SAASTA getSETgo, January 2014: Communicating science to the public – workshopping with a new generation of nanotechnologists

Communicating science to the public – workshopping with a new generation of nanotechnologists

The personalised interaction with facilitators stood out for students who participated in three Nanotechnology Public Engagement Programme (NPEP) NanoNews workshops held towards the end of last year.

Following on from models evolved in Grahamstown and Pretoria, the third in the series of nanotechnology writing workshops in Cape Town in December last year stayed true to the model of small workshops with high impact. Ten students from Higher Education Institutions in Cape Town received one-on-one training from four facilitators representing the journalism, higher education and science communication sectors.


Ten students received one-on-one training at the nanotechnology writing workshop in Cape Town from four facilitators representing the journalism, higher education and science communication sectors. Here SAASTA’s Mthuthuzeli Zamxaka, Manager of the Nanotechnology Public Engagement Programme (left) and Prof. Janice Limson, Editor of the NPEP NanoNews stand ready to lend a helping hand.		The personalised interaction with facilitators stood out for students who participated in the NPEP NanoNews workshops held towards the end of last year.

According to the coordinator of the Cape Town workshop, Professor Janice Limson of Science in Africa/Rhodes University, who serves as Editor of the NPEP NanoNews, the biggest challenge students appear to face is breaking out of the academic style of writing and focusing instead on a different kind of audience. Veteran science journalist and Media Coordinator at SAASTA, Daryl Ilbury put it to students to, “leave the researcher behind. Think like a writer”.

Mthuthuzeli Zamxaka, Manager of the NPEP says that the aim of the workshops is to guide students through the key principles of science writing and of science communication. Run in partnership between Science in Africa and Jive Media Africa on behalf of NPEP, the workshops have been modelled to allow students to workshop articles after each of the presentations, focusing on different aspects as (incrementally) they turn their pre-prepared articles into a good science story.

In Cape Town, Zamxaka outlined some of the enduring reasons for science writing, followed by Professor George Claassen of Stellenbosch University succinctly outlining the key elements of writing science news. Daryl Ilbury in his presentations sought to encourage students to develop their own style as he helped them reflect on what a good science story should convey.

Janske Nel, MSc student at the University of the Western Cape whose article from the workshop was published in the December 2013 issue of the NanoNews said, “I found the workshop, presented by people who clearly know what they're talking about, to be informative and exciting. Not only did the workshop introduce me to my own possibilities, but that of my country. The workshop was presented, and attended, by dynamic and enthusiastic people who wish to communicate to everyone in SA how amazing science is.”

Highlights for other students such as UCT’s Shakeela Sayed and Nangamso Nyangiwe of CPUT were the personalised interaction: “All four of the facilitators helped guide each of the students as we workshopped our articles.”

Social media means that we have a wide number of platforms for science communication. Ghouwaa Philander of iThemba Labs/UWC and Firdous Khan of UWC came with prepared articles they worked on to adapt for blogging or feature writing. For them the beauty of the workshops was that they could see their work ultimately published through the NanoNews.