UW Chemistry Graduate Students & Post-Docs:

Have you ever tried describing your research to a non-scientist friend or family member, or a young child, but only got a blank stare? Communicating science to a broader audience can be a difficult exercise, so here’s an opportunity to practice with your peers! Come join WCSUW for our workshop on communicating science to a broad, non-scientist audience!

We will be hosting this workshop on Wednesday, June 19th, at 6:30 pm at the College Inn Pub.

Please bring:

1) a short summary of your research as you would present it to your chemistry colleagues and

2) a short summary of your research intended for a broader audience (see rules below).

There’s one important rule: In order to keep your second research summary simple and to challenge you to step outside your comfort zone, we want you to write your research summary using only the 1000 most commonly used wordsin the English language. Don’t know the 1000 most commonly used words? No problem! Just go to http://splasho.com/upgoer5/ to use the Up-Goer Five Text Editor to write your research summary. The text editor will tell you when you have used a word that is not one of the 1000 most common words. Try to keep both summaries limited to ~3 to 6 sentences or ~30 seconds.

Attendees will get the chance to recite both research summaries to the group. Research summaries will be judged on categories such as clarity, creativity, and overall best. Winners will receive prizes!

If you’d like to read some examples from scientists in a variety of fields, check out these links:

http://seattlefosep.wordpress.com/2013/03/20/inaugural-fosep-1000-word-challenge-was-a-great-success/#comments

http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/guest-blog/2013/01/27/science-in-ten-hundred-words-the-up-goer-five-challenge/

Please email me (jwitt5@uw.edu) if you have any questions!

Jessica Wittman

Vice President, WCS-UW