Imparo Way, Clayton
Hashtag: TBC

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Science internship attitudes: interns vs supervisors vs organisation

ICRAR runs a paid intern program every summer, selecting eight undergraduate science students to conduct an astronomy-based research project over the summer, closely supervised by at least one researcher. The goal of the program is to attract students to study a PhD at ICRAR, but we discovered after evaluation that both the students and supervisors have different opinions on what the program is for. What do they think and why? And how did we try to change their attitudes the following year?

 

Presenter

Cass Rowles, Cosmic Communicator, The International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAR)

 

When: Tuesday 18th February, 11:15am-12:15pm

Where: Room G21, Learning and Teaching Building, 19 Ancora Imparo Way, Clayton
Hashtag: TBC

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Kickstart Science

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

The Kickstart Science workshops are aimed at HSC Science students and teachers and are designed to meet the demand expressed by teachers in response to previous and upcoming changes to the HSC Science syllabus. Parts of the syllabus requires equipment or expertise in areas that many schools may not be able to provide. Kickstart workshops give HSC students a chance to do experiments and demonstrations of key ideas in the syllabus that are difficult to do in the classroom.

Kickstart Science makes HSC Physics accessible for students and teachers. The experiments and demonstrations have covered aspects of the core and optional HSC Physics syllabus all in the setting of real teaching laboratories. Classes spend two and half hours going through our experiments in small groups. Each group has its own casual academic tutor and covers many dot points of the syllabus in depth. Worksheets are provided for all students and teachers.

The case study will introduce the Kickstart Science outreach program from the University of Sydney Faculty of Science, including how it is run and how it has changed in its history. We will cover some of the unique aspects of Kickstart Science including justification of how it is designed, reporting on how it is received by students and teachers and how it is held within the faculty of Science. We will also include challenges and future work.

Session

Case studies: Education

Presenter

Tom Gordon, Senior Science Communicator, University of Sydney, Faculty of Science

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How to Write Concisely

When: Thursday 15th November, 8:00am – 12:45pm (including lunch)
Where: Powerhouse Museum, 500 Harris St, Ultimo
Room: Board Room and Theatrette

Purchase separately or free for conference+workshop delegates (RSVP during registration).

Register now!

For science to be understood, assimilated and further developed, it needs to be accessible through clear and concise writing. The half-day How to Write Concisely workshop shows you how to remove clutter, repetition and excess detail from your writing without sacrificing your message. The workshop includes practical exercises that allow you to work on your own project(s).
Learn how to
– Edit and critique writing to improve clarity and meaning
– Decide what detail is necessary to express an idea or topic
– Identify and fix writing that is ambiguous, unclear, repetitive and long-winded

Workshop presenter

Dr Marina Hurley, Lecturer & Consultant, Writing Clear Science

More about this workshop (PDF)

Purchase separately or free for conference+workshop delegates (RSVP during registration).

Register now!

**This is a public event. Register to save your seat!**

Share on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/164514621148245/

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The risky business of communication risk (or what to do when normal communications no longer work)

When: Thursday 15th November, 12:00pm – 4:45pm (including lunch)
Where: Powerhouse Museum, 500 Harris St, Ultimo
Room: L3, Level 2 to the left of the registration/foyer area, down the hallway and through the doors on the right

In this workshop you will examine the theory behind risk communication, and learn how to apply it in practice. We will use case studies and shared learnings to develop risk communication frameworks for people’s own professional situations that you can then apply in your workplace.

Workshop presenter

Craig Cormick, Science Communicator and Writer

Purchase separately or free for conference+workshop delegates (RSVP during registration).

Register now!

**This is a public event. Register to save your seat!**

Share on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/242782939725080/

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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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Scicomm in a not-for-profit: a two-way street

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

Dr Alison Gould1, Jemma Falkenmire1 and Jessica Van Coppenhagen2
Australian Red Cross Blood Service
1 Sydney Processing Centre, 17 O’Riordan St Alexandria NSW 2015
2 National Office, Level 3, 417 St Kilda Road, Melbourne VIC 3004

From “too sciencey” to “give us more”, this presentation will showcase how science communication can contribute to the strategic goals of a healthcare organisation, using the Australian Red Cross Blood Service (Blood Service) as an example.
The Blood Service provides life-changing products and services to patients and health-care providers throughout Australia. Our work is supported by a multidisciplinary team of research scientists embedded within an organisation of some 3500 staff, many of whom are not scientifically trained.
Scientific Communications was introduced as a dedicated role in our R&D team four years ago. Since then, it has contributed significantly to growing the organisation’s social media following, choosing research directions and translating research outcomes into practice at the Blood Service and beyond.
We showed that our audience has a strong appetite for science when we achieved viral success with a video describing some of our research. Our presentation will describe the anatomy of this success, and how it contributed to our organisation’s overall goals.
Since then, we have found that linking the world of research, media and social media through close collaboration has provided benefits for all of these groups.
Demand for science content, which was initially met with scepticism, has increased to the point where “too much science is barely enough”. From the perspective of our media team, provision of science builds solid relationships with journalists, which in the long-term can facilitate media call outs when we need to call for additional donations.
We will provide specific examples of our collaborative practices and the benefits delivered across our teams, including the ability to capture the attention of mainstream journalists, provide growth for our social media platforms, increase the reach of our research communications, conduct strategically aligned research and attract new collaborators for our researchers.

Session

Case studies: Lessons from the experts

Presenter

Dr Alison Gould, Scientific Communications Specialist, Australian Red Cross Blood Service

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Crafting Stellar Social Media Videos

When: Wednesday 14th November, 11:55am – 1:25pm
Where: Theatrette, Level 2 behind the registration/foyer area
Hashtag: #W11

As science communicators, data is at the heart of everything we do. But how do we convert that data into informative, entertaining, and most importantly, shareable content?

In this 90-minute session, we will take a look into why your organisation should be making social media videos, how to convert raw data into informative entertainment, and dissect exactly what makes up a great, scientifically-sound social media video, without resorting to cats on Roombas.

Presenter

Nelli Huié, Digital Communications Manager, The Climate Council

Australian Science Communicators

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Questions? Please contact Kali on asc2020@asc.asn.au.

Acknowledgements

© 2020 Australian Science Communicators

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