ASC2020 - 16-19 Feb, Melbourne

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Breaking Business as Usual: Using creativity to imagine purpose and practice in the Radical Decade

We’re about to enter the Radical Decade. What will your story be?

We’re in a climate emergency. Teenagers are gluing themselves to bridges to protest systemic inaction. Protests and demonstrations are breaking out around the world. Yet thirty years after James Hansen’s testimony to US Congress, our civilisational supertanker plows on with emissions-as-usual. We’ve missed our opportunity to make incremental change, so the coming decade will need to be radical.

This experiential workshop will break down all of your assumptions about the role of science communication and ask you to back-cast your story around a very different future. When you look back in years to come, what story will you tell about the role you played in the radical decade? Combining creativity, improvisation, complexity and systems thinking, we’ll challenge you to radically reorient your own approach to science communication.

We’ll give you the tools to jump into the unknown, lean-in to risk and use creativity to thrive in a time of great uncertainty. You’ll leave with new possibilities that will help you re-imagine and re-shape the role you want to play in what will be humanity’s critical decade.

 

What will participants gain from attending your session?

Participants will be challenged to deeply interrogate their own assumptions and practice in order to find new ways to engage with audiences with creativity, empathy, courage and imagination. They will gain:

  • Increased awareness of structural, cultural and personal assumptions that constrain practice
  • The opportunity to reimagine their role in a decade that will require transformational change
  • Practice in using creativity and improvisation activities to spark empathy and imagination, lean-in to risk, learn to jump and embrace uncertainty
  • Strategies for rethinking the fundamentals of their work, drawn from very different domains of knowledge and practice
  • An opportunity to identify specific actions and methods to challenge, rethink and improve their practice on an ongoing basis

Session Producer/ Workshop facilitator

Vicki Kyriakakis, Storyteller, Improviser & Marketing Strategist, Monash Sustainable Development Institute

David Robertson, Connector, Science Communicator & Educator, Monash Sustainable Development Institute

 

When: Wednesday 19th February, 9:30am-10:30am & 11:00am-12:00 noon

Where: Room G31, Learning and Teaching Building, 19 Ancora Imparo Way, Clayton

Hashtag: TBC

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Taking action – changing the way we communicate air quality data that affects peoples health

Victorians want to know how air quality affects their health. Particularly when there is an emergency nearby. EPA’s previous website that was used to communicate this information was designed by scientists, not the public. User research showed that the information was too confusing to understand. Using this user research, we designed a new website that does it’s best to balance scientific accuracy with user accessibility.

Delivering a radical shift to ‘community first’ has been a long process with multiple government and community stakeholders. I’ve had a lot of tough conversations with our scientists that revolve around “but what value does this give to the community member? You want it, but what about community?”

Come and see how two different systems compare when designed with two different users in mind.

 

What will participants gain from attending your presentation?

Attendees will get an understanding of how social research gets turned into a solution that works for the public

Presenter

Emma Saville, Science Communications Advisor, EPA Victoria

 

When: Wednesday 19th February, 12:05pm-12:50pm
Where: Room G31, Learning and Teaching Building, 19 Ancora Imparo Way, Clayton
Hashtag: TBC

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Supercomputer Communication – A Website Redesign Case-Study

In 2019, Australia’s peak supercomputing organisation, the National Computational Infrastructure, redeveloped its website in anticipation of significant public and government attention. This presentation will provide a case study for how careful decision-making, attention to context and audience, and communication instincts helped produce a refreshed and functional website suited to a high-profile digital science infrastructure facility.

 

What will participants gain from attending your presentation?

This presentation aims to give a concrete insight into the process of developing, designing and managing a website redevelopment for a scientific organisation.

 

Presenter

Adam Huttner-Koros, Communications Officer, National Computational Infrastructure

 

When: In session Wednesday 19th February, 1:50pm-2:35pm
Where: Room G02, Learning and Teaching Building, 19 Ancora Imparo Way, Clayton
Hashtag: TBC

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Novel and risky: designing for young adults

An increased affective attraction to experimentation with risky behaviour during adolescence is understood as an adaptive, biologically-driven need to gain the experience required to assume adult roles and behaviours. This surge in sensation seeking, coupled with an underdeveloped ability to evaluate risks, coincides with rising dopaminergic activation in brain regions heavily involved in recognition and anticipation of reward. As a consequence, a young adult’s brain is extremely sensitive to the learning that can occur during this period and has cognitive capacities that are primed to take advantage of the experience gained.

MOD. designs for young audiences aged 15-25 years. In our first exhibition, we developed two exhibits nicknamed the “pain chairs” in collaboration with researchers at Body In Mind Institute. The spot-lit, hard-edged metal chairs, complete with seat drains, were placed centre-gallery under dramatic lighting. Dark screens invited visitors to challenge their perceptions of pain and warned against under 15 year-olds using the chairs. The two interactive chairs delivered electric and heat stimuli, modelling different factors known to affect pain perception like attention, distraction, and the placebo effect. Framing the situation as scary and potentially dangerous, and placed within a public building, allows young adults to push the boundaries of what is safe in an environment free of danger.

Evaluations revealed that visitors spent time at interactive exhibits (91% of visitors engaged with the pain chairs), rated them highly in terms of enjoyment and learning, and that this approach also led to two thirds of visitors being able to identify key concepts that we wanted to communicate about the brain and its role in pain perception.

 

What will participants gain from attending your presentation?

That understanding social and cognitive development can underpin approaches to designing for a young target audience to make their experience better, but also to give the museum permission to include risk and push the boundaries of what might be appropriate.

 

Presenter

Dylan DeLosAngeles, Exhibitions Coordinator, MOD.

When: Wednesday 19th February, 12:05pm-12:50pm
Where: Room G21, Learning and Teaching Building, 19 Ancora Imparo Way, Clayton
Hashtag: TBC

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Using behavioural insight strategies to improve the effectiveness of community engagement programs for bushfire safety

In this session, Jodi Braszell (DELWP) and Julia Meis-Harris (BehaviourWorks Australia) introduce a behaviour change method that is being explored for community bushfire risk management in Victoria.

In the emergency management sector in Victoria a major focus is bushfires given this area is one of the most bushfire-prone places in the world. For the agencies working to reduce bushfire risk, it is extremely important that communications help people to stay safer around bushfire events.

Communicating bushfire risk by providing information alone does not lead to as much change in community behaviour as agencies would wish to see. Oftentimes something seems to get in the way between providing information and the actions requested.

Behavioural insights can provide answers for the tricky conundrum of ‘why people do the things they do’ and shed light on ‘what else’ influences people’s behaviour besides information. We share our findings so far, discuss how our thinking can benefit science communication strategies and are interested in our audience view on behavioural insights in science communication.

 

What will audience gain from attending this section?

  • We aim to raise awareness of an emerging and exciting method to increase the effectiveness of behaviour change communication and engagement strategies
  • We will share some of the drivers and barriers to community behaviour change, and will explore how behavioural insight techniques may assist in communication/engagement practices
  • We will also raise awareness of some community-led approaches to engagement and risk reduction being delivered in Victoria
  • Participant activities, informal Q&As, and a range of different communication mediums will be used, reducing the risk of the session being a ‘death by PowerPoint’ experience
  • We hope to build a community of interest and to learn from other interested practitioners working in this field

 

Structure

Part 1 – Introduction (ca. 15min) In this first part of this session, we introduce the challenge we’re working on, and give people a brief introduction to the behavioural insights discipline. We will use interactive quizzes and a range of different mediums to help demonstrate some of the key behavioural insights concepts. We will also ask participants to briefly share their science communications challenges and why they’re attending our session.

Part 2 – Method (5min) In part two of our session, we provide a quick overview of the specific methods that we used to conduct our research.

Part 3 – Findings (15min) In the third part of our session, we share the findings of our initial research question: “What are the drivers and barriers to community preparedness and response to bushfire emergencies?”We will also ask participants to share their thoughts on how these findings may, or may not, align with their own practice and knowledge.

Part 4 – Discussion (25min) In the final part of our session, we link our findings back to the challenges that communicators face in emergency management. We also discuss how behavioural insight methods may provide some useful strategies for other science communicators, regardless of discipline.Through an informal Q&A discussion, we will then explore with the participants where behavioural insights could be useful for the challenges that were shared with us at the start of our session. As behavioural insights is an emerging discipline, we are keen to learn about other projects using similar methods and to build up a community of interest.

Session Producers/Presenters

Julia Meis-Harris, Research fellow, BehaviourWorks Australia, MSDI

Jodi Braszell, Senior Science Engagement Officer, Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning

 

When: Wednesday 19th February, 11:00am-12:00 noon
Where: Room G21, Learning and Teaching Building, 19 Ancora Imparo Way, Clayton
Hashtag: TBC

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Communicating science content to blind and low vision audiences through multi sensory means

Diversity in STEM can lead, among other benefits, to better problem-solving and expansion of the talent pool. But whilst we recognise the importance of diversity, many communities still feel unable to engage with STEM subjects.

Participation by the blind and low vision (BLV) community in STEM higher education is below the national average, in part due to their perceived ability to engage meaningfully in the delivered content.

This workshop will look at how emerging technologies such as 3D printing can be used to engage diverse cohorts with scientific content. With examples from multi sensory, inclusive exhibitions and workshops, we have engaged diverse groups with varying degrees of scientific understanding.

Session participants will be able to bring their own discipline knowledge to the workshop and take part in an interactive component in which they consider how content from their area can be presented in a way that would be more accessible and inclusive.

 

What will participants gain from attending your session?

Attendees will have a better understanding about the difficulties the BLV community have in accessing scientific information. We hope they will be inspired by the possibilities of presenting science in non visual ways, and take away practical tips for how to harness emerging technologies to increase access to scientific information and broaden participation.

 

Structure

Introduction to the issue of exclusion for those with vision disabilities in discourses around science and biomedicine [10 min]

Presentation of two case studies on how emerging technologies such as 3D printing is currently being used to engage BLV people with scientific content [20 min]

Workshop activities on how this can be remediated through multi sensory exhibition, displays and audience participation [60 min]

Session Producer/Presenter

Lizzie Crouch, Senior Coordinator of Engagement, SensiLab, Monash University

Presenters

Matthew Butler, Associate Dean (Learning and Teaching), Inclusive Technologies, Monash University

Erica Tandori, Artist in Residence, School of Biomedical Sciences, Monash University

 

Session

Accessibility

 

When: Wednesday 19th February,  11:00am-12:50pm
Where: Room G02, Learning and Teaching Building, 19 Ancora Imparo Way, Clayton
Hashtag: TBC

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Towards a new model of science communication

Most science engagement activities have objectives and characteristics that reflect a mix of those theorised for deficit, dialogue and sometimes participatory activities. This coexistence of models in practice appears to be not merely an unintentional lucky accident but a necessity for science communication activities to achieve their objectives, especially when the science is controversial.

The models proposed by scholars do not appear to take into account the extensive nature and mix of objectives for initiating or participating in science communication activities.

My research of practice improves our understanding of how theorised science communication models might be further shaped to better reflect and even influence practice. I propose the new nexus model for science communication and describe how this can be implemented within the practical contexts of considering the objectives for engagement, who is involved in the engagement activity, and how positive relationships can be fostered among those participating.

 

How will your session be structured?
Presentation of research with questions at the end.

 

What type of session will this be?
Research presentation.

 

What will participants gain from attending your session?

This presentation and poster will introduce a new model for science communication that has emerged from my PhD: the nexus model. This new model is designed to get both scholars and practitioners to think differently about how they research or practice science communication.

 

Presenter

Jenni Metcalfe, Director, Econnect Communication

 

When: In session Wednesday 19th February, 11:00am–12:50pm
Where: Room G01, Learning and Teaching Building, 19 Ancora Imparo Way, Clayton
Hashtag: TBC

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Social implications of knee-jerk prescribing practices in response to opioid science communications in Australian and the USA

The phrase “opioid epidemic” has become commonplace in recent years. In Australia and the USA, one-sided science communication addressed to medical practitioners about public health statistics has resulted in unintended social implications for chronic pain sufferers.

This communication has since been recanted by the authors in both countries, but has led to unintended and avoidable knee-jerk responses by both doctors and policy-makers, including doctors abandoning their patients, patients enduring rapid opioid withdrawal (which has significantly higher risk of death than opioid overdose), state legislation, and even suicides. This case study explores how this happened, and what we can learn for the future.

Presenter

S. Jade Barclay, Medical Writer, PhD Candidate, The University of Sydney

 

When: Wednesday 19th February, 2:40pm-3:25pm
Where: Room G01, Learning and Teaching Building, 19 Ancora Imparo Way, Clayton
Hashtag: TBC

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Zantac headlines are a greater health risk than Zantac tablets

Zantac (Ranitidine) has recently been recalled due to a probable carcinogen found in slightly higher than expected levels in a batch of the product. This recall is a voluntary act of social responsibility by the company, however the mainstream media and social media representations have incited panic with sensationalised headlines like “FDA says heartburn drug Zantac could cause cancer.”

The literature shows that patients don’t discern risk well when it comes to comparing medical treatments and evaluating healthcare options. Patients are meant to give informed consent about the treatments they receive, but they are at the mercy of their providing physicians and the media to get science information about the risks and benefits of their proposed treatments. These kinds of communication tactics and incomplete representation of science information in the media contribute to medical distrust, confusion, and panic that prevent good healthcare decision-making.

 

Presenter

S. Jade Barclay

 

When: Wednesday 19th February, 2:40pm-3:25pm
Where: Room G01, Learning and Teaching Building, 19 Ancora Imparo Way, Clayton
Hashtag: TBC

 

 

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Towards Citizen Art/Science – How Unique Partnerships Can Increase Scientific Engagement

Would you be brave enough to track your exposure to air pollution and become part of an artwork? Or would you want to experience the air quality of global cities within a single exhibition space? Science Gallery Melbourne and Environment Protection Authority Victoria established a partnership to address these questions as part of Science Gallery’s season DISPOSABLE.

The experience from our partnership revealed a promising opportunity for ‘citizen art/science projects’ that enable members of the public to participate in scientific practice by engaging with artistic exhibits. Is this the new model to help answer urgent, wicked problems?

In this presentation we discuss the motivations behind our partnership, the projects we collaborated on, and we illustrate the impact of joining forces with government agencies, academia and the cultural sector. Driven by a collective goal to increase scientific literacy, we have identified how these partnerships also benefit civic engagement, academic practice, cultural exposure and policy-making.

 

What will participants gain from attending your session?

Participants will gain first-hand knowledge of the exciting partnership between EPA, SGM and The University of Melbourne. Our talk will be light and accessible, and will unpack how we established our partnership, its driving forces, and the significant opportunities that we believe exist for citizen art/science projects as society participates in seeking answers to urgent, wicked problems.

Presenters

Niels Wouter, Head of Research and Emerging Practice, Research Fellow, Science Gallery Melbourne

Laura Boland, Program Coordinator – Applied Science, Environment Protection Authority Victoria

Geraldine Davis, Program Coordinator – Citizen Science, Environment Protection Authority Victoria

 

When: Wednesday 19th February, 12:05pm-12:50pm
Where: Room G21, Learning and Teaching Building, 19 Ancora Imparo Way, Clayton
Hashtag: TBC

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Acknowledgements

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