TSM-CDT residential Science Communication course

Gabriel Lau (cohort 3) reports

Straight after the New Year, members from Cohort 2 and 3 of TSM-CDT along with other UK postgraduate materials students participated in the three-day workshop in science communication at Cumberland Lodge (Windsor Great Park). The aim of the course was to teach scientists how to effectively engage the public with their research along with providing first hand insight into various aspects of media; the highlight would be the recording of a radio feature at the end of the course. Three enthusiastic organizers made this possible. Claire Ainsworth presented the foundations of science journalism from the canonical “inverted pyramid” approach to the elements of good storytelling to captivate readers. She also gave the students a taste of the difficultly of good journalism by making them write a short piece communicating their research to a non-specialist reader. Gareth Mitchell (from BBC Click) and Robert Sternberg were the radio and film/TV specialists respectively. After introducing the elements of what make high quality news features in TV and radio, they allowed the students to get hands-on in recording their own short features. This was followed by efficient editing sessions where the raw recordings were pieced together into complete packages. Having had a brief grounding on the basics of science communication and some final advice from Gareth, the excited attendees travelled to BBC Broadcasting House (London) on the final day to record “as if live” their twenty-minute radio shows.