In November ALTER-Net and Ecsite ran a training course for biodiversity researchers in public science communication. Two workshops were held, one in Museon, The Netherlands, and the second at the Royal Botanic Gardens Edinburgh.
The course was designed to provide participants with the skills and confidence needed to present research to the public. They covered topics such as speaking tips, how to use images or objects to help get a point across, and how to address different audiences.
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The lively workshops were delivered by an experienced and dynamic international training team of Frank Burnet, UK (pictured), Paola Rodari, Italy and Jennifer Palumbo, Belgium. Specific issues and challenges related to biodiversity and environment-related topics were addressed and best practices and examples of good communication in this domain were presented. The aim was to ensure each participant could gain the practical tools needed to communicate science topics effectively to the lay public, whether in an activity for children or in a public dialogue. Each participant was helped to develop a personal action plan with suggestions for follow-up activities, including establishing contacts with local venues, schools and so on. The training team, Ecsite and ALTER-Net will continue to provide support to those participants who wish to put what they have learned into practice.
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Prof Frank Burnet, one of the course trainers
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Twenty-five people were trained on the course. They came from 11 countries across Europe. These are just some of the positive comments we have received from those that attended:
"Thank you very much for really perfect training course, it was very interesting and useful for me."
"... I want to say thanks again for a great course -- it was very useful for me to think about taking science communication beyond power point slides!"
"It was a very well organised course and it was full of commnication in itself. I really enjoyed participating in this unique group of people, so much enthusiasm was there and interesting ideas I have heard ... inspiring!"
Details of the events can be found here.
An evaluation report can be found here.
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