We created a FREE SciComm curriculum!
Unlike most science trainings, it talks about policy, storytelling, and inclusion
Our new, FREE, add-on SciComm curriculum is here!
Earlier this month, I was thrilled to click “Publish” on a project I’d been working on for a while: a SciComm curriculum based entirely on Fancy Comma blogs and videos! You can view and download the curriculum here. It’s not just a science writing curriculum but a holistic “SciComm survey course” including policy, ethics, culture of science, and more. Students will leave the course with an understanding of the challenges of science and science communication, and develop skills that can help them both as a scientist and outside of science.
Sheeva’s planning to teach the curriculum as an online course from late February to early July 2024. It is an international course open to all, geared towards scientists, and participants who complete the whole course (attending lectures and completing all homeworks) will earn a certification badge to be displayed on their website, social media, and so on.
The curriculum is designed to be a 12-week SciComm course meant to take about 5-10 hours a week in terms of reading, watching videos, discussion, and completing a short weekly assignment. The course can be added on to any science course, at any grade: from high school to graduate level.
Teaching people SciComm is something I’ve been thinking about since I started Fancy Comma, and the pandemic just made the need for expert scientist communicators that much more dire. The best thing about the curriculum, to me, is that it doesn’t have to be used just by educators - self-motivated scientists can learn from it independently and do the readings, consider the discussion questions, and work through the assignments themselves. I’ve never seen anything like our curriculum out there, so I’m excited to bring it to the world!
Our SciComm curriculum is unique among science training resources!
On the topic of science education, Research!America published a report on the state of public engagement in science programs. The report was written by Fanuel Muindi of Stem Advocacy Institute in his time as a Research!America fellow, and Jenny Luray, who is a senior vice president at Research!America. Read the report here. There’s also an accompanying dashboard with stats on science engagement training.
According to the Research!America data, 40% of science programs focus on writing, but only 7% of training programs focus on ethics, 12% train students in storytelling, 37% focus on policy, and 8.1% focus on inclusion. Our curriculum has a module on storytelling, one on policy, and one about sociology of science, which considers the social structure of science and ways that it can be made more inclusive for everyone. I’m excited to see that Fancy Comma is ahead of the curve here!
If you have any questions about our curriculum or suggestions, please get in touch. You can reply to this newsletter or contact us.
What we’ve been doing
On the blog, we’ve talked about sexism in science, publishing your work after you leave academic science, where science policy fits within the three branches of government, and scientific gatekeeping in the judicial system (meant to improve scientific evidence introduced in courts).
We’ve also been active on our YouTube. Check out our new trailer!
Sheeva also published “mukbang” chatty videos about science policy in the legislative branch, executive branch, and judicial branch, where she eats various foods while talking about the role of science in government, telling stories from her own personal experience as a scientist in the policy world.
If you know anyone who would like to be a guest on the Fancy Comma YouTube, get in touch! We are always looking for new perspectives.
That’s a wrap for the January 2024 newsletter. Thanks for reading! If you liked this newsletter and learned something from it, please share it with your friends and colleagues so they can benefit, too.