2020 – Zoom, T4

Press releases

You can find here the press releases of the fellows participating in the module 1.

Teachers

Ana Rodrigues, Mike Hoffmann, Monni Bohm

Fellows

	Theory	Practice	Tutor
Shawn	Yes	No	–
Marie-Morgane	Yes	Yes	Mike
Kathrin	Yes	Yes	Monni
Scott	Yes	No	–
Martin	Yes	Yes	Ana
João	Yes	Yes	Mike
Carmen	Yes	Yes	Mike
Pauline	Yes	Yes	Monni
Ivon	Yes	Yes	Ana
Sean	Yes	Yes	Monni
Gonzalo	Yes	No	–
Maria	Yes	No	–
Konstantina	Yes	Yes	Monni
Matt	Yes	Yes	Ana

Training goals

• Develop general skills for communicating about scientific results to a broad, non-specialised, audience
• Understand the pathway for communicating about scientific research via a press release, with the final aim of reaching the mainstream media
• Learn how to write an effective press release

Module structure and timeline

1. Course [3 hours, zoom] – 23 September 2020 – available HERE
2. Fellows’ independent work – from 23 September to 15 December. Steps:
   • Draft a press release , either based on a paper you are working on or a published paper of your interest.
   • Ask another fellow to review your first draft.
   • Send second draft + paper on which it is based to your tutor: by 13 November (Tutor sends back comments within a week).
   • Send third draft to your tutor: by 27 November (Tutor sends back comments within a week).
   • Send final piece to Pauline: by 11 December (Pauline will upload to the intranet).
   • Read other fellows’ press releases: by 15 December
3. Final discussion meeting [2 hours, zoom] – 16 Dec – 11h-13h French Time
   Meeting with fellows & teachers to exchange about results, difficulties, lessons learnt…

For examples of Press Releases, see:

• the examples given in the the course (see links in slides 8-10)
• plenty of other examples on EurekAlert 
• a recent example from ZSL

Teachers

Mike Hoffmann, Monni Bohm, Ana Rodrigues

Training goals

• Develop general skills for communicating about scientific results to a wide diversity of audiences
• Learn how to structure your presentation according to the duration and the audience
• Practical tips and tricks for giving an engaging presentation

Module structure and timeline

1. Course [3 hours, zoom] – 8 Jan 14h-17h (Paris Time) (date tbc)
2. Fellows’ independent work – from 8-20 January (date tbc)
   Each fellow prepares a 15 mins presentation for the General Assembly
3. General Assembly [1.5 or 2 days?, zoom] – 21-22 Jan (date tbc)
   • Each fellow presents (followed by discussion)
   • All presentations are recorded and subsequently uploaded to the intranet. The main aim of this is for fellows to be able to later see their own presentation in the light of the feedback they receive.
4. Feedback to fellows regarding their presentation, according to four criteria:
   1. 1. Overall structure & story-telling
      2. Clarity of information provided
      3. Aesthetic quality
      4. Body language of presenter

Two types of feedback:

– By the tutors: for each presentation, the respective tutor (see above) will send the fellow written feedback covering each of the criteria i-iv above.
– By the other fellows: for each presentation, the other fellows mark it (1 to 5) according to each of the criteria i-iv above. The purpose of this is: to give each fellow a broader set of opinions (beyond that of the tutor); to make all fellows look at each others’ presentations with a critical eye, thinking about what works and what doesn’t work (which is a great way of learning). The purpose is not to create a competition among fellows, so the feedback will be given anonymously (each fellow will only see the average marks given by the others) and individually (each fellow will only see hers/his their own marks).

5. Final discussion [2 hours, zoom] – 25January 14h-16h (Paris time) (date tbc)
   Meeting with fellows & teachers to exchange about results, difficulties, lessons learnt…

Details to follow

Details to follow