Science Academy 2023 Science Film students were tasked with making a short 3–4-minute film on an aspect of science close to their heart using only their cell phones and i-movie software.  They were introduced to science filmmaking techniques over four 90-minute workshops at our January Science camp. They then planned and developed their ideas between January and July camps and shot the footage they needed in their home area, completing final editing during a further four 90-minute workshops during our July Science camp. The project was tutored by Max Balloch, Otago University Science Communication and Philosophy  student and an alumnus of the Science Academy. Max is also an award winning podcaster.

Check out our 2023 student  films by clicking on the titles below

Adventures and the Magic Rocket Ship

Science Film Tutor’s Top Film

Alysssa Burt
Motueka High School

Erylle Del Mundo
Maniototo Area School,

 The Resilience of Time

Science Academy Director’s Top Film

Gian Hall
TKKM o te ngati kahungunu ki te wairoa

The Great Ocean Garbage Patch

Nathan Elliot
Murchison Area School

Amber Fissenden
Kaikoura High School

Algae Just Want to Have Fun

Jess Quinlan
Te Aho o te Kura Pounamu

Phoebe Mulry-Climpson
Golden Bay High school

Just Science Facts (Nothing Else, Pinky Promise!)

Annalise McDonnell
Queens High School

Kate Hayward
Queens High School

Psych Show

Maia Rakete-Gray
Te Kura Kaupapa Māori o Ōtepoti

Ella Watts
Queen Charlotte College

Caffeine- How it keeps Us Going.

Cian O’Brien
Stratford High School

Sandee Barroga
Maniototo Area School

Trips over Trappist

Ashton Hasler
Ellesmere College

Caspar Denyer
Kaikati College

Science Academy 2021  Science Film students were tasked with exploring their favourite aspect of science and communicating their ideas through the medium of  a short 3-4 minute film. They attended four 90 minute workshops at our January Science camp- planned and developed their ideas between January and July camps and shot the footage they needed in their home area- and completed final editing  during a further four 90 minute workshops during our July Science camp. The project  was tutored by Karthic Sanjiva Sivanandham from NHNZ Productions and an alumni of the Otago University Center for Science Communication.

Links to this year’s 8 films can be found by clicking on the titles below

 Running Free – A look at the science of prosthetic limbs 

by Angelina Gosse (Wentworth College)

The Plastic  Issue 

by Finn Goodman (Geraldine High)

Auckland’s Secret Bird Sanctuary 

by Aziza Shawudun (Zayed College for Girls)

Fili Fono (Wesley College)

 Restoration of Wetlands

by Te Mote Marsh (Te Puke High School)

Operation Nest Egg- Kiwi conservation at West Coast Wildlife Center

by Champagne Dela Cruz (South Westland Area School)

Rhyanna Pich (Waitara High School)

Project Drawdown- School Planting for the Climate

by Shion Ko (Whangarei Boys High School)

Hoiho: The Rarest penguin in the World

by Hamish Mills (South Otago High School)

Tracking Kiwi with an Airplane

by Liam Finer – (Hawera High School)

Science Academy 2021 Podcast students were tasked with exploring their favourite aspect of science and communicating  their ideas through the medium of Radio and Podcasting. They attended four 90 minute workshops at OAR FM studios  during our January Science camp- researched, planned and developed their ideas between January and July camps- and  completed final  editing and recording during  a further  four 90 minute workshops during our July Science camp  facilitated by Domi Angelo-Laloli & Taylor Davies-Colley  at OAR FM Dunedin.

Mangere College

Horowhenua College

Opotiki College

Tokomairiro High School

Tokomairiro High School

Te Wharekura o Manaia

Tararua College
 

Check them out  here  Science Academy 2021 Podcasts. 

Engaging a museum audience learning about centre of mass by making them strike a pose for science 🙂

Anyone who has ever done any public speaking knows that 5 minutes can go by in a heartbeat, or feel like it takes a lifetime to pass.

As we rocket towards our Science Academy student presentations at the New Zealand International Science Festival, we have been thinking about audience engagement and what our students can do to maximise this. Engaging the audience and knowing they are “along for the ride” can help that 5 minutes fly by in a pleasurable rush.

There are two groups of students presenting “on stage” in July – the ones who have elected to do an interpretive talk, and those who have elected to do a Science show. Though there are big and not so big differences between the two delivery methods, getting the audience on board will be key for both groups.

As I mentioned in a previous blog, there are really four groups that the public can be divided into when it comes to Science Communication:

1. The Science Fans – the lovers of Science who can’t get enough and invest their free time in reading, attending talks, museums and other science related activities
2. The Cautiously Keen – they aren’t the fanboys or fangirls but they have a genuine interest in science and are keen to know more.
3. The risk averse – not engaged
4. The concerned – not engaged

The Science Academy students are presenting their work to the public as part of the New Zealand International Science Festival. I think it is safe to assume that their audience will be from the first two groups as it is unlikely that someone who is not engaged in learning about Science would take the time to attend a Science Festival.

So that means that we are at least starting with a friendly audience. This is a big plus. It is much easier to engage the audience if they are in the audience because they are interested in what is being presented and genuinely want to learn more. The audience is already on the students’ side.

Building another idea from another blog I wrote last year, to engage an audience, you need to:

1. Validate the audience’s thinking
2. Take them on a journey
3. Be framed within their values
4. Fall within social norms
5. Involve pictures and graphs and/or audience participation

There are a few more ideas that need to be touched on for successful audience engagement. Firstly, language – everyday vs for experts. The audience wants to learn but they don’t want a PhD thesis on the topic. The audience needs to understand what you are saying. In a five minute presentation to a public audience, the jargon should be at a minimum needed to make your point.

Accuracy can also sometimes lose you the point – keep it simple! It is better to be a bit less accurate but have the audience understand what you are saying than be super accurate and have them lost. If you engage them and get them interested in their topic, they will go away and try to learn more, if you give them a lot of details right at the start, they won’t understand enough of what you are saying to appreciate what you are saying. This is especially true with such a short amount of time to engage with the audience.

Tell a great story. Good story telling is emotional connection – why does the audience care about your message? Think about the trolley problem – some variations of this problem have shown that we tend to save the people we know and care about and sacrifice strangers. Make the audience care about what you have to say by building an emotional connection.

Frame your audience questions for maximum response rate. It is much easier for your audience to think of something general rather than specific. For example, asking them to think of a good experience they have had with Science rather than asking them to think of the best experience they had with Science. Linked to questioning, make sure you leave enough time for response – sometimes the audience needs to warm up or think about what you have said. Don’t let a lack of response cause you to panic and rush on before the audience has had a chance to respond! Equally, think about what you will do if you do NOT get the response you were expecting – have a back-up plan! The audience can still be engaged depending on how YOU respond to their unexpected, or lack of response.

Finally, make sure you acknowledge the audience contribution, thank the audience for coming along on the journey with you and participating. The audience will leave feeling appreciated and valued for coming to your show.

In this week’s Science Communication post I thought I would focus on Introductions.
Your introduction establishes not only the topic your show is about but also who you are and the theme or key message you plan to deliver about that topic.
It’s your opportunity to let the audience know the nature of the journey you are going to take them on and engage them right from the start.
There are variety of ways to engage your audience in your introduction
I’m going to focus on just three today
The first is from a Royal Society lecture on antimatter by Tara Shears. Note the strong eye contact with the audience, the structured outline of what is to follow and the emphasis on the fact she will be explaining the relevance of what she will cover.

The second is by climate scientist James Hansen. Here he uses a strong question as an attention grabbing tool and goes on to introduce the science via anecdotes from his own personal journey.
This speaker relies heavily on reading his script. Do you find this style more or less engaging than that of Tara Spears? Imagine how much more engaging he would be if he were to abandon reading every single word of his script as written, step out and face the audience with strong eye contact as he relates his own personal story. He knows his own story. Does he really need a script for that? Would it not be that much stronger adopting a more conversational tone along the lines of what you would use when relating a story from your past to a friend or colleague?

The 3rd is Dr. Jenny Germano a dear colleague from my days as Volunteer co-ordinator at Department of Conservation.  Jenny went on to study urinary frog hormones here at University of Otago. On the day she submitted her PhD thesis she entered the ` 3min Thesis’ speech competition with a talk entitled “Taking the Piss out of Endangered Frogs” …..and won the competition!
A number of things to note with Jen’s introduction. Her passion for her subject hits you from the word go, her use of hand gestures builds on that engaging passion and is even used to good effect in clarifying a couple of semi-technical terms- cardiac puncture and orbital sinus – simply by pointing to her heart and eye in mid-stream without having to pause. Note, no notes or script. She knows the stuff so she can talk from the heart and focus on the audience and not on trying to remember what comes next.
(Note that the graphic in the body of her talk is targeted at an audience of entirely academics as opposed to  the general public audience you will be presenting to in July. So bear that in mind when composing your own graphic support material. The less technical the better for our audience in July)

Developing a Research Plan

No-one expects you to be an expert on your topic and there is only so much you can cover in a 10 minute presentation. However, you should research your topic thoroughly.  A good research plan will help ensure accuracy, establish credibility and achieve your objective of enhancing understanding.  When you have decided on the key areas of your topic you want to focus on divide up the research duties amongst your team.

Your key research areas will come out of   Step 2 of your Topic to Theme Recipe.
i.e.
Step 1.  Select a general topic
“Generally my presentation is about………………
Step 2.  State your topic in more specific terms
“Specifically, however, I want to tell my audience about………………”
Step 3.  Now, express your theme.
“After my presentation, I want my audience to understand that……………”
Remember to complete each line as one complete sentence. This will help focus your research on the key aspects of your topic that are relevant.

                                          (From Sam H. Ham, 1992)

Beware of Bias!
Good research materials should be objective, presenting a balanced view of the topic. If you deliver biased information, your credibility with the audience will suffer.
As you embark on your research take a minute to reflect on the following sources and their potential for bias.
You may find this link designed for first year Otago University students useful also
Evaluating Information Sources: http://oil.otago.ac.nz/oil/module7.html

Credit Where Credit is Due
If you use someone else’s ideas, words or pictures in your presentation, you should acknowledge the original source if known. You can do this by:

• Attributing the source as you speak (As Marie Curie once said “Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood. Now is the time to understand more, so that we may fear less.”)
• Indicating the source after a direct quote , graphic, image on Powerpoint slide
• Showing a list of source material after  the final slide of your show as part of your conclusion/thank-you

Failure to give credit where credit is due may damage your own credibility and violate copyright law.

What’s Hot and What’s Not.
As you do your research, remember:
People love to hear:

• Good stories
• Inspirational thoughts and quotes
• Unusual facts (Catfish have over 100,000 taste buds over the surface of their body)
• Facts involving huge numbers in terms they can understand..
  (Each nerve cell  or neuron is about 10 microns wide. If you were able to line up all 100 billion neurons in your brain in a straight line that line would be about 1000 km long. That’s like from Dunedin to Auckland!)

           (Adapted from `Neuroscience for kids’ by Eric H. Chudler)

• Things that evoke emotional or physiological responses (scary things, beautiful things, amazing things, happy things) – the `intangibles’ around the `thing’ you are talking about.
• Things that are important to them

They don’t really care much about….

• Ordinary scientific data (Around 1.5 billion litres of domestic wastewater is discharged into the environment on a daily basis in New Zealand).
• Being `told what they must do’.
• How much you think you  know about your topic.

Good luck with your research and remember we are here to help so don’t hesitate to get in touch if need clarification and/or help with anything.

Calling all budding Science Communicators!

The purpose of the EUREKA Awards & Symposium  is to identify and foster young leaders who, through their knowledge of science, technology, engineering, mathematics, their entrepreneurial vision, and their persuasive communication skills, will bring about the New Zealand foreseen by Sir Paul Callaghan: “the most beautiful,stimulating and exciting place in the world in which to live.”

A student will give a 12 minute presentation in which s/he will demonstrate:

• Substantive knowledge about a specific science, technology, engineering, mathematics  innovation idea;
• the application of it for the social, and/or economic, and/or environmental benefit of New Zealand;
• and persuasive communication skills in “selling” the idea.

Each student will have submitted a written synopsis of their presentation prior to the regional competition.

The winner of the Sir Paul Callaghan EUREKA! Premier Award will win:

• The Premier Award Trophy
• A $5000 grant towards future studies

Three Sir Paul Callaghan EUREKA! Highly Commended Awards valued at $2500 each will be presented to the three runners up.

Each of the remaining 8 finalists will receive a $1000 Sir Paul Callaghan EUREKA! Merit Award.

Special Prizes

Special Prizes will also be awarded for students who deliver best category presentations.

In 2014 it is anticipated there may be as many as 10 additional awards in this prize list which will be available to all students whose presentations are submitted by Regional Organising Committees for participation in the National Finals.

For more details go to: http://eureka.org.nz