Tag Archives: feedback

National Science Week Feedback Event – Adelaide

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Do you want to have a say about National Science Week in South Australia? Do you have feedback or suggestions from this year or a great idea for 2012 and beyond? Are you keen to meet others involved in science-related outreach? You are invited to a Planning Session on Monday 31 October at RiAus (The Science Exchange, off Pirie St, City) from 1.00pm to 4.30pm.

Everyone is welcome to attend this session where we will be looking at ideas for the future direction of National Science Week in SA. These ideas will then be considered by our Coordinating Committee at a meeting in November, and a Strategic Plan set in place.

Some of the topics to be discussed include:

  • What does your organisation want to get out of National Science Week?
  • How can National Science Week be used to support and develop programs throughout the year?
  • What outcomes from National Science Week should we be measuring?
  • Who currently participates in National Science Week and how can we encourage more individuals and organisations to be involved?

Can’t attend in person? You can contribute to digital discussions by signing up to www.saffia.org and going to the dedicated National Science Week forum at:  http://www.saffia.org/index.php?/forum/13-national-science-week-2011-and-beyond/

If you can join us on the day, please RSVP to Rona: rona.sakko@csiro.au

Rona Sakko
On behalf of SA National Science Week Coordinating Committee

Note – National Science Week is planning for the 2012 National Science Week grant round to be open for applications from 7 to 28 November 2011.

New look for ASC Website & Scope

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A big thanks to James Hutson for putting a lot of (volunteer) effort into reviving the ASC website – the new look is fresh and clear – we love it!

Also, our new Scope editors, Sally Miles and Silvia Piviali, have given our newsletter a new look. Sally, Silvia and I welcome suggestions from members for content and further ideas for making Scope more valuable.

I like the section listing Internet sites of interest. This is one area where members can surely contribute new or refreshed websites that they have come across, that address science communication and related areas.

Given the growing flood of information, it’s useful to have many eyes to help pick the plums from the orchard.

Jesse Shore

National President

Evaluating Effectiveness ASCSA event Adelaide July 19 2010

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19 July 2010
6:30 pmto8:30 pm

On Monday 19 July we held an event at the Science Exchange on evaluating science communication activities.

A key challenge of science engagement activity is showing your effectiveness and measuring success.  How do we know that our programs and activities are making a difference?  Do we have the impact we desire?  Are we engaging with the right audiences? How do we evaluate what we’re doing?  At the July ASCSA meeting we’re inviting several people from community engagement/education programs, including science shows, museums and science events, to share their experiences of how they go about evaluating their programs.  This event will be relevant to anyone involved in community engagement/education programs, and we’d especially love to see you if you’re involved in planning a National Science Week event for August this year.

A podcast of the evening is now available at http://www.riaus.org.au/science/whats_on/past_events/audio_recordings.jsp

Some references on evaluation:

RCUK:  http://www.rcuk.ac.uk/per/bestprac.htm
Beacons for public engagement: http://www.publicengagement.ac.uk/sites/default/files/EvaluatingPublicEngagement.pdf
National STEM Centre: http://www.nationalstemcentre.org.uk/res/documents/page/STEM_Does_it_work_revised_Oct_09.pdf

Come on in and start communicating

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Welcome to a brand new phase of Australian Science Communicators, a website which makes use of interactive technology to give every member access to heaps of ASC-related material and the ability to post your own material, and to add to and comment on anything posted by others.

It brings with it, the capacity to establish sections for any special interests among the membership. Already we have sections to do with regional branches, people, a calendar of events, research and education etc. And all can be monitored with an RSS feed, so you will know whenever anything new is posted.

New postings will appear on the Home Page as three-line intro with a two-deck head. If you are interested, just click on the head and it will take you to the rest of the post. And they can contain all sorts of material, such as supplementary files, links, pictures, audio and video files, whatever you like. At the bottom of each post will be a place to add your own comments.

To find out the basics of how the site works, click on to Using This Site, in the top right hand corner. You will get a rundown of what’s available and how to use it.

Until we get set up in a more sophisticated manner (with editors for sections), please send anything you wish to post to the scope editor, Laura Miles at editor@asc.asn.au

In a country like Australia, where we are all spread very thinly, and can only get together face-to-face intermittently, this new website hopefully will develop into the glue that binds.

It has been the dream and brainchild of, and realised by James Hutson and Laura Miles in Melbourne, and Kali Madden in Sydney. Please use it to bits—comment on it, criticise it, and help us develop it into a bubbling hub of discussion of communicating science.