SCOMaganza is a community gathering day for the Australian National Centre for the Public Awareness of Science, featuring short talks from our students on their exciting science communication research.

Arrive and welcome (9:30- 10:00am)

Rhedyn Ollerenshaw

Zoo design: connecting zoo visitors with conservation messages

Rhedyn Ollerenshaw’s PhD with CPAS is examining how zoo design can impact the efficacy of zoo-based behaviour change campaigns. Rhedyn Ollerenshaw is passionate about conservation education and her research is designed to support the informal science learning role of zoos as a critical connector between people and wildlife.

Duncan Rae

Responsible Research and Innovation in the Australian energy sector

Duncan Rae has completed an undergraduate degree in Science Communication and Philosophy of Science at ANU and is now a Science Communication honours student. He is interested in the culture of science and its place in societies. His current research looks at how science and technological innovation are socially and environmentally responsible. In his spare time, he is interested in the role of narratives in communicating science.

Morning tea (11:20-11:35)

Alexandra Bailey

Researchers who self-identify as end-users a Self-harm Case study

Alexandra Bailey is a Science Communication honours student at the Centre for the Public Awareness of Science. She is interested in self-harm research particularly non suicidal self-injury and harm minimisation approaches to self-injury. Her current project aims to explore the tensions faced by people who are both self-harm researchers and end-users.

Steph David

Pill-testing: a case study for examining communication strategies of experts in a controversial context

Steph David is an honours student at the Centre for the Public Awareness of Science. Her research is examining the experiences of experts whose research and communication on illicit synthetic pill testing kits has elicited controversy in the public sphere. From this research, she will explore the strategies that experts use to communicate and mitigate risk, and what a controversial context reveals about the effectiveness of these approaches.

Lunch (12:45-1:45pm)

Tara Roberson

Can hype be a force for good?

Tara Roberson is a final year PhD candidate at CPAS. She also manages communications and engagement for the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Engineered Quantum Systems. Her PhD research investigates the use of hype in science communication and asks whether the benefits of hype can offset the drawbacks. In this presentation, Tara will present the main conclusions from her thesis.

Afternoon tea (2:45-3:00pm)

Jennifer Colley

The Development and Assessment of STEM Skills

Jennifer Colley is the Head of Science at Burgmann Anglican School and is in the
final stages of her PhD journey. Her research has examined: what may be meant by the phrase ‘STEM skills’; the extent to which the Australian Curriculum (Years 7-10) facilitates the development of these skills; teacher perspectives on opportunities and barriers to developing and assessing these skills; and whether international benchmarking tests such as PISA and TIMSS are appropriate metrics for gauging Australian students’ STEM skills.

Socialganza* (4:00pm)

Join us at Badger & Co. to unwind and continue conversations from the day.

*coined by Emily Standen