Introduction to Science Communication (BEES2680)

The UNSW Introduction to Science Communication (BEES2680) course is fully online and provides a solid foundation in science communication skills, including active listening and critical reading. You’ll learn how to write effectively and succinctly in descriptive, reflective and narrative styles for a range of assignments and other essay and writing tasks. You’ll also learn how to create and confidently deliver compelling presentations.

Introduction to Science Communication is a second-level science elective that can also be taken as a general education course. Although designed for science students, most of the course has application in other disciplines. There are no pre-requisites, and this course is suited to anyone wishing to improve their undergraduate, research and work communication skills.

The three short exercises and two assignments are learning-oriented and designed to help you practise your key communication skills. You’ll also learn how to research science topics and search for, and evaluate primary and reliable secondary literature.

Term offering: Term 1

Course attendance: Online course

Level: 

• Undergraduate - First year
• Undergraduate - Second year

Discipline:

• Biology
• Climate science
• Earth science
• Ecology
• Geography
• Marine science

Course code: BEES2680

For this course, there are no full-length lectures, tutorials or a final exam. Instead, delivery of material is through engaging multimedia and text e-books. Throughout the course, you’ll have access to online one-on-one tutoring as well as online group tutoring.

Upon completion of the course, you’ll have the skills to:

• Improve writing through better reading.
  
• Write more effectively using narrative, descriptive, reflective and other academic styles of writing.
• Combine and apply the structural steps to a cohesive and coherent essay on a science topic.
• Research a science topic, storyboard, select visuals and design effective PowerPoint slides to create a compelling and coherent presentation.
• Take better notes and utilise effective listening skills.

For those who wish to add a science communicator career option to their science degree, this course is also a foundation for the third-level course Science Communication (BEES6800).

Well-crafted communication plays an important part in establishing a dialogue between research and society. People who excel at science communication have a passion for telling people from all walks of life about the benefits of science.

Working in the Marketing and Communications industry, you might find yourself in a variety of roles, including explaining recent weather events in a press release or briefing government representatives on a public health policy like COVID-19.

Science communicators can also be found working in social media marketing, curating or designing museum exhibitions, or editing and writing scientific publications. If you’re a people person with an eye for detail and an interest in storytelling, then a career in science communication is rewarding and exciting.

Relevant roles

• Communications manager
• Social media producer
• Public relations manager
• Advertising manager
• Market researcher
• Marketing manager
• Product manager
• Direct marketer
• Campaign manager
• Copywriter
• Science communicator
• Museum curator
• Science journalist
• Researcher in science communication
• Lecturer in science communication