Prof Brendan Godley teaches a MSc module on Marine Biodiversity and Conservation at the Centre for Ecology and Conservation on the University’s Penryn Campus. The students learn about a wide diversity of topics and undertake independent study on two major topics within their specific interests. These are assessed by a dissertation and an oral presentation to their peers, respectively. This year, the tutor challenged his students to go a stage further and produce an infographic to communicate the message of their oral presentation to a wide audience that could then be shared on Twitter or other social media platforms. Brendan wrote;
“Communicating science, especially conservation science, to a wide audience is a key skill we all need to work on. This was my initial reasoning for setting the task. I think. however, that the exercise really challenged the students to distil and clarify their key take-home messages in advance of giving their talks. They achieved both of these aims with some aplomb and were widely complimented on their work.”
The module sees a range of invited marine conservation practitioners sharing their sectoral experience with the students. Katrina Ryan of Mindfully Wired a consultancy which specialises in science communication was one of the invited experts this year and gave the students feedback on their infographics as part of her session. Katrina added;
“It’s wonderful to see vital communication skills being fostered as part of these students’ wider conservation science learning. Condensing such complex subject matters into compelling graphics is a real challenge, but the students did a superb job and, as a result, many had significant impact on social media”
Click her to see a storify of the tweets, starting with the single most impactful by Hetty Upton.
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