I enjoy talking about environmental issues, especially about climate change. I think it’s important to make these issues a part of our day to day conversations. Having said that, we need to be mindful of how we go about it. At the end of the day, if we scientists don't talk about the science we study, then those who know much less, will, and I don't need to tell you how messy that can get! I recently attended a science communication (scicomm) workshop which helped me gain a better understanding about being an effective science communicator. Let me share with you what I learnt from the workshop.
Why do we communicate? At the Annual Winter School organized by CLEx, we had a communication workshop on the final day. It was led by four amazing science communicators - Linden Ashcroft (University of Melbourne), Sonia Bluhm (Earth Systems and Climate Change Hub) and David Holmes and James Goldie from the Monash Climate Change Communication Research Hub. They kickstarted the workshop by asking us who we want to communicate to and why. After pondering over it for a while, this is what I came up with. Aim: To create awareness and a proper understanding of a subject (climate change), among people who don’t necessarily have that background knowledge. What information? The basic science of climate change, what’s causing it and their impacts Desired outcome: For my audience to have a better understanding of climate change as well as to inspire behavioural/ attitudinal change. Having discussed among the groups it was clear that there was a single underlying reason behind our communication goals. We communicate to bring about change, be it a change in mindset, attitude, action or knowledge base. We then worked in pairs on creating a video pitch. Each of us had to come up with a 2-minute video where we pitched ourselves to a chosen audience. We recorded each other and then critiqued our videos against our expected communication goals. I took the opportunity to teach heat stress to an undergraduate class! My friend opted to do a job application. It was a scary exercise because let’s be honest, no one likes to watch their video to see how they talk (?!). But I have to say that it was also interesting, in that we got to observe ourselves as a spectator. Knowing your audience Another aspect of the workshop that I particularly enjoyed was the one about ‘knowing your audience’. It was interesting to learn about the ‘Five Australia’s’ concerning beliefs and perceptions on climate change in Australia. The 5 categories are Alarmed, Concerned, Uncertain, Doubtful and Dismissive. The Dismissive are the climate skeptics. The Uncertain and Doubtful are those who don’t have enough facts and are open to learning more. They’re the ones we should be talking to, as our efforts can enable such audiences to make better-informed decisions. The language we use and the way we communicate our ideas can vary depending on the audience we target. Knowing your audience makes it easier for you to communicate your ideas more effectively. To successfully drive your message home, the message must be * factual and easy to process (so think twice before bombarding people with facts and know when to stop) * presented by trusted sources (eg: scientists or journalists with credibility) * local (eg: people seemed to show an increased interest in climate extremes when the media portrayed how tennis players were affected by high heat during the Australian Open). So for those of you who are pursuing a degree or career in science, I hope you will bear this in mind. In my experience, people around me are showing a greater interest in what I do now (a PhD in Climate Change) than in what I did a few years ago (a Bachelor's in Environment Science). I'm beginning to pay more attention to the way I engage in science communication. This is why I’ve decided to blog my way through my PhD and be more active on Twitter! Here's hoping my efforts in scicomm help at least one other individual become more climate literate 😊
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A few weeks ago I travelled to Melbourne to attend a Winter School and I finally found the time (and mood) to write about it. Melbourne had surprisingly good weather and it was nice to have a week of lectures and labs, reminiscent of my undergraduate days! The Australian Research Council (ARC) Centre for Excellence for Climate Extremes or CLEx, is made up of 5 Australian universities – the University of New South Wales, Monash University, the University of Melbourne, Australian National University and the University of Tasmania. The centre's research primarily focuses on climate extremes. The annual CLEx Winter School was held at the University of Melbourne from June 24th – 28th under the theme 'Modelling the climate system'. During the course of the week we heard from different academics and researchers on the fundamentals of climate modelling, model evaluation, the Australian Community Climate and Earth-System Simulator (ACCESS) weather models, computing for climate modelling, data assimilation and the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP). It was interesting to hear about the sixth phase of the project (CMIP6), as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC’s) Sixth Assessment Report (AR6) will be using climate model information obtained from the CMIP6 model analyses. There’s a good write up about it here and another about the ‘equilibrium climate sensitivity’ (ECS) issue here. We also heard about the Young Earth Systems Scientists (YESS) Community, which is an international and multidisciplinary network of early career researchers in earth system sciences. For lab work we were divided into groups and each group was given a task to work on. Our group had to melt Greenland and Antarctica and determine what impact that would have on the climate. It was nice to have the computational modelling systems (CMS) team around, for additional support. On day 4 we heard from all the groups about their projects and got to see a range of interesting plots. As soon as we finished the session, my friend and I took a tram to Federation Square to explore the city. As we walked on Princess Bridge, we were able to see the beautiful hues of dusk, over the River Yarra. We then walked to the State Library of Victoria (a must see for anyone who travels to Melbourne, in my opinion!). Established in 1854, it is the oldest public library in Australia and one of the first free public libraries in the world. We had a communication workshop on the last day of the Winter School and as a person interested in science communication, I found it very useful. I will tell you more about it in my next post. I am glad I got the opportunity to be a part of the CLEx Winter School because it provided a good introduction to climate modelling. The hands-on lab work supplemented the lectures and helped me understand concepts of climate modelling better. Not having a background in numerical analysis did make it slightly challenging for me to understand certain concepts discussed during some of the lectures, but it was a good place for me to start thinking about the fundamentals of modelling. Statistician George Box’s remark ‘all models are wrong, but some are useful’ was quoted in a few of the lectures. It was a good way of reminding us that while our climate models will not simulate the real scenario, their outputs and other features will enable us to have a better understanding about the sophisticated processes. I have come back from this Winter School feeling motivated! I am looking forward to using the skills I gained and the connections I made, to carry out more impactful research during my PhD😊 I haven't blogged in a while and this year I want to get back into it. I blogged a little during my undergraduate years at the University of Colombo, Sri Lanka. I used this as a platform to discuss about life at the university as well as about scientific issues. At the time, I hadn't heard of "scicomm" or Science Communication, but today it's hard not to notice the effort put in by scientists in effectively communicating their research to the masses! This has been made easier through the use of platforms such as Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. I want to use this blog to talk about my research as well as to talk about my journey as an international PhD student.
Two weeks ago I arrived in Australia to begin my PhD at the Climate Change Research Centre (CCRC) at the University of New South Wales. Although I had lived on my own for a year in Bristol while doing my master's in climate change science and policy, I was anxious about leaving home. Don't get me wrong, I was super excited to have been made an offer to pursue a fully funded PhD at a leading university on a topic that I'm very passionate about, but all I could think about was being away from home for 3.5 years. But thanks to technology I can speak to my family and friends whenever I want and I am also blessed to have family in Sydney, which has made my move here very smooth and hassle free. It has only been two weeks but the CCRC has made me feel quite at home! As the Post Grad Reviews were held during my first week at CCRC, I got the opportunity to see what the other PhD students were working on and also got to celebrate with them over pizza and drinks at the end of the week. During the long weekend I travelled to Bella Vista to spend time with family and it felt really good to be around them. This whole week I have been down with a cold and cough and have relied on Samahan (Sri Lankan herbal drink), Benadryl, hot soup and lozenges to feel better. I did manage to attend two courses on Linux and Python, despite having a few coughing fits, and I am glad I did! I think it's really important to make use of all the resources that are made available to you. It is equally important to take care of one's health. So this weekend I will get some rest. Have I settled in completely? Almost! It will take a while but I'll get there :) Among other things, I still need to figure out a routine and also explore more places in and around campus. That's all for now. Time to head out to do some grocery shopping :) |
AuthorBudding climate scientist from Sri Lanka, currently pursuing a PhD on heatwaves, at the Climate Change Research Centre (CCRC) at UNSW, Sydney. Believes in using effective science communication to bridge the gap between science and society :) Archives
June 2021
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