Early career scientists (defined as undergraduate students, graduate students and those within a few years of graduation from a graduate degree program) need effective science communication skills to be highly successful in a science career. This award provides funding to support a workshop prior to the June 2021 conference of the Association for the Sciences of Limnologist and Oceanography (ASLO) that will provide training in verbal and visual communication to early career scientists. The one-day workshop will help about fifty early career scientists develop communication skills and will provide foundational knowledge for communicating effectively to any audience. The workshop will include two verbal science communication sessions designed to help researchers develop clear and engaging stories about their work. Participants will have repeated opportunities to practice short research pitches to a live audience and receive interactive feedback. Two visual communication sessions will be delivered during the workshop and will focus on 1) creating and delivering a scientific talk and 2) creating an engaging poster with graphics.
Early career scientists are particularly in need of effective science communication skills as they are either beginning their science career at the undergraduate level or developing their scientific specialty at the graduate level. Based on feedback from two prior pilot workshops, the organizers expect a significant improvement in the participants' appreciation of the need for effective science communication and in their mastery of verbal and visual communication skills. The workshop will be widely advertised and free to attendees of the ASLO conference. Prior workshop attendees have been a diverse group, with undergraduates, graduate students and postdoctoral scholars comprising more half of the attendees, and faculty members and industry researchers attending as well.
This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.
