SCOMaganza April 2019 was a day of exciting new research coming from the CPAS community, with in-progress and final presentations throughout the day on science education, risk communication, public policy initiatives and more. 

Rhedyn Ollerenshaw

Zoo design: connecting zoo visitors with conservation messages

Rhedyn Ollerenshaw’s mid-term PhD presentation gave an update on her project, explaining the breakdown of her study into how zoos influence conservation thought and behaviour. Rhedyn discussed how she visited two different tiger enclosers in order to assess how they influenced guest’s ideas, thoughts, and behaviour with conservation.

Duncan Rae

Responsible Research and Innovation in the Australian energy sector

Duncan Rae is a science communication honours student whose presentation on the Consumer Data Rights in the Australian energy sector gave an interesting look into what his project will be focused on. Duncan will be looking at the way Responsible Research and Innovation will help consumers in Australia.

Alexandra Bailey

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

Alexandra Bailey’s honours presentation outlined how her project will look at psychologists who identify as someone who self-harms, illustrating the interesting way that often the people who gain jobs in the field have personal experience in the field, and how that may influence their works.

Steph David

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

Steph David gave an honours presentation outlining her proposed project looking at how pill-testing has been discussed and communicated by experts, and the controversy around it. Steph is will be looking at how the ways exerts have discussed pill-testing has influenced the controversy surrounding it.

Tara Roberson

Can hype be a force for good?

Tara Roberson is a final year PhD candidate at CPAS, and also manages communications and engagement for the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Engineered Quantum Systems. In her final PhD presentation, she detailed her research investigating the use of hype in science communication, asking whether the benefits of hype can offset the drawbacks.

Jennifer Colley

The Development and Assessment of STEM Skills

To round out the day, PhD student Jennifer Colley gave her final presentation. 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.

For more information, or access to audio recordings from the day, please contact our Centre Manager at cpas@anu.edu.au. 

This article written by CPAS student Tom Merienne.