Telling Science Stories: Science Communication for the Public

In this course, we will engage with theories and practices for communicating science to public audiences. Through learning about audience, visual design, and storytelling, we will improve our ability to communicate science to non-specialists. Drawing on examples from Radio Lab and popular science writers, we will create a final project modeled after the “Flame Challenge”—an international competition in which scientists make their work accessible to non-specialists. Students will work in teams to create a multimodal story about scientific discoveries taking place at Middlebury. This course will include field trips to museums in Burlington and other engaged learning.