Making science more appealing: communication is key

Improvisation for Scientists is a workshop at the State University of New York (SUNY) in Stony Brook at the Alan Alda Center for Communicating Science. Alan Alda, and the Center, encourages the use of plain language in science subjects. Alda, the American actor best known for his role as Hawkeye Pierce in M*A*S*H is a visiting professor at SUNY’s School of Journalism and a member of the advisory board of The Center for Communicating Science. Alda, who hosts workshops in the Center, encourages science students to mime their research in front of audiences. It’s not easy to do. How do you mime the research of coral reefs as early warning detectors of pollutants in marine environments?

A study by the National Science Foundation found that only half (50%) of American adults surveyed understood that the Earth orbits the Sun once a year, and less than 10% could define a molecule. So science isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, or favourite subject. Some people say that their lack of knowledge is due to incomprehensible scientists—they just can’t make themselves understood. Jargon and multi-syllabic words, as well as scientific terminology, don’t advance the cause of science, say students and critics.

With grant funding from the National Science Foundation, Alex Mayer, a professor at Michigan Technological University, trains graduate students to communicate by sending them back into the classroom as guest teachers in middle schools in America.

Other universities are also teaching their science students the art of better communication. At Villanova University in Pennsylvania, engineering students are required to describe their research in front of discriminating panels of 12-year-olds and retirees. They ask a lot of questions, and subsequently, help engineering students to understand that not everyone understands them—the beauty of science is in the telling.

In 2010 Ireland’s Trinity College sent its scientists into local pubs and bars to explain their work to the public. The catch was that they had to explain it in no more than 3 minutes. It is now a national competition held in a Dublin theatre. There’s also a video competition at PHD Comics, a humour website for doctoral students, where students have 2 minutes to describe their PhD doctoral research.

The intention of courses and programs in the use of simple language for scientists is a global effort not only to make science more understandable, but also to encourage more students into the sciences in the first place. By demystifying science, technology, engineering, and mathematics—the STEM subjects—more people may choose science as a career choice—especially now that STEM knowledge is becoming increasingly central in everyday life.

MARTINA NICOLLS is an international aid and development consultant, and the author of:- The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).