When: Tuesday 13th November, 9:15am – 11:15am
Where: L1, Level 2 to the left of the registration/foyer area, down the hallway and through the doors on the right
Hashtag: #T4

Communicating science and technology research that has societal impacts can be challenging. Individuals engage with research from diverse points of view, and some communication, event and activity formats do not incorporate or acknowledge these different personal and cultural narratives. This can exclude or discourage audiences, or miss opportunities to reach new ones.

This interactive workshop will explore how art science collaborations can offer a different way to engage audiences with such research. With a ground-up introduction, selected examples from world practice, collaborative activities, and take-home tips from experienced facilitators, participants can dip a toe into the excitement, challenge and rigour involved in facilitating, producing or participating in art-science collaborations.

Session Producers/Workshop Facilitators/Presenters

David Robertson, Lecturer, Monash University

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

Presenter

Nathan Harrison, Performer and Writer, Applespiel

When: Tuesday 13th November, 4:00pm – 5:30pm
Where: L1, Level 2 to the left of the registration/foyer area, down the hallway and through the doors on the right
Hashtag: #T14

A diverse science, technology, engineering and mathematics skilled workforce is critical for innovation, entrepreneurism and a competitive national economy. Not everyone from multifarious backgrounds who have passion for STEM and scientific research remain in the workforce. They also don’t consider STEM research and occupations as an employment choice. In a substantial number of cases one of the many reasons for this trend is the ability to communicate their concepts and also the ability to understand scientific concepts. The wider research community in the STEM sector has emphasised that the reasons for ‘brain drain’ need to be better understood. But more importantly, we need to bring back the tide of highly specialised, highly trained individuals leaving research by providing them with some valuable tools, mentoring and networking opportunities in the wider successful STEM network base.

The line-up of successful researchers from well represented multicultural and diverse backgrounds in this session will talk about the strength of diversity and discuss how to fill the missing links.

Session Producer, MC

Dr Astha Singh, Vice President | ASC NSW, ASC

Presenter

Associate Professor Devanshi Seth, Principal Scientist, RPA Hospital and Clinical Associate Professor, Centenary Institute, University of Sydney

Dr Noushin Nasiri, Lecturer at School of Engineering, Macquarie University

Alfonso Ballestas-Barrientos, PhD Candidate, Laboratory of Advanced Catalysis for Sustainability, School of Chemistry, The University of Sydney

When: Wednesday 14th November, 6:00pm onwards
Where: Pumphouse Restaurant and Bar, 17 Little Pier St, Darling Harbour

Not finished mingling and having fun yet? Then join us for a drink at the Pumphouse Restaurant and Bar.  The ASC NSW branch will be providing some snacks whilst you continue to discuss the amazing content that has been on display at the conference for three days.

When: Tuesday 13th November, 12:45pm – 2:00pm
Hashtag: #T7

STEMpunk podcast investigates what STEM is, who does it, and why.

The format of the show is like a panel show where we ask Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths questions, as well as a question from our previous guests. STEMpunk has also run a number of successful live quiz and trivia events.

STEMpunk is not like most other Science podcasts, choosing to interview not only people people involved in STEM, but others outside as well. And for those involved in STEM, we ask them questions about things outside of STEM. We have interviewed some fantastic guests like Dr Katie Mack, Dr Karl, Dr Margaret Wertheim and Professor Brian Schmidt.

This session will be an informal chat with the STEMpunk hosts interviewing expert practitioners at the ASC conference about what STEM is, and who does it. The hosts will encourage audience participation and questions to make the podcast as interesting and conversational as possible.

This session will be released as an episode for the STEMpunk podcast.

http://stempunkpodcast.blogspot.com.au/

Session Producer/Session Chair/Presenter

Tom Gordon, Producer/Host, STEMpunk

Presenters

Christie Mcmonigal, Host, STEMpunk

Shane Hengst, Host, STEMpunk

When: Wednesday 13th November, 8:40am – 9:10am
Where: Theatre, Level 2 down the stairs to the right of the registration/foyer area
Hashtag: #T1

Two patients with the same condition decide to research possible treatments. They encounter multiple sources, from experts and others, each with different – sometimes contradictory – information. Depending on whom they believe and how they integrate these claims, the patients may make radically different decisions. These situations are commonplace in everyday life, from medical choices, to our voting decisions. How do we understand these differences, and support people in making the best decisions?

Epistemic cognition provides one lens onto this problem. Epistemic cognition is the study of how people think about the justification, source, complexity, and certainty of knowledge. When we evaluate evidence, think about where and when it applies, and connect claims to build models, we engage our epistemic cognition. Understanding how people navigate their own, and others’ knowledge is one of the most pressing social issues of our time in order to develop a sustainable society. I’ll draw on research in epistemic cognition, and my own research on how people search for and talk about evidence, to flag key implications of epistemic cognition research for science communication.

Session Producer

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

Invited Speaker

Dr Simon Knight, Lecturer, Faculty of Transdisciplinary Innovation, University of Technology Sydney

 

When: Wednesday 14th November, 2:40pm – 3:40pm
Where: Theatre, Level 2 down the stairs to the right of the registration/foyer area
Hashtag: #W15

Science and health stories are often criticised for containing conflicting, exaggerated or misleading claims, and while journalists may play a role, a 2014 study showed that exaggeration in news is strongly associated with exaggeration in media releases.

In just the last 12 months there have been a myriad of media releases using the word ‘breakthrough’, or describing the outcome of mouse studies as if they had been done in humans. Is it media teams or scientists themselves who are spinning the research?

In the era of fake news, do those of us communicating science research need to lift our game? A voluntary labelling system for media releases may be part of the answer. Our colleagues at the Science Media Centre in the UK created a simple labelling system to help journalists get their heads around medical research media releases and what they really mean.

The system has already been adopted by several major journal publishers including Cell Press and the British Medical Journal (BMJ).

This session will discuss hype in science media releases, its impacts, origins and what can be done to address it.

Session Producer/Session Chair/Presenter

Lyndal Byford, Director of News and Partnerships, Australian Science Media Centre (AusSMC)

Presenters

Jason Whittaker, Story Editor, Media Watch, ABC TV

Kellia Chiu, PhD candidate, The University of Sydney

Dr Meredith Ross, Marketing & Communications Officer, Garvan Institute of Medical Research

 

Featuring more than 200 events in 2018, the Sydney Science Festival (SSF) celebrates and showcases Sydney’s diverse and multidisciplinary science and innovation community through a program of talks, hands-on workshops, exhibitions and family events exploring all areas of science, technology, engineering, art and mathematics (STEAM). Since its inception in 2015, the Sydney Science Festival has seen yearly growth and is the largest science festival in Australia happening during National Science Week. In 2017, the Festival attracted more than 70,000 audience members to science events throughout Sydney and more are expected in 2018*. The 2018 Sydney Science Festival presented a diverse program of events ranging from large hands-on free family events in parks, lunchtime talks with experts to performative science-themed events for intergenerational audiences. The growing momentum behind the Sydney Science Festival demonstrates an appetite for meaningful opportunities to meet experts and learn about science in formal and informal social settings.

In this proposed case study, I will present the results of 2018 Sydney Science Festival report and audience evaluation, highlighting audience profiles and discussing what motivates audiences to attend the Sydney Science Festival. This will provide insight into the effectiveness of Festivals and similar programs and will identify future opportunities to engage with new and returning science audiences.

*2018 results currently being collected

Session

Case studies: Cultural Institutions and Festivals

Presenter

Catherine Polcz, Program Producer (Science), Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences