STEM OUTREACH - Where are we failing?

Written by Georgie Aiuto

Edited by Yvette Marris

Many of us in STEM today would have childhood memories of going to museums, having goofy experts arrive at our schools to do experiments, or competitions where we had 72 hours to find a scientific solution. These are all STEM outreach programs. Over the summer, I conducted a small 6 week research project, as I wanted to know more about the state of outreach programs within Victoria, and see what opportunities were out there for young people and students.

So, I took a look at all of the STEM outreach programs within Victoria for people under the age of 18. Yes, all 1333 programs. And while I still have many more questions for how we are and should be running STEM outreach programs, I did manage to find some interesting imbalances. 

Starting with the types of programs, excursions were the most popular with 427 programs, followed by online learning at 229. While working on this, I wondered if the reason for this large number of online learning programs is due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This could be a great further research question. 

The discrepancy of discipline is one that most interests me. Especially coming from a Physics and Maths background. Biology takes all at 402 programs followed by Environment at 253! This means Biology makes up almost 6 times more programs than Maths. To me, this is concerning as Maths is a core STEM discipline. Psychology, Health Science and Geoscience are also lacking. However some organisations classified them under Arts or Humanities, meaning I wasn’t able to find the extensive list of these programs as they sit on the border of core STEM subjects. 

Another interesting comparison is where these programs are located. Locations were separated into 12 regions, as well as online or N/A, when a program either didn’t specify a location or was a travelling program (incursion or roadshow). Melbourne has 477 programs in its metropolitan region, followed by online and N/A, whereas Phillip Island, Great Ocean Road and High Country have very few. The Grampians have no local programs located within its region. There are still many schools within The Grampians and other parts of regional Victoria which have to rely on incursions or online resources due to there being no local science centre or museums. Although some venues in Melbourne offer transportation grants for rural towns to visit, it is still something we must consider as STEM educators. 

This got me thinking, if I - a student who is out deliberately seeking all this information for my research, would eventually find more on each program enough to make more conclusions on where there are gaps within our STEM Outreach programs. Unfortunately, this was quite a trudge through many many broken websites with hard to read text, broken links, missing images and more. How could a teacher or a parent seeking out activities for their students or children be able to find these programs? While some websites ask for a call to action to email or call the organisations directly for more information, teachers are some of the busiest and most overworked professionals. Without having accessible programs readily available, it can slow educators down and students may miss out on fun and inspirational activities. 

So now with all this data on STEM Outreach programs, how do we know it’s working?

Um…

We don’t.
According to the Australian Government Department of Education (1), STEM education initiatives such as excursions, incursions, residential programs (or camps), and equipment are still “unclear” in their effectiveness. In some cases we know that a lot of these programs provide aid with exams and grades, especially for those students whose schools cannot afford additional teaching material(3). However, whether or not these programs aid in STEM interest is still a mystery. 

Answering this question has been attempted by many PhD students and the organisations that run the programs themselves. We could compare if we all stop these programs simultaneously and see if STEM interest diminishes. But can we really risk that, just in case it is working? I myself have a lot of questions and cannot wait to jump into more research around this topic, but for you… reflect on your past and wonder, why are you interested in STEM? Could it be a family member? An epic excursion you went on as a child? A TV show you loved? Maybe it is time to take your younger sibling, cousin, children, students- whoever, on a fun trip to the museum! You never know what spark it might ignite.

References: 

1. https://www.education.gov.au/australian-curriculum/national-stem-education-resources-toolkit/i-want-know-about-stem-education/different-kinds-stem-education-initiatives 

2. https://djsir.vic.gov.au/victorias-lead-scientist/increasing-participation-in-science,-technology,-engineering-and-mathematics 

3. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/tea.21322 

Georgie Aiuto has a passion for Science Communication and closing gaps in STEM education for all Australian students. They currently study physics at Swinburne University of Technology. They had previously been a part of the Let’s Torque committee in 2022, but now are conducting various research projects around STEM Outreach. 

If you would like to connect with Georgie, please message them on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/georgina-aiuto-06a7211b1/ 

Working in Healthcare in a Post-COVID Climate

This blog is a part of the OmniSci magazine’s a Year in Science Summer Edition. Huge shoutout to the OmniSci team, and Tanya Kovacevic for editing this piece for the edition. More info about the OmniSci A Year in Science is below.

It would be hard to write about a Year in Science without having the obligatory COVID article. We hear constantly about the stresses of being a frontline healthcare worker (HCW), and about the signs and symptoms of Long COVID, and the endless vaccine scepticism.

I’d like to tell a slightly different story. The thing about the COVID-19 pandemic was that other infections didn’t just take a holiday and cancers didn’t just stop growing. And now, healthcare workers are dealing with an abundance of patients, delays with diagnosis and some very complex medical cases.

Megan Gifford, who currently works as a Team Lead in the Patient Navigation Department at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, describes her experiences working at the Townsville University Hospital in the Bone Marrow Transplantation Department, the only bone marrow transplant ward outside of the Brisbane area, servicing a large population across regional Queensland.

She describes the difficulties of working within a hospital that didn’t primarily treat COVID-19 patients, but still had to adapt to the constant changing of rules, regulations and policies put in place to protect staff and patients alike from the virus. The stress and burden of trying, not only to assuage their own anxieties but to also provide current, up-to-date information to patients and deliver high quality care. There were the frustrations of unavoidable logistical problems like border closures, stay-at-home orders, preventing access to crucial materials and patient transport. There was heartbreak of watching transplant patients deteriorate mentally, as their will to persist with treatments began to fade.

Pathologists and haematologists also found themselves facing an unprecedented logistical nightmare, including re-allocation of diagnostic and protective equipment for mass COVID testing. Access to essential biomedical material like blood and plasma became increasingly difficult and many suffered as a result.

While Long COVID and increased prevalence of affective disorders, like depression and anxiety, are well documented in media and academia, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) hasn’t gotten the same amount of attention. Statistics and anecdotes alike are staggering, both for patients and healthcare workers.

With stressors like an unprecedented number of critically ill patients, capricious disease progressions, high mortality, and ever-changing treatment guidelines the world was sympathetic to the HCW’s struggle (3). Yet with the lockdowns and restrictions over, it would be naïve to think that things would just return to normal. It was found that 29% of HCWs had clinical or sub-clinical symptoms of PTSD, (1) and that this figure was significantly higher for HCWs directly treating COVID patients (2).

Anecdotally, Megan Gifford recalled hearing of patients “patients suffering anxiety attacks when they smell the hospital alcohol rub and hear the familiar beeping of the various equipment”.

Even beyond the mental health scope, logistical issues like delayed learning for medical students or the backlog of elective/non-essential procedures are still placing an enormous burden on healthcare workers, despite the immediate threat seemingly behind us.

But to say that everything is still in shambles would frankly be insulting to healthcare workers, who are working tirelessly to deliver good quality healthcare. 

The speed at which pathologists and scientists have adapted to limited resources and supply shortages, and the way in which doctors have shifted their style of care and developed new problem-solving skills are exceptional and should not go unnoticed or unappreciated.

Importantly, the COVID-19 pandemic, and its ripple effects have brought to centre-stage the consequences of under-resourced healthcare centres on patient care and employee satisfaction, in a way that affected all people, irrespective of geography, class or reputation. The reality is that the conditions in which many metropolitan hospitals found themselves in, with never enough staff or supplies, is a condition that rural hospitals experienced long before COVID-19 ever appeared.

To say that every dark cloud has a silver lining would be horribly cliché, but in this case, there may be truth to it. This edition of the Year in Science is a chance for us to reflect on all that COVID-19 has called attention to and decide to do something about it.  

1.     Carmassi C, Foghi C, Dell’Oste V, Cordone A, Bertelloni CA, Bui E, et al. PTSD symptoms in healthcare workers facing the three coronavirus outbreaks: What can we expect after the COVID-19 pandemic. Psychiatry Research. 2020 Oct;113312.

2.     Janiri D, Carfì A, Kotzalidis GD, Bernabei R, Landi F, Sani G. Posttraumatic Stress Disorder in Patients After Severe COVID-19 Infection. JAMA Psychiatry. 2021 Feb;

3.     Johnson SU, Ebrahimi OV, Hoffart A. PTSD symptoms among health workers and public service providers during the COVID-19 outbreak. Vickers K, editor. PLOS ONE. 2020 Oct 21;15(10):e0241032.

OmniSci is a science magazine at UniMelb, run entirely by students, for students. With fantastic writers, editors, illustrators and graphic designers, the magazine has produced some fantastic pieces, and if you’re a fan of Let’s Torque - definitely check out Omni’s Website: https://omniscimag.wixsite.com/home/issue-3-5

https://www.facebook.com/groups/567793907678472/

Redheads and Anaesthesia

The Rise of Pharmacogenomics and Personalised Medicine

When I was 16, I had my first ever surgery - a simple wisdom teeth removal. When I woke up, the doctors told me that apparently I had tried to wake up mid-surgery and even roll off the table. 

I am also a redhead. Now these two facts may seem completely unrelated, but as we’ll soon see, maybe not. 

The mechanism of action of many inhaled anaesthetics is unclear. Generally, anaesthetics like desflurane, isoflurane or sevoflurane act on inhibitory neurons, like NDMA, or excitatory neurons, like GABA, to induce a sleep-like, low pain state. 

In a 2004 study from Liem, Ling and Suleman, they found a 19% increase in anaesthetic requirements in individuals with red hair compared to those with other hair colours.. The study  also compared the genetic profiles to identify which commonly present mutations in redheads might be responsible for this. Specifically, the MCR1 gene is responsible for the creation and regulation of pigment, which contributes to the colouring of hair, nails and skin. Variants in this gene, most commonly seen in redheads, result in the decreased function of the MCR1 gene. 

Now the correlation between the MCR1 gene, among others, and inhalational anaesthetics is still uncertain. But evidence suggests that three of the MCR1 alleles most commonly found in redheads are associated with decreased stimulation of intracellular cyclic AMP, an important secondary messenger in a number of cellular processes, when activated. Other evidence suggests that redheads have greater sensitivity to heat and cold pain, decreased effectiveness of lidocaine, and greater likelihood of melanoma. MCR1 receptors have also been identified in the brain and spinal cord, potentially playing a role in the amnesic and immobilising properties of inhaled anaesthetics. 

Anecdotally, it’s been reported that redheads need up to 20% more anaesthetics. Unfortunately, this detail is not commonly known. This means that a lot of redheads report, not only resistance to anaesthetics, and chilling experiences like waking up mid-surgery, but also greater anxiety and fear towards surgical procedures. Admittedly, this phenomenon depends on the individual and the type of anaesthetic used, but nonetheless, it is pretty incredible. 

The MCR1 gene is not the only gene that affects a body’s ability to process drugs. In fact, there is a whole emerging and fascinating field of pharmacogenomics. 

Countless genes have effects on drugs. Some of them have a detrimental effect on a patient's health. Another example is with drugs used for leukaemia and other inflammatory diseases like thiopurine drugs. The enzyme Thiopurine Methyltransferase (TPMT) usually metabolises and inactivates the precursor drug 6-mercaptopurine. In a small number of people, they have certain genes that make this enzyme virtually non-existent. The effect of which is a disrupted balance of the active and inactive drug, and unacceptable toxicity of the drug. These days, TPMT levels are tested before someone is given thiopurine drugs, but this is just one example of many. 

Pharmacogenomics plays, and will continue to play in the future, a key role in assessing potential efficacy of drugs, to a personalised degree. This makes sure that diseases are treated most effectively, and, when racial or sexual disparities are apparent. According to the CDC, African-Americans have statistically poor heart health outcomes, which has led researchers to investigate genetic factors, along socio-economic factors and bias. An example of genetic mutation that varies across racial identities is in the gene that codes for the enzyme Cytochrome P-450. It’s responsible for the metabolism of many drugs, including beta-blockers, like carvedilol, a drug class commonly used for high blood pressure and heart failure. Even more interesting, is that there is an allele of this gene, ​​CYP2D6, which results in an impaired ability to metabolise these drugs. This allele is practically absent in White and Asian populations, but quite frequent in African American populations.

One day, genetic testing will be sophisticated and accessible enough to be able to routinely predict the effects of drugs on each individual person, and discrepancies between ethnic groups and sexes can be understood and better addressed within the healthcare field. But until then, it’s essential that genetic differences between different populations be studied and taught to all medical professionals, especially general practitioners and pharmacists. The possibilities of pharmacogenomics and personalised medicine are endless, and I personally am excited to see where it goes.

To learn more, check out:

Edwin B. Liem, Chun-Ming Lin, Mohammad-Irfan Suleman, Anthony G. Doufas, Ronald G. Gregg, Jacqueline M. Veauthier, Gary Loyd, Daniel I. Sessler; Anesthetic Requirement Is Increased in Redheads. Anesthesiology 2004; 101:279–283 doi: https://doi.org/10.1097/00000542-200408000-00006

Liem EB, Joiner TV, Tsueda K, Sessler DI. Increased sensitivity to thermal pain and reduced subcutaneous lidocaine efficacy in redheads. Anesthesiology. 2005 Mar;102(3):509-14. doi: 10.1097/00000542-200503000-00006. PMID: 15731586; PMCID: PMC1692342.

National Human Genome Research Institute - 15 ways genomics influences our world https://www.genome.gov/dna-day/15-ways/pharmacogenomics

Doing science: collaborative or competitive?

Competition is the catalyst but collaboration is what produces real change. 

In the study of history there is an old, and somewhat misleading term, known as the ‘the Great Man in History’. Suggesting that the course of history is determined by the actions of one ‘great’ person, this theory from the 19th century sparks much debate amongst academics.

Take for example, a criticism from one of the founders of the science of sociology, Herbert Spencer:

"You must admit that the genesis of a great man depends on the long series of complex influences ... Before he can remake his society, his society must make him."

Indeed sociology, science of knowledge, or Indigenous knowledge, lends weight to the idea that science is the product of many events leading up to a great moment.

And even the ‘great’ moment can be a simple change with profound consequences. .

The Great Person Theory can be moulded to describe a view of scientific discovery - that scientific progress and the success of scientific efforts can be attributed to the discoveries of a few, great scientific minds. Alexander Fleming with the discovery of penicillin, Isaac Newton with gravity or Einstein with his theory of general relativity. It's hard to imagine where we would be, if not for their efforts, and there's nothing quite like a hero story. 

But underpinning all this intelligence and grit and determination, lies centuries of foundations and hundreds of small steps that made these ground-breaking discoveries possible.

Sure, fame and acclaim are powerful motivators and one hell of a prize. But for every history-altering discovery made, there are many, many smaller, less noteworthy discoveries to get there. It begs the question, in this modern day and age, who are the real heroes of scientific discovery? 

And when all the glam of success is stripped away, how do we keep the spark of curiosity alive? The thrill of the chase? And without it, what is the cost? 

By mid-2022, we will all be familiar with at least one truly emblematic example – COVID-19. The power and strength of collaboration in science could not be better illustrated. Since the declaration of an outbreak in late 2019, hundreds and thousands of virologists, microbiologists and immunologists were handed a new project, often at the detriment to already existing projects. 

From its initial outbreak to the first vaccine approval in just over a year, it leaves the previous record for fastest vaccine development in the dust – 4 years for the mumps vaccine [1]. And that’s not even to mention the average timeframe for vaccines which is in the range of up to 10 years.

As truly amazing of a feat the COVID vaccine is, examples of scientific collaboration are littered throughout history. The Human Genome Project was one of the largest collaborative research projects in history, with over 3000 researchers involved in the consortium shared authorship, across 13 years all over the world [2]. Similarly, the mission to eradicate polio, establish the International Space Station and the International Rice Research Institute are all global scientific endeavours to generate real, tangible change. 

The world came together and recognised these issues as global concerns and were able to act without the financial or labour restraints that so often prevent other projects from having the impact that young bright-eyed scientists imagine. 

As uplifting as these projects are, they serve as a reminder of the rarity of these profound, life-changing scientific endeavours. It’s not just the sheer number of people and amount of time needed.  

The thousands of scientific minds all working with a single goal is a large part of the tremendousness of the outcomes, on an international scale. But obstacles to this process include the cost and lack of attention from mainstream media. Like two sides of a coin, the flip side is that under this paradigm, only "popular" or "relevant" issues get addressed to the extent that this appreciable change can be made. Or at least within a time frame that those currently suffering can reap the benefits.

Large part of this is due to the seeming perpetuity of the drug development process, in which drugs often take at least 10 years to journey from pre-clinical trials to the marketplace.

Then, with the involvement of investors, the profit motive becomes even more apparent. In a 2020 publication by SOMO, an independent centre researching the multinational corporations, found that despite payouts to stakeholders of some of the largest pharmaceutical companies, increasing from 88% to 123% in 20 years, there was still a disproportionate increase in drug prices.

Argentinian economist Cecilia Rikap recently compared scientific co-publication and patent co-ownership and identified ‘a subordination of the universities, public research organisations and start-ups that have a fundamental role in the former, but an almost negligible participation in the latter’. 

Science is messy. Science is complicated. Science is multidisciplinary. With personal agendas, profit motive pressures, lengthy testing and approval procedures, and diverse epidemiologies of countless diseases, there will unfortunately always be issues. But there will always be heroes. Unsung heroes, who work tirelessly behind the scenes, without whom this progress could never be achieved.

It makes me, an overly idealistic, naïve (and certainly self-aware) 20-something year old, wonder what scientific progress could be made in a world without the financial burden of research and stakeholders, the quest for esteem and with nothing more than a burning passion to better the world. Maybe there is no “right way” of doing science. The motivation that comes with the glory of making a ground-breaking discovery balanced against the strength that comes from being a part of a larger group.

Certainly, that is too much to ask of this world, and probably always will be. But I will never stop wondering.

References

[1] Cohen S. The fastest vaccine in history [Internet]. UCLA Health. 2020 [cited 27 May 2022]. Available from: https://connect.uclahealth.org/2020/12/10/the-fastest-vaccine-in-history/

[2] Chial H. DNA Sequencing Technologies Key to the Human Genome Project. Scitable by Nature Education [Internet]. 2008 [cited 27 May 2022];. Available from: https://www.nature.com/scitable/topicpage/dna-sequencing-technologies-key-to-the-human-828/

[3] Fernandez, R. and Klinge, T. (2020). The financialisation of Big Pharma. [Internet] Stichting Onderzoek Multinationale Ondernemingen SOMO [cited 30 Jan. 2021] Available at: https://www.somo.nl/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Rapport-The-financialisation-of-Big-Pharma-def.pdf

And the Winner Is ...

STEM Public Speaking Grand Final 2022

Written by Georgie Aiuto

Edited by Yvette Marris

It is already November! Wow, the year has gone by so fast. 

A month ago, the Let’s Torque crew held the Grand Finals for their STEM Public Speaking competition. It had been a massive year with three workshops building our fellow undergraduate’s Science Communication comprehension, workshops for John Monash Secondary School, multiple blogs, podcasts and other online content. But all of our work had come to a head for our final event of the year. 

Held at Royal Society of Victoria (RSV) in Melbourne, five incredible Grand Finalists presented their speeches to a sold out audience that Monday night. Hosted by Clare Mullen, a Senior Climate Science at the Bureau of Meteorology and a professional science communicator, these finalists went head to head for the 2022 Championship.

The grand finalist presented their speeches: 

• Amelia Safai with “Therapeutic Cloning - Will a sheep save lives?”

• Bianca Mazzucheli with “Auditory Sensory Prevention Technology”

• Breana Galea with “Designing our Destiny’s presentation: How Protein Predictions can Change the World.”

• Reah Shetty with “Revolutionising Society with a Chip”

• Nicholas Tze Hoe Chan with “Teaching ML to Smell: making machine learning more versatile”

Getting to the Grand Finals was no easy feat. Participants not only had two rounds of elimination, but also submit a compelling proposal of their STEM idea and its applications economically, environmentally and socially. They were really pushed to think outside the box, and they did so terrifically. The semi-final, held at the University of Melbourne’s busy on-campus bar, challenged them to communicate their ideas to the general public in a noisy and crowded setting. Once again, competitors excelled. 

Finally making it to the Grand finals at RSV, the finalists were presented with a new challenge, to give their speech in a professional lecture style room in front of an audience of 50 people. Here, we were fortunate enough to have three extraordinary professional science communicators to be our judges.

Alanta Colley; a comedian, science communicator and storyteller. With a background in International public health, her shows have been; 'Parasites Lost', 'Days of our Hives', and a recent science comedy debate series 'Sci Fight'. 

Chris Thompson; the Director of Education at the Biomedicine Discovery Institute, Monash University and publisher in the fields of spectroscopy and computational chemistry. More recently in the field of science education and is co-author of Australia's most popular foundation chemistry textbook. 

And Sara Webb; a researcher focused on observational transient astronomy and a passionate science communicator who has presented on various national/international TV news programs, ABC radio, Joy FM, TikTok, face-to-face, and online presentations.

Not only did we have the incredible Grand Finalists’ presentations, but we also hosted three guest speakers to discuss their career and how science communication has helped them with their journey. 

Phoebe de Wilt; a Meteorologist at the Bureau of Meteorology took us through her personal science journey and how she was offered a role in various science communication jobs due to her passions for sharing her work to those who it affects, and being weather - that is everyone! 

Daniel Langley, a senior scientist at Universal Biosensors presented about his journey through various disciplines of science. A lot of his work overlapped with quite a few of the grand finalists topics, such as proteins and cloning. 

And finally, Ruwangi Fernando, an IT specialist and co-founder of STEMSisters and iSTEM explained the importance of communicating sciences to diverse audiences and how she strives to support women of colour in all STEM fields. 

All these incredible presentations were followed by a networking session for everyone to expand their connections. We were also treated with light refreshments and canapés. Let’s Torque crew member Jess has this to say about the event:

“The grand finals was an excellent evening! It was fascinating to hear all the speeches, and I got to hear about a whole variety of topics that I didn’t know much about - plus all of the participants were excellent speakers. It was also so valuable to be able to hear from industry professionals, and what brought them into science communication - the food and networking opportunities were great fun.”

Now, for the moment you’ve probably been waiting for (you might have even scrolled all the way to the button just to read this part), the winners of the 2022 STEM Public Speaking Competition! 

People’s Choice: Breana Galea with “Designing our Destiny’s presentation: How Protein Predictions can Change the World.”

Runner Up: Reah Shetty with “Revolutionising Society with a Chip”

And the grand winner of 2022…

Amelia Safai with “Therapeutic Cloning - Will a sheep save lives?”

Winners in the various categories were awarded an array of prizes, from cash to book vouchers, and some coveted memberships to some of Melbourne's greatest science establishments.

All these incredible speeches are uploaded to our YouTube Channel. Check out the playlist right here.

Sad you missed out? Stay tuned for next year’s competition or look out this November to see how you can join Let’s Torque’s 2023 team. 

Let's Torque Workshop 2 Wrap Up

Being the Best Science Communicators We Can Be… 

Tips and Tricks to Communicating your Passion

The Dreaded Public Speaking Anxiety…

If you were to Google: Public Speaking Anxiety, you would find that it comes up with approximately 123,000,000 results.

When talking about public speaking anxiety, performance anxiety, glossophobia, whatever you want to call it, there are two pathways a lot of these results go down. Either how to get rid of it, or why it happens. 

We read about the physiological symptoms that we are all too familiar with, the pounding heart rate, the restless stomach and the excessive sweating. We read about the negative mental state: “What if I fail?”, “What if everyone laughs at me?” “What if I forget my speech?”.

Then, we learn that these responses are part of the evolutionary mechanism to protect us from harmful situations, the sympathetic nervous system kicks in so that we can either fight the threat, run away, or freeze - which people generally don’t want to do during a presentation. 

As young adults, most of us have experienced public speaking anxiety in one form or another. Finding a way to approach it in a way that is unique can be quite challenging. No one wants to hear the same old rhetoric about the nervous system, and the fight or flight response. I certainly don’t. 

Our workshop, “the Science of Language” was designed to approach performance anxiety as a tool, and remind us that that pounding feeling in the chest isn’t something to fear - but something to learn from.

We were fortunate enough to have guest speaker, comedian Alanta Colley, https://www.alantacolley.com , join us and share some of her hilarious stories. As a comedian, public speaking pretty much comes with the territory, and we were excited to hear some of her tips. 

Having traveled the world, Alanta tells the story of the time she was working in Uganda, teaching water safety, resulting in her contracting not one, but multiple different parasites. Despite this being a pretty terrible experience all round, she was inspired to combine science and her love of comedy, creating a show all about the incident. 

She talks about how when public speaking, like in life, failure can actually be funny, and a great way for your audience to relate to you. It shouldn’t be something to AVOID AT ALL COSTS. 

Additionally, ditching the jargon, when speaking to non-experts and adding personal anecdotes is another way to captivate the audience. 

Though the audience is important to consider (RE: Workshop 1), these tips also focus on YOU, the speaker, and take some of the pressure off.

… And How you can BEAT IT

With that being said, here are some tips that we went through in the Workshop. 

Tips to give a great presentation

1. Practice in front of a mirror

2. Record yourself

3. Avoid sounding scripted

4. Using audience interaction: ask a question, Get them to raise their hands, an activity

5. Try an entertaining sentence opener, a story, or a fact 

6. Dressing the part! 

A lot of these tips aim to not only engage the audience, but help warm up the speaker as well.

Group exercises to improve public speaking confidence 

• Over communication: participants would tell the same story in different ways: shy, passionate etc. 

• Mini-Speech: participants would be tasked with having to talk about a science topic they were passionate about, with little to no preparation. 

• Telephone: focusing on body language communication, without words 

To learn more about Public Speaking Anxiety, check out this website

https://nationalsocialanxietycenter.com/social-anxiety/public-speaking-anxiety/#:~:text=The%20fear%20of%20public%20speaking,or%20negative%20evaluation%20by%20others. 

We look forward to you joining us for the third, and final workshop leading up to the Let’s Torque Public Speaking Competition, WS3: Design, Delivery and Display. 
https://www.trybooking.com/events/landing/920635?bof=1

Let’s Torque Workshop Wrap Up

At our first workshop for 2022, Science Beyond the Lab, we had the fantastic A/Prof Chris Thompson share some of his Science Communication wisdom and ran some pretty fun activities. In case you couldn’t make it, here is a wrap up of what happened.

So, what did we learn?

Why does Science Communication matter?

Despite the fact that not everyone is as science-mad as the rest of us, there’s no denying that science plays an integral role in the way we live our lives - from the technology that permeates our everyday lives, the medicine we take, to the discoveries that are yet to be made that will revolutionize our way of living.

There is simply no avoiding it. And yet, for something so inescapable, accessibility and understanding is still a huge obstacle. At Let’s Torque, we believe that scientific knowledge shouldn’t just be limited to those who have already committed themselves to the field.

Science communication, as described by Sam Illingworth and Grant Allen, is an umbrella term that centers around four key pillars - Informing, Educating, Raising Awareness and Sense of Wonder. 

So, who are we doing this for?

So science has a universal presence but how do we harness it to produce real change? By targeting and aligning three main stakeholders: the general public, policymakers and business leaders and aspiring scientists. Without the support of all three, it would be impossible to get enough support - either in the form of public interest, or financial backing. We’ve seen this interrelation clearly in the last two years, with the COVID-19 outbreak. When the interest of the general public, aspiring scientists and policymakers all align, the advancements in science and technology are monumental.

The general public is the most important stakeholder, as what we do must help people and in turn pressure from the ground up drives influence and change - particularly when policymakers and businesses are looking for a financial motive to invest in an issue.

Finally, the future of society, health, technology and the environment are dependent on passionate and articulate scientists who can effectively communicate the importance of their work to the rest of the stakeholders.

Workshop Activities

With all this in mind, we shaped our workshop with the goal of exploring Science Beyond the Lab. 

The first activity was called the Abstract Prompt - where we gave participants a list of technical abstracts for articles, typified by jargon, and were asked to write a new title, to be captivating and engaging - without compromising the scientific integrity.

Huge shoutout to Joshua Nicholls - Head of Education 2022 and Winner of Let’s Torque 2021, for this example!

Participants did an incredible job with this activity. Using language tips and tricks, such as word play, alliteration and rhyming, the groups were able to flex their writing skills as well as their knowledge of science. The results: a series of very funny and engaging titles, from a range of frankly quite overwhelming abstracts.

The following activity was an activity about understanding the Audience and how that might shape how you pitch the information. Groups were assigned an audience and new article at random - and were asked to plan and present how they might communicate the information in the article.

Combinations of articles and audiences included an article about evidence against the proposal that vaccines caused autism to be explained to Karen, a middle aged, suburban mother of three. Or an article about the potential therapeutic benefits of Naltrexone to help with alcohol addiction, to be explained to a disgruntled bartender.

The resulting skits were, again, hilarious and engaging. It was fantastic to see participants really understanding the importance of knowing the audience in order to effectively communicate scientific concepts. 

“The event was in general really fun and an eye-opener for me into science communication” Sirui Fang, a second year Bachelor of Pharmaceutical Science at Monash University told us, “and the activities we had, made the day more interactive and engaging”

Overall, it was a great evening and the team at Let’s Torque is so grateful for all those who showed up and got involved! The online resources are now live on our website and we encourage you all to follow us on social media and stay tuned for updates about the next workshop on May 30th.

ThoughtForms: Mind, Matter and Everything In Between

If you want to get a stunning look at the science inside our minds, it’s worth taking a look at the amazing ThoughtForms exhibit by Dr Kellyann Guerts and Dr Indae Hwang in the Science Gallery, at Melbourne Connect, Melbourne University.

ThoughtForms is an amazing blend of technology, science and self-reflection, where users are able to produce a snapshot of their own thoughts, with a mobile EEG (brainwave detector) and a 3D-printer. Inspired by some of her own lived, mental health experiences, Dr Guerts explores finding order in disorder and bridging the divide between the inaccessible thoughts and our physical world. 

            So, how does it work exactly? 

 The technology involved is incredible, not unlike something seen in a sci-fi movie. In the simplest of terms, it’s creating a visual, physical representation of what’s going on in our heads.

            More specifically, to generate the shapes, she uses a mobile electroencephalogram, or EEG, to detect and map brain activity across different regions of the brain. These readings are input into a data visualization platform, transforming the data into abstract 3D shapes. These can be manipulated by the individual wearing the headset, along different axes associated with the various brain regions measured, and activated, depending on what the person is thinking. 

            If the parietal lobe is more activated, then the axis associated with parietal lobe activity would have a greater value. All you need is 3 regions, to get three axes, and boom, you have a 3D shape. Granted, the classification and extrapolation process are a little more complex than that but nevertheless, it is incredible. 

To produce the “Thoughtform”, the 3D printed abstract shape, participants were asked to think of a thought and press “Print” when they felt ready. 

            But what does it all mean? 

            Now left at that, all the measuring produces  is copious amounts of numbers and squiggly abstract shapes. But this is where the Circumplex Model of Affect comes into play. Developed in the late 90s, by American psychologists James Russell and Lisa Feldman Barret, it proposes that all affective states are the result of a combination between arousal, or activation, and valence, i.e., positive or negative. Affective states are longer lasting moods. 

            Using this model, and the participants’ own self-reflection on the category of their thoughts, commonalities between the shapes could be considered. Do happy thoughts have similar shapes? What might this say about the way the brain experiences happy thoughts? One thing they did notice was that focused, low-arousal thoughts were more spherical, smaller and compact. In contrast, high arousal thoughts were elongated, narrow and constantly moving. So, the data and model create something that gives us a bit of an insight into what’s going on

            Where will this take us?

Unfortunately, at this stage, not particularly far. There is just too much of the brain, cognition and consciousness that we just don’t understand. But that doesn’t mean that there aren't extraordinary implications for this technology further down the track. That’s why we love science!

In her paper, published 2018, Dr Guerts describes the abstract shapes to be “like biological specimens awaiting classification, the random fragments depicting mental states arranged in this image in order to observe and interpret”.

From a clinical psychology perspective, there are potential implications too. Transformation imagery is an example of a technique used in therapy. Patients are encouraged to visualize their distressing feelings or thoughts. In doing so, they are able to regain control of their feelings, improve emotional regulation and processing. Using guided meditation in addition to a visual aid of this process could be very beneficial. 

The Science Gallery on Swanston Street, Melbourne, is a branch of an initiative founded by Trinity College Dublin. Their mission is to create exhibitions that explore the intersection between art, technology and science, centered around a particular theme. Since their founding in 2008, they now have exhibitions in 8 cities around the world. Their exhibit MENTAL is open until Apr 23, 2022.

If you would like to learn more about the Science Gallery, you can visit them at the Melbourne Connect Building, 114 Grattan St, Parkville. 

            Website: https://melbourne.sciencegallery.com

            Instagram: @scigallerymel 

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