A stop sign, a balance board, a steering wheel, a viola, a magnet model: These were the attention-grabbing props used by the five winners of the first-ever Faculty Nutshell Talks, held September 7 at the Moss Arts Center. The Center for Communicating Science (CCS) hosted a group of 16 courageous faculty members who brought their research to the stage, communicating their work in a mere 90 seconds to an audience of family, students, colleagues, and community members. 

    Winners of the inaugural event and their topics were 

   

This photo shows a woman leaning over to point at an "anklet" on the leg of a stuffed sheep model. Behind her is a large slide reading "Jamie L. Stewart, Department of Large Animals, Ewe Can Do It: Predicting the Onset of Labor in Pregnat Sheep."
Jamie Stewart used a sheep model to explain a monitoring device that can track an animal's activities.

 CCS director Patty Raun hosted the friendly competition, accompanied onstage by Dan Sui, senior vice president of research and innovation, and Ron Fricker, vice provost for faculty affairs, the co-sponsors of the event. An enthusiastic crowd supported the speakers with cheers and applause, and a panel of judges took notes. Rachel Rugh, dance instructor in the School of Performing Arts, led the audience in improvisation-based dance moves based on key words from each presentation.

    The lively and rapid-paced presentation competition gave the audience a chance to learn about an array of research projects, with speakers representing six of the university’s colleges, its transportation institute, and its libraries. Presenters were supported with a full-day communicating science intensive facilitated by Raun and associate director Carrie Kroehler as well as small-group coaching sessions and a technical rehearsal at the Moss.

This photo shows a white man trying to keep his balance on a balance board. He is standing on a stage with red curtains as a backdrop. Behind and above him is a slide reading "Brett Jones, School of Education, Motivating Students to Engage in Learning."
Brett Jones shared his student motivation MUSIC model with the audience: help students feel eMpowered, understand the Usefulness of what they're learning, feel Successful, be Interested in what they're learning, and feel Cared for.

    Sui, who served as a judge last February for the center’s graduate student Nutshell Games, was spurred by his experience there to work with Raun and Kroehler, along with Fricker, Laurel Miner, and Barb Lockee, to initiate the pilot faculty event. 

    “These days getting training in the technical field is not enough,” says Sui. “Scholars need to get some sort of training in science communication. By that I mean in terms of both writing for and speaking to different audiences. That’s a skill set that cuts across all fields.”

    The faculty who presented were given the opportunity to develop such skills through the training, coaching, and presenting at the event itself. 

    “It was especially eye-opening for me to realize that an effective presentation has physical aspects,” commented physicist and faculty member Satoru Emori, who wowed the audience with a presentation on flipping magnets, using props and personality to convey his research. “I'm thinking about applying what I learned from the Nutshell Talks to my STEM courses.”  

    Brett Jones engaged the crowd by finding his footing on a balance board while he shared his research on student motivation. 

    “I think everyone was quite nervous to present under the big spotlight of the Moss Arts Center stage and stay within the 90-second time limit,” he said. “But it was definitely a worthwhile experience, and I was glad that I was able to push myself to do it.”

    Virginia Tech String Project director Molly Wilkens-Reed expressed one of her biggest takeaways this way: “I realized that numbers and facts I considered to be important aren't actually that interesting to the general public, and reaching people through a storytelling approach is much more effective.” 

    While the judges selected five winners from the group of 16 terrific presentations, a sixth winner will be chosen based on the highest number of views, between September 22 and midnight on October 7, of the video recordings of the talks. Of course, we recommend that you watch them all! You can find them at the center’s YouTube channel. 

    Center faculty are collecting feedback from participants and will be meeting with Faculty Affairs and Research and Innovation representatives to assess the pilot program. 

    The event’s panel of judges included campus representatives Cyril Clarke (provost), Shania Clinedinst (Graduate School diversity initiatives support specialist), Daniel Smith (Presidential Postdoctoral Fellow), and Tracy Vosburgh (vice president of Communications and Marketing). Recent Board of Visitors member Melissa Nelson, a physician in Roanoke; Nolan Schmidt, Chief Strategy Officer at Li Industries, Virginia Tech Corporate Research Center; and Brady Alexander, Blacksburg 7th grader, represented our broader community.

 

This photo shows a woman holding a sign or placard, standing on stage, and behind her is a slide that reads "Rosanna Breaux, Department of Psychology, Helping Adolescents R.E.L.A.X."
Rosanna Breaux reminded the audience of the potential for emotional turmoil during adolescence and shared her related research.


    Presenters, in order of appearance, included

By Heather Winslow, Center for Communicating Science graduate assistant