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Applying collaboration & arts practices to help scientists and others learn to tell their stories and connect across differences

At Virginia Tech's Center for Communicating Science, we create and support experiences for scientists, engineers, scholars, and health professionals to build muscles of connection, communication, and collaboration. What sets us apart from other approaches and makes our work effective is that we use the powerful tools of the arts, including embodied learning, deep listening, improvisation, role play, and storytelling.

We believe in the power of play, and we believe that we learn through experience and by reflecting on our experiences.

We aim to help researchers make their communication more personal, direct, spontaneous, and responsive.

Communicating Science Mission Words: Personal

Build trust and learn through connection and engagement. Share stories, values, and emotions.

Communicating Science Mission Words: Direct

Drop your field-specific jargon; avoid acronyms; find a language in common with your audience.

Communicating Science Mission Words: Spontaneous

Learn relaxation and rehearsal techniques to build confidence in your ability to explain your research.

Communicating Science Mission Words: Responsive

Who is your audience? What do they need? What can you learn from them? How do you connect?

What's happening at the center?

Nutshell Games Winners: All Contestants — Plus Five Selected by Panel of Judges

On November 2, 29 courageous graduate students at the Moss Arts Center walked out on stage one at a time and shared their research with a public audience and a panel of judges. Presented by the Center for Communicating Science, this annual Virginia Tech research presentation competition, the Nutshell Games, allows each researcher just 90 seconds to explain their work. With laughter, gasps, cheers, and applause from the audience, the students brought to life topics from neuroscience, physics, engineering, computer science, deep time, crop pests, climate change, cell biology, and much more.

The judges faced the challenge of selecting just five of these presenters to receive $500 each in the form of university-approved conference travel or other uses. The 2024 winners are

Keshav Bhateja, Factoring numbers so big, even math gave up, Computer Science
Ainul Huda, Understanding thermoreceptors using fruit flies, Neuroscience
Rose McGroarty, Sonic de-boom! Detecting landmines using noise in the ground, Geosciences
Esther Oyedele, Where did our water go? Geosciences
Prescott Vayda, Unearthing the secrets to time travel, Geosciences

[more]

Upcoming Events

November 21 — Science on Tap, Rising Silo Brewery, 5:30 p.m. "Hokie Science Showcase: Soil science, ecotoxicology, disease ecology, invasive species, and more." Join us for an engaging set of demonstrations and games with several Virginia Tech graduate students. Speakers and topics include

Katie Mayer – Mussels and Biological Organization

Nitesh Nitheshnirmal – Groundwater and Water Cycle

Meredith Snyder and Sophia Gomez– What’s the tea with carbon? Learn how to measure carbon in soil

Sharif Islam—Habitat Fragmentation and Disease Ecology

Zia Crytser– Invasive Species Biology

Grace O'Malley– Soundscapes

Holly Funkhouser– Hellbenders and Global Change

Science on Tap is free and open to the public.

December 12 — "Can humor be taught?" Join Interdisciplinary Ph.D. student Heather Winslow for a workshop that teaches humor perception through fun improvisation games and exercises. 1-3 p.m. in room 201 (upstairs) of Theatre 101. Please register here.

Recent Events

You can read all about the Center for Communicating Science on our newsletter page. Here's some of what we've been up to recently:

11/18/2024 "Distilling Your Message for Engineering Research Proposals," workshop for the graduate students of the College of Engineering

11/5/2024 "Distilling Your Research Message," workshop for the Ph.D. Colloquium students of the Department of Business Information Technology

11/2/2024 The Nutshell Games!

10/24/2024 Science on Tap, New River Valley (Caitlin Miller: Evolutionary puzzles: How moving into new areas can change evolution)

10/23/2024 Preparatory workshop for all Nutshell Games participants

10/3/2024 Presentation skills workshop for Virginia Tech Corps of Cadets

9/27/2024 "How to Present Research to a Wider Audience for Greater Impact,” a panel discussion hosted by Times Higher Education and featuring Center for Communicating Science director Patty Raun with 3 additional panelists

9/26/2024 Science on Tap, New River Valley (Mary Akers: Be the ocean: Getting hermit crabs to land)

9/26/2024 Flip the Fair, Melrose branch of the Roanoke Public Libraries

8/22/2024 Science on Tap, New River Valley (Sally Walker and Jason Pall: Growing Glade Road Growing)

7/25/2024 Science on Tap, New River Valley (Connor Hughes: What makes a Home? Environmental modeling techniques help us understand where threatened species live)

7/23/2024 Center for the Enhancement of Engineering Diversity summer camp Black Engineering Excellence at Virginia Tech (BEEVT) workshops

7/22/2024 Center for the Enhancement of Engineering Diversity summer camp Black Engineering Excellence at Virginia Tech (BEEVT) workshops

7/19/2024 Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University Partnership for Workforce Advancement and Research & Development in Semiconductors (UPWARDS) summer camp workshops

7/18/2024 Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University Partnership for Workforce Advancement and Research & Development in Semiconductors (UPWARDS) summer camp workshops

7/17/2024 Center for the Enhancement of Engineering Diversity summer camp Black Engineering Excellence at Virginia Tech (BEEVT) workshops

7/16/2024 Center for the Enhancement of Engineering Diversity summer camp Black Engineering Excellence at Virginia Tech (BEEVT) workshops

7/10/2024 Universidad San Francisco de Quito, Global Teaching Scholars: Preparing Together for the Future of Higher Education (Communicating Your Research: Introduction to Applied Improvisation for Scientists workshop)

7/9/2024 Center for the Enhancement of Engineering Diversity summer camp Computers and Technology at Virginia Tech (C-Tech^2) workshops

7/8/2024 Center for the Enhancement of Engineering Diversity summer camp Computers and Technology at Virginia Tech (C-Tech^2) workshops

7/8/2024 Chemistry department's National Science Foundation Research Experience for Undergraduate students program (REU), Students Transforming Energy and Environmental Research (STEER), communicating science workshop

7/8/2024 Fralin Life Sciences Institute's Summer Undergraduate Research Fellows (SURF) program, communicating science workshop

7/8/2024 2024 International Conference on Plant Pathogenetic Bacteria and Biocontrol (Community Kaleidoscope workshop)

7/3/2024 Center for the Enhancement of Engineering Diversity summer camp Computers and Technology at Virginia Tech (C-Tech^2) workshops

7/2/2024 Center for the Enhancement of Engineering Diversity summer camp Computers and Technology at Virginia Tech (C-Tech^2) workshops

6/27/2024 Science on Tap, New River Valley (Amy Hagen: Reading the rocks: What rocks tell us about the history of the Earth, in the NRV and beyond!)

6/26/2024 Applied Theatre Improvisation: Collaboration, Confidence, and Creativity (workshop for Black College Institute students)

6/24/2024 Chemistry department's National Science Foundation Research Experience for Undergraduate students program (REU), Students Transforming Energy and Environmental Research (STEER), communicating science workshop

6/24/2024 Fralin Life Sciences Institute's Summer Undergraduate Research Fellows (SURF) program, communicating science workshop

6/22/2024 Center for the Enhancement of Engineering Diversity summer camp staff workshops

6/19/2024 Applied Theatre Improvisation: Collaboration, Confidence, and Creativity (workshop for Black College Institute students)

6/17/2024 Chemistry department's National Science Foundation Research Experience for Undergraduate students program (REU), Students Transforming Energy and Environmental Research (STEER), communicating science workshop

6/15/2024 Center for the Enhancement of Engineering Diversity summer camp staff workshops

6/14/2024 Center for the Enhancement of Engineering Diversity summer camp staff workshops

6/10/2024 Fralin Life Sciences Institute's Summer Undergraduate Research Fellows (SURF) program, communicating science workshop

6/4/2024-6/5/2024 2-day communicating science intensive for graduate students at Rutgers University’s Center for Computational and Integrative Biology, part of a National Science Foundation Research Training program

5/12/2024 Communicating Science Case Competition, Egerton University, Kenya

2/16/2024-5/12/2024 Agricultural Productivity Enhancement and Communicating Science Project, a collaborative venture including the Center for Communicating Science (CCS), Virginia Tech's College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Global Program, and Egerton University in Kenya

04/25/2024 — Science on Tap (Emily Ellis: What the satellites see: Observing rivers from space)

03/28/2024 — Science on Tap (The Art, Science, and Politics of Breastfeeding, with a panel of breastfeeding experts)

03/21/24 "Distilling Your Message: Brief and Compelling Interactions with the People You Need to Talk to," a communicating science workshop for graduate student researchers in Virginia Tech's Translational Biology, Medicine, and Health program; biomedical engineering; the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers; and others.

03/20/24 "Dear Science" pilot project with Carlos Evia's School of Communication senior seminar in science communication.

03/12/2024 "Communicating Science Beyond Posters, Pamphlets, and Videos," a workshop facilitated by CCS director Patty Raun for members of the Science, Health and Data Communications Research Centre at Bournemouth University in England.

03/11/2024 “The Art of Connecting Across Difference: Improvisation for Research Communication,” a workshop facilitated by CCS director Patty Raun for members of the Science, Health and Data Communications Research Centre at Bournemouth University in England.

03/06/2024 “Telling Your Research Story,” a communicating science workshop for researchers at Aberystwyth University in Wales. Facilitated by CCS director Patty Raun, the workshop is being hosted by Aberystwyth’s Dialogue Center.

03/01/2024 "Distilling Your Message," workshop for Virginia Tech's International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry's Global Women Breakfast.

1/26/2024 - 3/8/2024 "Collaborating and Connecting Across Differences," a 7-part series for faculty at California State University Northridge.

2/26/2024 "Learning to Listen and Listening to Learn: An Experiential Workshop in Understanding," a professional development workshop for graduate students in the Department of History.

2/24/2024 "Connecting Across Differences: Learning to Listen and Listening to Learn," a communication workshop for the 9th Annual Uplifting Black Men Conference

2/22/2024 Science on Tap (Matthew Reiss of Gnomestead Farm: Mushroom Cultivation in the New River Valley)

2/16/2024 Agricultural Sscience Communication Symposium and APECS Project Launch (a collaborative project with the Center for Communicating Science, CALS Global Program, and Egerton University in Kenya)

2/8/2024 Communicating with Public Audiences (communicating science workshop for the Neuroscience of Drug Addiction undergraduate course, School of Neuroscience)

2/8/2024 Distilling Your Message (communicating science workshop for the graduate-level microbial physiology course in the Department of Biosciences)

1/25/2024 Science on Tap (Jason Rutledge and Karen Snape: Hoofin' around: Keeping forestry sustainable with animal power and restorative practices)

1/9/2024 Learning to Listen and Listening to Learn: An Experiential Workshop in Understanding (communicating science workshop for graduate students at the Northeastern Weed Science Society (NEWSS) meeting , Boston, January 7-11)

1/9/2024 Connecting Across Difference: Building Skills for Communicating with the Public (communicating science workshop for the Northeastern Weed Science Society (NEWSS) meeting , Boston, January 7-11)

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