What Is Science Communication?

Warm-Up (10 min)

Ask students: "Name a scientist you follow on social media. What platform? What do they talk about?"

Collect responses on the board. If students struggle, prompt with examples: a doctor on TikTok explaining vaccines, a marine biologist posting reef photos on Instagram, a physicist making YouTube explainers.

Key question: "Are these people doing science, or are they doing something else with science?"

Direct Instruction (10 min)

Introduce the concept of science communication:

Science = discovering and understanding the natural world

Science communication = making that understanding accessible, engaging, and relevant to people who are not scientists

Why it matters: If the public does not understand science, they cannot make informed decisions about health, climate, technology, or policy

Show 2-3 short examples (30 seconds each) of effective science communication from different platforms. Point out what each communicator does well: simplifies without dumbing down, uses visual storytelling, connects to the audience's life.

Activity: SciComm Spotter (20 min)

Students work individually or in pairs to find and analyze three science communicators using the SciComm Spotter worksheet:

For each communicator, students record:

Name and platform

What scientific topic do they cover?

Who is their audience? (age, background, interests)

What makes their content effective? (visuals, humor, storytelling, simplicity)

One thing you would do differently

Wrap-Up Discussion (5 min)

Ask volunteers to share their favorite find. Close with: "Every one of you could do this. Science communication is a skill, and like any skill, it can be learned. That is what we are going to do."

Assessment