S2E8: 3 common mistakes to avoid when doing science communication

No matter what our scicomm or engagement project might look like, we ideally need to know how successful or impactful it was. This is where evaluation comes in. In this episode, we talk to Dr Jamie Gallagher about how to get started with evaluation and how you can apply it to your own projects. Check out Jamie's website for more training and resources, and find him online.

There are lots of articles and tips out there for scientists taking their first foray into scicomm, but what about researchers or science communicators who are also creators. Here are three mistakes I made as a self-taught scientific creator and how you can avoid doing the same. Find out more about the podcast and get all the links and resources here. Follow Soph for more scicomm tips and advice.

A common excuse I get from some scientists that they don't want to do science communication because it is oversimplifying their research too much. Well, in this episode I am sharing some top tips on how you can make your research translatable for any audience without 'dumbing it down'. Find out more about the podcast and get all the links and resources here. Follow Soph for more scicomm tips and advice.

Presentations. Something we all end up doing. So it is a skill that we all need. In this episode, we talk to Duncan Yellowlees who has been training presenters for over a decade within academia and research. He answers what makes a great presentation. We talk about what techniques you can use to make your next presentation even better. Plus - the best tip for making presentations I have ever heard! Check out Duncan's presenting training and courses, and find him online.

Doing science communication is a time investment and can be a barrier to many when getting started when there are so many other things to balance it with. In this episode, I share five ways that I routinely use to help me balance scicomm with a side hustle and a full time job.

Instagram is one of the largest social media platforms and it is a really useful and fun way to do science communication online. But how do you start? I get asked this question so often and people give me so many reasons why they are reluctant to start. In this episode, I have taken five of the most common reasons I hear and share my tips and advice on how you can get started doing scicomm on Instagram. All resources from this episode can be found here Follow Soph online here Listen to the SciCom Accelerator podcast featuring Soph here for more Instagram chat

In this episode, I talk to the wonderful Maren Hunsberger - microbiologist and science communicator extraordinaire. We chat about her journey into science, finding the narrative in science and some incredible advice for writing scripts - just to name a little bit. Get all the resources for this episode and all others on my website. Find Maren online here. Find Soph online here.  

One of my favourite communication tips for scientists: start a blog! In this episode, I'll explain why blogging is one of the most powerful for you, your science and your career. It is not just for influencers and creative writers. Let me tell you just 3 reasons why! For more information about anything mentioned in this episode, visit www.sophtalksscience.com/scicommtoolkit or get in touch on social media (@soph.talks.science)

We are back for Season 2 and kicking everything off by sharing just five of the hundreds of things I wish I had known before starting science communication! Get transcripts and show notes from this and all the other episodes on The SciComm Toolkit website.

For the Season 1 finale, we talk to science communicator Julia Ravey about managing time and multiple scicomm projects, how performing arts has influenced her career, science presenting and more.