Scientific and Science Communication / Communicating Science

6 ECTS credits
156 h study time

Offer 1 with catalog number 4023246DNR for all students in the 2nd semester at a (D) Master - preliminary level.

Semester

2nd semester

Enrollment based on exam contract

Impossible

Grading method

Grading (scale from 0 to 20)

Can retake in second session

Yes

Taught in

English

Faculty

Faculty of Languages & Humanities

Department

History, Archaeology, Arts, Philosophy and Ethics

Educational team

Gustaaf Cornelis (course titular)

Activities and contact hours

14 contact hours Lecture
12 contact hours Seminar, Exercises or Practicals
90 contact hours Independent or External Form of Study

Course Content

With an introduction to the academic culture the student learns about the professional expectations regarding publications. The classes (with classroom tasks) on academic writing concern the structure of a professional publication (types of articles), from the onset, planning, choosing a topic, details of actual writing (vocabulary, style, et cetera) to coping with remarks made by peers. Concerning reference styles the student is introduced to the American Chemical Society reference style (ACS) and the Royal Society of Chemistry reference style (RSC). Students are shown the tricks of the trade regarding scientific writing as well as scientific oral presentation (peer2peer: writing an abstract, creating a graphical abstract, designing a scientific poster, preparing a computer presentation and writing a scientific paper, performing a pitch and doing a conference presentation. Weekly assignments will be assessed in class. Science communication (expert2non-expert) —oral ad writing— will also be practiced: talking to journalists, writing a newspaper column, playing the social media. Meanwhile, students learn to be empathic by role playing as peer reviewers, journalists, and laypeople. Students are introduced to all kinds of ethical issues related to scientific and science communication with which they learn to deal inspired by humanistic values. Evidently, all assignments are content wise related to the topic the student is performing research on in view of his/her master thesis – the assignments do not need any further topical reading. All comes together in a final public poster session by the end of the semester to which the faculty is invited.

Course material

Digital course material (Required) : Cornelis, Gustaaf
Handbook (Recommended) : Complete Science Communication, A Guide to Connecting with Scientists, Journalists and the Public, Fortenberry, Ryan C., Royal Society of Chemistry, 9781788011105, 2019

Additional info

Learning Outcomes

General Competencies

The course relates to the learning outcome 13 (‘The Master can report to a specialized and non-specialized public, both orally and in writing (incl. proper referencing) and can use these skills in transferring discipline-related know-how’) and learning outcome 14 (‘The Master has a high sense of accuracy, motivation and perseverance and can function in an international multidisciplinary team in a professional and responsible way’). The student is able to communicate adequately, professionally and ethically with peers and laypeople about his field of research, orally as well as in writing. The student correctly uses ACS and RSC. The student can express adequately his/her research by means of abstracts, graphical abstracts, posters, computer presentations, pitches, and interviews. The student knows how to write a state of the art scientific paper. The student understands the difference between scientific (expert2expert) and science communication (expert2non-expert, educate, fascinate). This course in competence oriented.

Grading

The final grade is composed based on the following categories:
Other Exam determines 5% of the final mark.
LEC Presentation determines 15% of the final mark.
SELF Paper determines 80% of the final mark.

Within the Other Exam category, the following assignments need to be completed:

Permanente evaluatie with a relative weight of 5 which comprises 5% of the final mark.

Within the LEC Presentation category, the following assignments need to be completed:

Presentatie with a relative weight of 15 which comprises 15% of the final mark.

Within the SELF Paper category, the following assignments need to be completed:

Papers with a relative weight of 55 which comprises 80% of the final mark.

Additional info regarding evaluation

Allowed unsatisfactory mark

The supplementary Teaching and Examination Regulations of your faculty stipulate whether an allowed unsatisfactory mark for this programme unit is permitted.

Academic context