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Center for Communicating Science - teal and orange logo
Center for Communicating Science - teal and orange logo
Applying collaboration & arts practices to help scientists and others learn to tell their stories and connect across differences
Photo courtesy of Alexandra Freeze.
Photo courtesy of Cassandra Hockman.
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?
Collaboration Incubator Set for May 17
Center for Communicating Science faculty will facilitate a day-long set of experiences for 26 artists and researchers May 17. The SciArts Collaboration Incubator, funded by Virginia Tech's Center for Coastal Studies and Equity and Social Disparity in the Human Condition destination area, will bring together researchers and artists for collaboration skills-building exercises, opportunities to learn about one another's work, and time and space to incubate ideas. Following the Collaboration Incubator, eight transdisciplinary SciArt projects focused on issues of climate change and other urgent social and environmental issues will be funded.
Click "more" for further details!
Through May 15: You can join us virtually and "in real life" to see an exhibit of our "Girls Launch! goes digital" project, ten children's science videos created by ten women graduate students. Supported by a grant from the Institute for Creativity, Arts, and Technology, the Girls Launch! video project is on display in the upstairs hallway exhibit space at the Moss Arts Center through May 15 and available online in a virtual sculpture garden. You can check it out here, and if you'd like to share the full videos with the favorite children in your life, they're available at the Center for Communicating Science YouTube channel. For more about this science outreach project, see previous descriptions in our center newsletter.
May 17: SciArts Collaboration Incubator
June 7-11: 2021 Science of Team Science Conference, registration open
June 24: Science on Tap, 5:30 p.m. We'll be hosting Abigail Lewis, Virginia Tech Department of Biosciences graduate student and one of our Nutshell Games 2020 winners. This event is open to the public free of charge. Check back for registration information.
July 19 - August 14: German Fulbright Student Summer Institute “Communicating Across Disciplines: New Approaches for Applied Sciences”
Here's some of what we've been up to recently!
4/29/2021 Pinch-of-Practice Workshop (Make It Memorable’s Decoding Slide Design: Using Science and Art to Make Powerful Visuals)
4/27/2021 Pinch-of-Practice Workshop (Make It Memorable’s Rethinking Presentations: Memorable and Influential Presentations)
4/22/2021 Science on Tap, New River Valley (Sweta Baniya, Minh Duong, Sara Richards, Jennifer Sano-Franchini, Khanh To, Na Xie: Asian & Pacific Islander in Academia: Research Stories and Successes)
4/22/2021 Pinch-of-Practice Workshop (The Story Collider's Crafting a Story of Your Research, Part 2)
4/20/2021 Pinch-of-Practice Workshop (The Story Collider's Crafting a Story of Your Research, Part 1)
4/15/2021 Pinch-of-Practice Workshop (The Story Collider’s Crafting Your Personal Science Story, Part 2)
4/13/2021 Pinch-of-Practice Workshop (The Story Collider’s Crafting Your Personal Science Story, Part 1)
4/1/2021 Pinch-of-Practice Workshop (The Story Collider’s Introduction to Storytelling for Scientists)
3/31/2021 Orion Living-Learning Program First-Year Students (Communicating Science workshop)
3/30/2021 Orion Living-Learning Program First-Year Students (Communicating Science workshop)
3/30/2021 Pinch-of-Practice Workshop (The Story Collider’s Introduction to Storytelling for Scientists)
3/25/2021 Science on Tap, New River Valley (Bruce Hull: Leading From Where You Are: Sustaining Hope for a Sustainable Future)
3/25/2021 Pinch-of-Practice Workshop (Open Sessions for Practice Communicating)
3/23/2021 Pinch-of-Practice Workshop (Open Sessions for Practice Communicating)
3/18/2021 Pinch-of-Practice Workshop (Making Your Research Understandable: Bridging the Gap)
3/16/2021 Pinch-of-Practice Workshop (Effective Presentations: Building Confidence and Personal Presence)
3/11/2021 Virginia Tech Roanoke Center (Connecting Across Difference: Skills for Effective Communication in Person and Online)
3/4/2021 Virginia Tech Roanoke Center (Connecting Across Difference: Skills for Effective Communication in Person and Online)
3/4/2021 Pinch-of-Practice Workshop (Learning to Listen: Connecting with Audiences and Collaborators)
3/2/2021 Pinch-of-Practice Workshop (Make It Memorable’s Presenting Better Virtually: Engage Your Audience in a Virtual Setting)
2/25/2021 Science on Tap, New River Valley (Bennett Grooms: A New Age of Conservation: Helping Wildlife by Understanding People)
2/25/2021 Virginia Tech Roanoke Center (Connecting Across Difference: Skills for Effective Communication in Person and Online)
2/18/2021 Pinch-of-Practice Workshop (Distilling Your Message: Succinct and Compelling Interactions)
2/16/2021 Pinch-of-Practice Workshop (Distilling Your Message: Succinct and Compelling Interactions)
1/28/2021 Science on Tap, New River Valley (Daniel Bird Tobin: Embodying Emotional Connections to Science Through Theatre)
1/27/2021 Biomedical and Veterinary Sciences Graduate Student Association (Communicating Your Research Online. . .Is Like Making Your Own Hollywood Blockbuster!)
1/14/2021 Women and Gender in Development Conference (Preparatory workshop: Communicating Your Research)
Center for Communicating Science - teal and orange logo
Center for Communicating Science
230 Grove Lane
Blacksburg, VA 24061
(Campus mail code: 0555)
Director Patty Raun
praun@vt.edu
Associate Director Carrie Kroehler
cjkroehl@vt.edu