My speaking invitations are normally limited to flies or dementia – it was therefore a refreshing change for me to be asked to talk about my teaching passion of science communication. It was a great privilege to be asked to attend the BERA event on ‘Creativity as spaces of resistance’. I’ve been in the higher education business for more than 30 years. I’ve been fortunate enough to hear some great talks by scientists that I will never forget, yet I’ve slept and dribbled through many a presentation. Indeed, I’d even accuse them of attempted murder by PowerPoint for the density of the data casting my brain into oblivion.
In the past 15 years or so I have actively engaged in public outreach – with schools, public groups, festivals, theatre groups and the media, taking science to the masses. Sometimes I was good at it, other times a disaster. Notably, it gave me networks of people sharing my interests – a tribe. From these interactions I reflected that while a few of my colleagues and students weren’t really aware of their poor engagement methods, a few were actually brilliant. Importantly, watching these ‘extremes’ showed me that the majority might benefit from some training.
