ASC2020 - 16-19 Feb, Melbourne

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September 1, 2018 by asc2018

The value of social media for scientists: what do students think?

When: Tuesday 13th November, 4:00pm – 5:30pm
Where: Theatre, Level 2 down the stairs to the right of the registration/foyer area
Hashtag: #T12

Twitter is widely considered a useful and effective communication tool among scientists. I explored the perceptions of 472 research-active science students regarding the potential role that social media in general, and specifically Twitter, could play in scientists’ professional lives.

I initially asked students (pre-survey) whether they currently used Twitter and asked for their responses to statements including: ‘Social media plays an important role in the professional life of a scientist’, ‘Social media is a valid way to communicate about science with other scientists’ and ‘Having a professional presence on social media can help my science career’. A month after a class focused on the value of Twitter and other social media to scientists, I asked students to respond to the same statements (post-survey) and also established how many of them had begun using Twitter.

All results were similar across all years (2014 – 2018). Initially, most students used social media personally, but not professionally, and less than a third were Twitter users. Most students perceived social media to be a valid way of communicating about science with lay audiences; few believed this to be true for communicating among scientists.

At the time of the post-survey, half the class used social media both professionally and personally and roughly 80% answered that they were Twitter users. The proportion of students who believed that social media was a valid way to communicate about science with scientific audiences had also increased. Students were also more inclined to agree with the statement that social media plays an important role in the professional life of a scientist.

A one-hour session outlining the value of Twitter to scientists was sufficient to encourage many students to start using Twitter and appeared to contribute to more students seeing a role for social media in the professional life of a scientist.

Session

Evidence-based scicom: Research exploring new and social media

Presenter

Jen Martin, Educator and radio personality, The University of Melbourne

Filed Under: 90 minutes, Day 3, Novel Topic - suits all levels, Research Tagged With: Social media, Student perceptions, Twitter

September 1, 2018 by asc2018

ANSTO Tour

When: Thursday 15th November, 10:00am – 1:30pm
Where: ANSTO Discovery Centre, New Illawarra Road, Lucas Heights

Come behind the scenes at ANSTO and see how nuclear-based science is helping to deliver benefits to all Australians

ANSTO is pleased to invite you to attend this special tour as a part of the 2018 ASC conference – places are limited so please register early

The ANSTO Lucas Heights campus employs over 500 scientists, engineers and technicians, answering significant questions relating to human health, the environment, nuclear fuel cycle and industry utilising nuclear techniques.

The tour will include a visit to some of Australia’s most critical scientific and medical infrastructure including the:

  • Open Pool Australian Light-water (OPAL) multi-purpose reactor, globally regarded as the most efficient reactor in the world;
  • Centre for Neutron Scattering, a suite of world-leading scientific instruments
  • Centre for Accelerator Science, one of the southern hemisphere’s largest environment research centres.
  • New Mo-99 Production Facility, which is dramatically increasing ANSTO’s production capacity of the most important nuclear medicine.

Along the way, we will share insights into the challenges and learnings of communicating the benefits of the misunderstood world of nuclear.

MUST BE WEARING ENCLOSED SHOES (that cover the whole foot) AND TROUSERS/PANTS

Maximum of 20 people.

Travel Methods
1) Meet at Central Train Station (Platform 25) at 8:40am to catch train to Sutherland Station (ANSTO will pick up and drop off the group at Sutherland Train Station)
2) Drive to ANSTO Discovery Centre – meet at 9:50am.

Filed Under: 4 hours, Day 5

September 1, 2018 by asc2018

Evidence-based scicom: Research exploring knowledge, beliefs and perceptions

When: Tuesday 13th November, 2:00pm – 3:30pm
Where: Theatre, Level 2 down the stairs to the right of the registration/foyer area
Hashtag: #T8

When we look around, science communication is everywhere. You see it in museums, in television documentaries, in newspapers, on the radio, in science magazines, social media and the growth in citizen science. But how do we know whether any given effort in communicating science among public audiences is effective? And by which aims and objectives are those efforts measured?

This session will feature research case studies exploring knowledge, beliefs and perceptions and provide insights to improve science communication practice and impact evaluation.

The session is structured into five 15-minute talks and will wrap-up with a 15-minute Q&A for delegates questions and comments.

The session will include the following talks:

  • I’ll see it when I believe it: motivated numeracy in Australians’ perceptions of climate change risk – Matt Nurse and Will Grant
  • Unlocking curious minds: Promoting climate change knowledge and efficacy beliefs among students from lower decile schools – Jagadish Thaker and Daniel Rimmer
  • Community Perceptions of Coastal Hazards in New South Wales – Anna Attard and Robert Brander
  • A sea of deficit: The science communication landscape in Australia – Isabelle Kingsley and Dr Carol Oliver
  • Comparing science communication models with a long-term participatory case study: The Climate Champion Program – Jenni Metcalfe

Session Producer

Isabelle Kingsley, PhD candidate, Science Communication, University of New South Wales

Session Chair

Dr Carol Oliver, Senior Research Fellow, University of New South Wales

Filed Under: 90 minutes, Day 3, Novel Topic - suits all levels, Research

September 1, 2018 by asc2018

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

Filed Under: 60 minutes, Advanced, Beginner, Day 4, Intermediate, Novel Topic - suits all levels

September 1, 2018 by asc2018

Students Blogging Science: A Case Study that Measures the Effectiveness of Communicating Science to Public Audiences

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

ASC2018 asks, “How do we know whether any given effort in communicating science among public audiences is effective? And by which aims and objectives are those efforts measured?”
This case study answers these questions by examining the effectiveness of view stats from student blogs that were created as part of an assignment in a first-year university science communication paper. In 2017 the Royal Society of New Zealand (RSNZ) published a discussion paper that asks public audiences to consider the medical, legal, ethical, cultural implications of gene-editing healthcare technologies in New Zealand relevant to four given case scenarios (sickle cell anaemia, breast and ovarian cancer, cardiovascular disease, improving athletic performance). Students were required to write a series of blog posts targeted to public audiences in response to the RSNZ discussion paper. In post #2, students were prompted to communicate their position on one of the discussion paper case scenarios while addressing one or more of the four considerations. After publishing their posts for public view, many students noted significant high/low percentages in their blog view stats from audiences located both locally in New Zealand and internationally. The blog view stats are the focus of this case study, which help gauge and measure where public interests lie regarding new media platforms as an accessible means to science communication.

Session

Case studies: Education

Presenter

Susan Rauch, Lecturer, professional writing (science and technology), Massey University, School of English and Media Studies

Filed Under: 60 minutes, Day 4, Novel Topic - suits all levels

September 1, 2018 by asc2018

Making the most of LinkedIn, YouTube & Facebook

When: Monday 12th November, 1:55pm – 3:25pm
Where: Theatre, Level 2 down the stairs to the right of the registration/foyer area
Hashtag: #M10

Mark will explore 3 of the biggest and most powerful social media platforms LinkedIn, YouTube and Facebook and how everyone in business these days should have a presence and be active everyday.

LinkedIn
– How to complete your profile 100% so its eye catching, position you as an expert in your field and gets found
– How to write your 1st LinkedIn Blog article and the winning formula to use over and over again.
– How and what to do every day on LinkedIn, with posting, sharing, liking and commenting.
– How to use LinkedIn to generate an endless supply of new opportunities.

YouTube

– How to setup and optimise multiple YouTube accounts
– How to record and upload interesting and engaging videos quickly and easily
– How to get your videos ranking on page 1 of YouTube by following a simple formula
– Learn the No 1 Ranking factor YouTube and Google are using to determine Page 1 ranking of videos

Facebook
– How to create a wow looking Facebook fan page that people will want to follow
– How, When and What to post to grow your page likes,  increase engagement and benefit your cause,
– How to record and upload video content that Facebook likes while avoiding the mistakes that most people make.
– How to piggy back on the success of other Facebook pages to grow your audience even more

Session Producer

Mark Warncken, Social Media Trainer | Speaker | Expert – Helping Businesses Generate Leads & Sales Using Social Media. LinkedIn – YouTube – Facebook – Instagram – Twitter

Filed Under: 90 minutes, Day 2, Novel Topic - suits all levels

September 1, 2018 by asc2018

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/

Filed Under: 4 hours, Beginner, Day 5, Intermediate

September 1, 2018 by asc2018

Stereotypes: A Choice

When: Monday 12th November, 10:25am – 12:55pm
Where: L2, Level 2 to the left of the registration/foyer area, down the hallway and through the doors on the right
Hashtag: #M6

Does gender matter when it comes to science communication? What about intersectionality? This session will explore how identity and demographics can influence opportunity for science communicators (and professionals within STEM more broadly) and what strategies can be employed to target self-perception and reframe gender stereotypes. This interactive session is designed to get you thinking and talking to others in the field in engaging, thought provoking activities.

Presenter

Merryn McKinnon, Lecturer, Centre for the Public Awareness of Science, The Australian National University

 

 

Filed Under: 120 minutes, Day 2, Novel Topic - suits all levels

September 1, 2018 by asc2018

A comparison of two techniques for visualising antibiotic dispensing over time: the run chart versus Nightingale’s rose diagram

When: Wednesday 14th November, 2:40pm – 3:40pm
Where: L2, Level 2 to the left of the registration/foyer area, down the hallway and through the doors on the right
Hashtag: #W17

Background
Data visualisation is the broadly-applicable science of communicating information via graphical representations. The conventional technique for visualising drug dispensing over time is the run chart – a graph of data over time measured in a line. An alternative to the run chart is Nightingale’s rose diagram[1], which shows areas in a circle over time measured in a clockwise direction. No known studies have used Nightingale’s rose diagram to visualise drug dispensing temporally. Antibiotic use fluctuates with the seasons and, in modern society, is closely monitored over time because overuse enables infectious disease-causing bacteria to develop antibiotic resistance. In modern public health, it is important to visualise antibiotic use in a way that is understandable to health professionals, researchers, government officials, and the generally public. This study aimed to compare two techniques for visualising antibiotic dispensing over time: the run chart and Nightingale’s rose diagram.

Methods
Dispensing data were sourced from Pharmaceutical Benefits Schedule Item Reports[2]. For each month in 2017, data were extracted on number of systemic antibiotic (Anatomical Therapeutic Chemical 5 code J01[3]) prescriptions dispensed in Australia under the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme or the Repatriation Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme. Antibiotic dispensing over time was visualised by producing run charts in Microsoft Excel 2013[4] and Nightingale’s rose diagrams in AnyChart[5], with stratification by drug class. These data visualisations were compared visually and with respect to elements ranked in order of decreasingly accurate perceptions of absolute quantity[6-8]: 1. position (common scale); 2. position (non-aligned scale); 3. length/direction/angle/slope; 4. area; 5. volume/density/curvature; 6. shading/colour saturation/colour hue.

Results
In the run charts and Nightingale rose diagrams, antibiotic dispensing increased from the lowest levels in January and February (the Australian summer) to peaks in August (the Australian winter). The investigator observed that Nightingale’s rose diagrams were eye catching and accentuated the seasonal component of the data. With regard to the accuracy of perceptions of absolute quantity, the run chart attained the highest score of 1 for position (common scale) whereas Nightingale’s rose diagrams scored lower: 3 for length and 4 for area.

Conclusions
When one is visualising antibiotic dispensing over time, choosing Nightingale’s rose diagram over the run chart gives accentuated seasonality but less accurate perception of absolute quantity. These two data visualisation techniques may complement one another. If one were to present these plots together or incorporate the run chart’s numeric scale into Nightingale’s rose diagram, then there could be improved communication of information on antibiotic use (or overuse) to health professionals, researchers, government officials, and the general public.

References
1. Magnello ME. Victorian statistical graphics and the iconography of Florence Nightingale’s polar area graph. British Society for the History of Mathematics Bulletin. 2012; 27: 13-37.

2. Australian Government Department of Human Services. Pharmaceutical Benefits Schedule Item Reports. Available at: http://medicarestatistics.humanservices.gov.au/statistics/pbs_item.jsp [Accessed 8 August 2018].

3. World Health Organization Collaborating Centre for Drug Statistics Methodology. ATC/DDD Index 2018. Available at: http://www.whocc.no/atc_ddd_index/ [Available at: 12 August 2018].

4. Microsoft Corp., Redmond, WA, USA.

5. AnyChart, St. Augustine, FL, USA.

6. Cleveland WS and McGill R. Graphical perception: Theory, experimentation, and application to the development of graphical methods. Journal of the American Statistical Association. 1984; 79(387): 531–554.

7. Cleveland WS and McGill R. Graphical perception and graphical methods for analyzing scientific data. Science. 1985; 229(4716): 828–833.

8. Shah P and Miyake A. The Cambridge handbook of visuospatial thinking. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, 2005.

Session

Case studies: Visualising science

Presenter

Michael Leach, Adjunct Research Associate, School of Rural Health, Monash University

Filed Under: 60 minutes, Day 4

September 1, 2018 by asc2018

Elevating science communication through social science

When: Wednesday 14th November, 11:55am – 1:25pm
Where: Theatre, Level 2 down the stairs to the right of the registration/foyer area
Hashtag: #
W10

Effective communication and engagement is key to achieving impact from science. This session highlights how harnessing social science research can improve science communication. Three case studies from Australia’s lead science agency, CSIRO, will demonstrate how social scientists are collaborating with science communication practitioners to elevate science communication and engagement with target audiences. Strategies include formulating engaging key messages, identifying appropriate channels/platforms, and using language and tone to meet communication objectives.

Session Producer/Presenter

Dr Tsuey Cham, Communication & Stakeholder Manager, CSIRO GISERA

Melina Gillespie, Communication Advisor, CSIRO Energy

Session Producer/Chair

Helen Beringen, Communication Manager, CSIRO Land and Water

Presenters

Dr Nadine Marshall, Environmental Social Scientist, CSIRO Land & Water

Dr Andrea Walton, Social Scientist, CSIRO Land & Water

Dr Elisha Frederiks, Senior Research Scientist, CSIRO Land & Water

Amy Edwards, Communication Advisor, CSIRO Land & Water

Filed Under: 90 minutes, Day 4

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