• Offered by Centre for the Public Awareness of Science
  • ANU College ANU Joint Colleges of Science
  • Classification Advanced
  • Course subject Science Communication
  • Areas of interest Science Communication
  • Academic career PGRD
  • Course convener
    • Dr William Grant
  • Mode of delivery In Person
  • Co-taught Course
  • Offered in Second Semester 2020
    See Future Offerings

All activities that form part of this course will be delivered on-campus.

This is a practical course which aims to develop public speaking skills. The emphasis is on presenting science live to a general audience. Students learn to adapt presentation skills for different audiences, different aims, diverse scientific content and various time limits.


This course is co-taught with undergraduate students but assessed separately.

Learning Outcomes

Upon successful completion, students will have the knowledge and skills to:

  1. Apply practical science communication techniques in presenting scientific information to a professional standard
  2. Critically assess and adapt to the issues involved in presenting scientific presentations to various audiences
  3. Design and develop expert verbal presentations for various audiences on scientific topics
  4. Conduct research into practical aspects of science communication

Indicative Assessment

  1. Weekly video / readings in discussion forum (10) [LO 2]
  2. Video explanation of a piece of science (10) [LO 1,2,3]
  3. PechaKucha presentation (20) [LO 1,2,3,4]
  4. TED style presentation (40) [LO 1,2,3,4]
  5. Essay on storytelling (20) [LO 4]

In response to COVID-19: Please note that Semester 2 Class Summary information (available under the classes tab) is as up to date as possible. Changes to Class Summaries not captured by this publication will be available to enrolled students via Wattle. 

The ANU uses Turnitin to enhance student citation and referencing techniques, and to assess assignment submissions as a component of the University's approach to managing Academic Integrity. While the use of Turnitin is not mandatory, the ANU highly recommends Turnitin is used by both teaching staff and students. For additional information regarding Turnitin please visit the ANU Online website.

Workload

The expected workload will consist of approximately 130 hours throughout the semester including:

  • Face-to face component which may consist of 1 x 3 hour lectorial per week.
  • Approximately 94 hours of self-study which will include preparation for lectures, presentation practice and other assessment tasks.

Inherent Requirements

To be determined

Requisite and Incompatibility

Incompatible with SCOM2015

Prescribed Texts

None

Fees

Tuition fees are for the academic year indicated at the top of the page.  

If you are a domestic graduate coursework or international student you will be required to pay tuition fees. Tuition fees are indexed annually. Further information for domestic and international students about tuition and other fees can be found at Fees.

Student Contribution Band:
2
Unit value:
6 units

If you are an undergraduate student and have been offered a Commonwealth supported place, your fees are set by the Australian Government for each course. At ANU 1 EFTSL is 48 units (normally 8 x 6-unit courses). You can find your student contribution amount for each course at Fees.  Where there is a unit range displayed for this course, not all unit options below may be available.

Units EFTSL
6.00 0.12500
Domestic fee paying students
Year Fee
2020 $4050
International fee paying students
Year Fee
2020 $5760
Note: Please note that fee information is for current year only.

Offerings, Dates and Class Summary Links

ANU utilises MyTimetable to enable students to view the timetable for their enrolled courses, browse, then self-allocate to small teaching activities / tutorials so they can better plan their time. Find out more on the Timetable webpage.

The list of offerings for future years is indicative only.
Class summaries, if available, can be accessed by clicking on the View link for the relevant class number.

Second Semester

Class number Class start date Last day to enrol Census date Class end date Mode Of Delivery Class Summary
8960 27 Jul 2020 03 Aug 2020 31 Aug 2020 30 Oct 2020 In Person View

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