Tell Us a Story – Science Communication Tools Workshop
Setting the Scene: Specialisation
Even in a room full of scientists and engineers it’s hard to understand each other. Science is
specialised. Underneath the familiar world of people, trees and sunshine is an intricate
maze of tunnels inhabited by scientists and engineers – each one digging away deeper and
deeper into their specialist area of research for gems of knowledge. Little do the surfacedwellers know f their burrowing; little do they know that the world around them operates
on the gems of knowledge discovered in the tunnels of science – their ipods, their internet,
their shoes, their heart transplants…
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As the scientists and engineers dig they learn a new language of symbols, jargon and strange
and complicated concepts. You could say they’re learning the language of Nature so they can
ask questions and hear the answers. But when they come to the surface it is completely
incomprehensible:
So, Your Mission as a Science Communicator is to climb up the
tunnel from your specialised area of research to the surface and learn to talk about what you
do in a way the surface dwellers will understand and relate to.
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Why is science communication important?
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Change the world
Evidence-based policy
Get a good job!
Get funding!
To combat sensationalist media
Establish dialogue around science
Improve image of scientists in society
Workshop Outcomes:
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A toolbox of techniques for communicating specialist science with lay audiences
Inspiration and ideas for your stories
Key Messages:
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Put the people back in!
Think of your audience – why should they care?
Your emotion is the key to audience engagement
Communication is 2-way - be yourself – open and genuine
Content:
1. Four techniques to communicate specialist concepts with your target audience:
a. Application
b. Metaphor
c. Emotion
d. Story
2. Language tips
Your Tool Kit:
Four ways to communicate specialist concepts with lay audiences:
Tool 1 - Application
Key Question: How does your research affect your audience?
Why should they care? The golden question!
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Choose an application the audience cares about
KEEP IT SIMPLE!
Exercise 1: Choose your audience:
The first thing to do in any science communication project is to define your audience. Who are
you talking to?
In any science communication project – story, presentation, and article – it helps to have one
person in mind that you’re talking to. Who is your target audience? Who do you want to
receive your message? Choose someone that doesn’t know much about your topic but that you
feel comfortable talking to. It could be an aunty, friend, daughter, cousin…
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Draw your chosen person in the circle below and brainstorm about them around the outside.
What are they interested in?
Where do they come from?
Where do they work?
What are their daily concerns?
What are their favourite places?
Your audience
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Audience Focus! Think about what’s
important for your
audience first then introduce your research.
Examples:
The following two examples are the opening sentences of two articles I recently wrote for a
booklet on supercomputing in New Zealand. The aim f the booklet was to persuade the
government to fund more supercomputers so I chose the Minister for Science and Technology,
Wayne Mapp for my audience. I studied his speeches to learn which language and concepts are
important to him.
1. If investment bankers had been modelling the US real estate markets using supercomputers
we might have avoided the recent credit crisis.
2. "If we can detect breast cancer in a small enough state, which isn't possible at the moment,
it's effectively a cure" Eli Van Houten
Notice how in both examples I started with a concept the audience (Mapp) would care about
(credit crisis and cancer) and then introduced the supercomputers.
Think about what’s important to your audience first –
then introduce the science
Exercise 2: Applications
Take a few minutes to think about how your research relates to your audience.
How could it impact their daily life? Why should they care?
Research
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When you’ve thought of a way that your research applies to your audience, write a couple of
sentences to introduce the idea to them.
Limitations of Applications:
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Focussing on the applications of research emphasises breakthroughs rather than the
process, the wonder or details of science
Difficult for blue sky research
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Tool 2 - Metaphors: Bridges to Understanding
Metaphor is a broad term encompassing similes, personification and analogies. They are
extremely powerful in science communication because they use concepts the audience is
familiar to explain unfamiliar concepts.
Metaphor: A figure of similarity - substitutes for the thing, something it is like. eg. DNA is the
blueprint for life; the brain is a computer.
Simile: Compares one thing with an other - eg the moon is like an apple.
Personification: The attribution of a personal nature or human characteristics to something
nonhuman.
Analogies: Drawn out metaphors used to compare and contrast two phenomenon.
Metaphors frame the subject in a particular way, which causes the audience to ask particular
questions. For example if you say the brain is a computer, the audience will ask questions like
“how do you fix it when it breaks down?” and “how does the hardware work?”
It’s important to choose the right metaphor that prompts the audience to ask the right
questions.
Metaphors can go straight from the tip of the tunnel to the audience in one
step!
Exercise 3: Personification
1. Choose an aspect of your research to personify
2. Get into groups of 3 or 4
3. Personified character introduces him (or her)self
4. Other members of the group ask questions:
Where do you live?
What are your surroundings like - what do they smell like, feel like, look like, sound like?
What do you desire most in life? What drives you?
What repels you?
Do you live with anyone else?
How do you get along?
How do you get around? Do you have a vehicle?
How would you describe your personality?
Example: Metaphors
The following example comes from a wonderful science communicator in Christchurch –
Hannah Farr. She’s a chemical engineer studying blood flow in the brain. She sees her role as a
research as listening in to the conversations between the different parts of the brain and
translating them into language we can understand. Her research helps in the understanding of
diseases like Alzheimers and Strokes. The following slides show a personified conversation
between neurons, astrocytes and blood vessels.
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Tool 3: Emotion
Your emotion is the key to audience engagement!
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Passion Wonder & Excitement are contagious.
Science is full of emotion
Put the emotion and the people back in the science!
People don’t act on information alone – they act on how they feel about that information
Emotion motivates people to action!
Tool 4: Story
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Research shows that our brains interpret our feelings, actions and experiences in the
form of stories.
Neuroscientist, Michael Gazzaniga believes stories are what give us a sense of unified
self.
Stories evoke emotion that motivates people to action.
Narrative Structure:
The Bulgarian linguist Tzetan Todorov identified five stages to any narrative:
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B.
C.
D.
E.
Initial equilibrium.
Disruption of equilibrium by some action.
Recognition of the disruption
Attempt to repair the disruption
Reinstatement of equilibrium (different to initial state)
Characterisation
Russian theorist Vladimir Propp analysed 100 folk tales and discovered different character
types:
 The Hero
 The villain – deceives the hero and commits an act of harm
 The helper – helps the hero in his quest
 The princess (the object the hero is seeking)
Exercise 4: Narrative
Use the Narrative Structure above to create a story around your research. See if any of the
character types fit too.
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A
B
C
D
E
Language tips:
Golden Rule:
Express actions as verbs and characters as the subjects of
those verbs.
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Replace "passive voice" with "active voice"
Bring back the personal pronouns!!
Examples : Characters and Actions
”Once upon a time, there was Little Red Riding Hood, Grandma, the Woodsman and the wolf.
The end.”
It has characters but no actions.
Now, this story:
“Once upon a time, as a walk through the woods was taking place, a jump out from behind a
tree occurred, causing fright.”
There’s plenty of action in this story but no characters.
So, let’s bring characters and actions together:
“Once upon a time, as a walk through the woods was taking place on the part of Little Red
Riding Hood, the wolf’s jump out from behind a tree occurred, causing fright in Little Red Riding
Hood.”
So, now, the story has actions and characters but it feels dense and plodding. That’s
because the actions (the walk, the jump and fright) are expressed as nouns and not as
verbs.
So, express actions as verbs and characters as the subjects of those verbs:
“Once upon a time, Little Red Riding Hood was walking through the woods, when the wolf
jumped out from behind a tree and frightened her.”
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