Enhance your writing skills and adapt your science communication style for different outlets.

The “Art of Science Writing,” is an intermediate-level course designed to elevate your science communication skills and expand your writing repertoire across various platforms. Delve into advanced interviewing techniques, learn to craft compelling narratives for different platforms, and master the art of brand journalism. Each module features a short video lecture, assigned readings, and practical assignments with thought-provoking discussions to enhance your understanding and application of science writing principles. 

• Leveraging Your Resources Learn how you can leverage resources such as source credibility and AI to effectively communicate with your audience.
• Writing for Different Platforms Explore the nuances of writing for different platforms such as video and social media. Practice adapting your style to meet platform-specific requirements and engage various demographics effectively.
• Brand Journalism Writing for organizations, balancing promotional and informative content, and how to build a successful career. 
• The Pitch In the final module, we’ll cover the art of pitching your expert, yourself, and/or your work to amplify it through earned media. 

Who should Register

This course is tailored for individuals with some experience in science writing who are eager to refine their techniques and explore new media.

Instructor: Deborah Bright

Deborah L. Bright has been a professional science communicator for just over a decade. With a unique background in both science and communication, she has dedicated her career to promoting scientific literacy. Her work has been featured in numerous media and has won multiple awards. Deborah holds a Master’s degree in Interdisciplinary Studies and is currently pursuing her PhD in Strategic Communication with a focus on science communication. She is a current Board Member of the San Diego Science Writers Association and serves as an Advocate for the Ruben H. Fleet Science Center as part of their "Two Scientists Walk Into a Bar" program.

Learn to harness the power of pictures to engage and educate any audience!

In an age of increasingly complex science, pictures can be a key to communicating clearly. But few science communicators have had a chance to learn how to access the power of pictures to engage and educate their audiences.

This course is designed to empower anyone to do that — to create pictures that clearly convey science information, no matter how complex.

What you'll learn in this course

S.P.A.R.K. will change forever the way you think about pictures and use them to communicate about science. 

You’ll learn core concepts of visual communication. This is not a course on how to draw. The S.P.A.R.K. strategies work with many ways of presenting information — diagrams, charts, posters, sketches, cartoons, even data visualizations. What you'll learn can be applied to pictures created by hand or with software you already know.

Each of the 24 videos is 10 minutes or less. You’ll learn:

• A perfect way to jumpstart your visual thinking and transition from words to pictures
• How to speak with the 8 elements of visual language
• Ways to target your audience’s visual sweet spot
• Tips for visually communicating to people who aren’t familiar with your top

Media producers, writers, journalists, educators, publishers, communications professionals, researchers, academics, students—anyone interested in making a greater impact with their science messages.

Join the ranks of science communicators who have already used S.P.A.R.K. to improve their outreach and communication skills, including at Yale, Harvard, the Innovative Genomics Institute, the University of Miami, Louisiana Tech University, and the University of Oregon, along with labs and individuals worldwide.

Instructors

Betsy Palay	Tami Tolpa
Betsy has over 30 years of experience creating visual communications for science researchers, educators, major biotech companies, and entrepreneurs. She is the founder and former president of a design firm that specialized in investor communications, assisting clients in raising a total of over half a billion dollars in Initial Public Offerings (IPO’s). Betsy has an MS in medical and biological illustration from the University of Michigan, is a Board-Certified Medical Illustrator, and is a Fellow and a past president of the Association of Medical Illustrators. Over 100 of her original scientific illustrations have been accepted into the permanent archives of the Vesalius Trust Collection of the Lloyd Library and Museum, Cincinnati, Ohio. See her work at www.betsypalay.com.	Tami has over 20 years of experience in scientific illustration and animation for clients including: Scientific American Magazine, The Scientist Magazine, Science News, MIT's Technology Review, Harvard University, and the University of Washington, as well as numerous physicians and biotechnology companies. Tami has an MFA in medical illustration from the Rochester Institute of Technology. She’s a past board member and current Fellow of the Association of Medical Illustrators. Tami has spoken about science communication using visuals at the University of Washington, Rochester Institute of Technology, the Association of Medical Illustrators, The Northwest Science Writer's Association, Science Talk '18, and ComSciCon-PNW. She's currently the Scientific Illustrator at Gladstone Institutes. Her professional website is www.tolpa.com.

Master the feedback process to improve your own work, strengthen your science communication team, and make yourself an invaluable collaborator.

Giving and receiving feedback is one of the most important parts of any creative process, but we rarely talk about how to develop your skills at these two essential processes. Receiving feedback can be challenging: it's difficult to hear criticism of your work, and proposed changes can often be hard to understand. Understanding where feedback comes from and how you can employ it is the quickest way to improve your entire creative process and cultivate a collaborative environment for your whole team.

At the same time, recognizing the challenges of receiving feedback allows you to give much better feedback, as well. Knowing your limitations as a reviewer and appreciating the impact your notes will have makes your feedback more precise, more productive, and much easier to implement.

This workshop will give you new tools to think about giving and receiving feedback that will make you a better science communicator and collaborator. These tools are applicable across any media, and we'll use examples from video, podcasts, and print media. Students will also have a chance to bring their own short samples to apply these techniques right away.

Key Learning Objectives

• New ways to approach reviewing and giving notes on creative science communication work

• How to communicate your feedback effectively and constructively

• Interpret and implement feedback from others, even when you receive conflicting notes

• Better ways to collaborate

Who Should Register?

Anyone who produces or provides feedback on creative science communication work; creators, reviewers, and collaborators. SciComm professionals at any level and background knowledge will find this course of value.

Instructor
Andrew Sobey

Andrew is a Washington, DC based filmmaker and science communicator. His nonfiction and experimental work has screened at film festivals around the world, including Aesthetica Short Film Festival, Rooftop Films Summer Series, Big Sky Documentary Film Festival, Athens International Film + Video Festival, and many others. He is a Supervising Producer for American Chemical Society's Reactions, a PBS Digital Studios series, and Headline Science. He has previously been a City of Bothell Arts Commissioner, host of the Seattle Documentary Filmmakers Happy Hour, Projects Director for Seattle Arts Nonprofit One Reel, and Editor & Animator at Laundry Service. You can see his work at http://www.andrewsobey.com/

Don’t let faith be a barrier to SciComm!

More than 7 in 10 U.S. adults claim a religious affiliation. In STEM fields however, faith is often thought to be a source of tension. The U.S. public views scientists as mostly trustworthy in their areas of expertise, but also as hostile or indifferent to faith. Additionally, many scientists of faith are quiet about their religious identity, fearing derision or discrimination. Our workshop highlights faith as an important aspect of identity that should be specifically considered in science engagement.

Join us to learn:

• more about people of faith
• the social and historical context of science
• why facts are not enough
• how worldview affects opinions on science topics
• promising practices
• people doing good work at this intersection of science and faith.

Last, participants do a small-group exercise on how to respond to a challenging question or scenario, and then come back to the larger group to discuss their approaches.

To ensure participants feel free to openly participate in the discussions of potentially sensitive subject matter, this workshop will NOT be recorded.

Key Learning Objectives

Discover why culture, worldview, and identity - including faith - are important in science communication and engagement.

Who Should Register?

Anyone who wants to learn about respectfully and effectively engaging with people of faith.

Instructor

Rachel Kline

Rachel Kline (she/her) is a science communicator with a lifelong passion for science and understanding. With a background in pharmacology and project management, her work with DoSER promotes broader inclusion in science spaces and helps reshape views on the intersections of science, ethics, and religion. She has been giving workshops since she joined DoSER in 2019. Rachel’s science engagement approach is practical and compassionate, focused on how science impacts people’s lives. Check out DoSER's fantastic resources at ScienceReligionDialogue.org!

What can science communication learn from children's books? A lot more than you might think!

Join us to unlock the storytelling secrets of children's literature and bring them into your science communication toolbox! This course explores how storytelling, illustrations, and language choices in children's books can inspire more engaging and accessible science communication. This course is not about writing for children, it’s about learning from some of the most effective communicators – children’s books authors – and applying their strategies to science storytelling at large.

It will be structured into four interactive online sessions:

1. Story Finding covers the fundamentals of storytelling, different story types, and how to adapt your message to specific audiences.
2. World Building delves into how context, descriptions, and characters create immersive narratives, drawing parallels between fantastic worlds in children's books and the world(s) of science.
3. Story Crafting Part 1 – Words focuses on language techniques such as rhythm, repetition, and humor
4. Story Crafting Part 2 – Visuals, Emotions, and Dramatic Effect explores the role of illustrations, emotional connection, and delivery in science communication.

Throughout the course, participants will work on an individual project – the backbone of their own science story – by integrating the storytelling concepts learned in the four group sessions. Alongside discussions and hands-on exercises, they will also be encouraged to read children’s books with a new perspective, guided by supplementary material and a series of recommended readings.

Key Learning Objectives

• (Re)Connect with children’s books and gain a new appreciation for them from the perspective of an adult and science communicator
• Learn storytelling techniques to craft an engaging and accessible story
• Identify creative communication strategies in children’s books and explore how they can be applied to science communication projects

What this course is NOT

• A workshop for writing/creating children’s books
• A course targeting SciComm delivery to young audiences
• A pure storytelling course
• A writing course

Who Should Register?

This course is perfect for graduate students, postdocs, and science communicators - whether full-time, part-time, or just starting - who want to make their science communication more engaging and accessible. If you're curious about how children's books can inspire creative storytelling and help you connect with broader audiences, this course is for you!

Instructor
Flavia-Bianca Cristian, PhD

Bianca is a science communicator with a background in molecular biology and a PhD in autism genetics. Originally from Transylvania, Romania, she has lived in the USA, Portugal, the Netherlands, Switzerland, and Germany. Passionate about making science accessible to all, she volunteers for NGOs that promote science literacy and is a 2025 fellow of the German-South African Public Engagement Exchange Program. This course blends her love for children's literature with her experience in scientific writing and science communication. She enjoys learning new languages, collecting children's books, and traveling.

Make a difference. Don’t let your SciComm get lost in the noise of Social Media

They say laughter is the best medicine, but it can also be great SciComm!

Humor can be a powerful way to make a meaningful connection and provide effective communication, when used appropriately. Learn the fundamentals of humor and how it helps us learn, remember and engage, with a focus on science communications.

In this course, we’ll cover some basic comedy and joke writing principles to help you find the humor in your science communication. The course will be divided into three modules covering

1. Humor as a tool to create memorable messages
2. Analogies, subversions, callbacks, and punchlines
3. Humor applied to writing, presentations, and video

Key Learning Objectives

• Understand the mechanics and neuroscience of humor in relation to learning, attention, and memory
• Develop the skills to craft quips, jokes, and laughing points
• Learn how to apply funny analogies, subversions, callbacks, and punchlines
• Master the balance between appropriate and inappropriate humor in science communication

Who Should Register?

Scientists and science communicators who want to learn about the neuroscience of humor and how to implement it to enhance their science communication. SciComm professionals at any level and background knowledge will find this course of value.

Instructor

Lexa Graham

Lexa Graham is an award-winning scientist, educator, and comedian who created DNAtured Journal, a satirical academic journal on student life and science. Lexa is also a popular host, performer, and panelist for science-based events due to her personable nature, quick wit, and broad scientific knowledge. In the past, she has performed for organizations and events such as Story Collider, The Royal Canadian Institute of Science, The Association of Science Communicators, The Canadian Association of Science Communicators, SciCommTO, ScienceTalk, Spark After Dark, Science Rendezvous, IdeaMosaic, and INKspire.

Lexa also helps scientists, students and business professionals incorporate humor into presentations, pitches, and speeches to capture audience attention and increase engagement. This a skill she has mastered after years of hosting rowdy late night comedy shows, writing science satire for people on the internet, and teaching science over Zoom.

Turn Theory into Impactful Practice

Science communication plays a vital role in bridging the gap between scientific research and society. However, ensuring that communication efforts achieve their intended impact requires a structured approach to evaluation. This course equips participants with the knowledge and tools needed to critically evaluate science communication initiatives, using frameworks and methodologies grounded in both science communication research and the social sciences.

Through a combination of theoretical insights, real-world case studies, and practical exercises, participants will gain the skills to implement effective evaluation strategies tailored to their projects. Additionally, participants will design their own evaluation plan through a combination of assignments and hands-on workshop activities

Key Learning Objectives

• Understand the Fundamentals of Evaluation
  Recognize the role of evaluation in science communication and its importance for improving engagement and impact.
• Apply an Evaluation Framework
  Learn how to define clear objectives and how to design a holistic and measurable evaluation model.
• Differentiate Types of Evaluation
  Identify when and how to use formative, summative, and impact assessment to evaluate Science Communication initiatives.
• Leverage Social Science Methods
  Explore qualitative and quantitative tools, such as surveys, interviews, and focus groups, to evaluate communication effectiveness.
• Collect and Analyze Data
  Gain hands-on experience in designing data collection strategies, interpreting results, and making data-driven decisions.
• Develop a Practical Evaluation Plan
  Apply course learnings in a workshop setting to create a customized evaluation plan for a specific Science Communication initiative

Who Should Register?

All science communication practitioners and researchers, from any scientific field, interested in improving their evaluation competencies.

Instructor

Susana Ambrósio

Susana holds a PhD in Education and a specialization in Science Communication. She has more than 15 years of experience in social sciences research. She has conceived and developed several science communication initiatives, as well as delivered training courses in science communication. Currently, she is a consultant and trainer at Yellow Lemon - Scientific Consulting and Training. Susana is also the Volunteer Coordinator for the Association of Science Communicators.