Tag: #science communication

A 3-part graphical abstract?

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For those of you still coming to terms with this whole ‘graphical abstract’ thing, this may sound odd – but I went and created a 3-part graphical abstract for my latest paper. In a previous post I wrote about how to create a simple graphical abstract but here I took things one (or two) steps further.

I first put the idea of a 3-part graphical abstract to the Twitter #scicomm community to see what they thought. They were amazingly helpful (thanks everyone!) and had some great suggestions for ensuring the separate graphical abstracts still matched or worked together. Overall people thought that creating 3 separate graphical abstracts rather than mashing my findings together into one larger (inherently more confusing) graphical abstract was a sensible move.

My reasoning was that this particular paper was the summation of my PhD research and so as you can imagine – quite detailed. But it also resulted in 3 distinct sets of findings: methodology, new open-access data and implications for urban food growers. Thus when it came time to design a graphical abstract for this paper I could not find a way to mesh these three stories together in a simple visual way.

Below you can see BIG differences from how each abstract started (just throwing colours and blocks around!) compared to how they turned out. Use the slider on the Before and After images to move right and left to see.

 

In the end I decided to create 3 graphical abstracts which shared a similar visual look and were linked to each other as parts 1/3, 2/3 and 3/3. But they still had to fit with our concept of a graphical abstract as; “a concise, colourful and engaging visual explanation of the take-home message of the paper”.

I admit they took a while to create (try weeks!), mostly at the beginning while I was trying to come up with a set of themed colours and related formats. Once I settled on those it was then simply lots of wordsmithing and tweaking visuals and placement. The final products have muted (but still friendly) colours, a main focus on the headings or catch lines, and different visuals to keep them interesting.

Do I think they worked well? For me – yes. These abstracts can be used together, or separately to target slightly different audiences. I’ve been able to share these on different social media platforms and with traditional media as part of press releases. They draw people in and hopefully quickly communicate the take-home messages of my research.

What do you think? Have you ever considered a multi-part graphical abstract for some of your more complex or
multi-faceted work?

I would love to see your own graphical abstracts or hear whether you think you could use a multi-part one yourself.

As an added bonus I heard from the amazing Dr. Echo Rivera (@echoechoR) who has written a very handy blog post on how to create animated graphical abstracts if you usually create your abstracts using Powerpoint. This could lead to your work and social media posts receiving higher numbers of interactions, clicks and views! I for one am definitely going to give this a go.

Cheers!
Georgia

Let’s talk “Graphical Abstracts”

The Urban Ag. Scientist1 Comment

If you’re a scientist, and have had something published recently, chances are you’ve come across this option when uploading your final reviewed, edited and approved copy of your manuscript:

uplaoding graphical abstract to journal websiteFor many of us, reaching this point in the submission of your paper and then realising that you don’t have a graphical abstract ready is just a pain you don’t need. By the end we often don’t have the time or energy left to deal creatively with thinking up yet another way to explain our research.

But hear me out. I want to help you understand the benefit of a good graphical abstract, why you should consider putting the extra effort in to create one, and a few tips on how to go about it.

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Open-Access Research from 2017: Aquaponics in… Urban Planning?

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The first open-access article I, along with Dr James Ward and Dr Barbara Koth published in 2017 was called, “Aquaponics in Urban Agriculture: Social Acceptance and Urban Food Planning”. It’s about the perception and social acceptance of aquaponics by urban food growers and Local Government Area in Adelaide, South Australia. A considerable amount of research has been conducted on the technology itself, but little has been done on how people (other than those who actually have such systems) feel about aquaponics. Additionally, the level of awareness and acceptance of local councils (in South Australia known as local government areas or LGAs) can influence either the support or restriction of aquaponics in urban areas.

Collectively our participants not only considered the various strengths and weaknesses of aquaponics, but also used their own experiences to recommend ideas for the possible adoption and expansion of aquaponics. These recommendations culminated in the idea of a set of scaled guidelines, including financial, logistical, resource requirements, and expected productivity for each potential scale of operation – from single backyard to large-scale commercial.

When the discussion moved to urban planning and the influence of local government areas, every participant alluded to a lack of council support for urban food production. There was a strong desire for a shift in current urban planning and that of state level government to better acknowledge and support urban food production of all kinds.

To read or share the full article, follow this link: Pollard, Georgia, James D Ward, and Barbara Koth. “Aquaponics in Urban Agriculture: Social Acceptance and Urban Food Planning.” Horticulturae 3, no. 2 (2017): 39.

But what is aquaponics?

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My first guest blog, “Being BOLD and Taking Responsibility” at the LFIA’s Adelaide forum

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I recently attended an Adelaide based forum on “Building Nutrition”, held by the Living Future Institute of Australia (LFIA). It was fascinating to say the least. Afterwards I was contacted and asked if I was interested in writing a guest blog on the forum experience – and of course said “Yes!”

Here’s how it starts…

“There are times when you hear about real people taking small steady steps toward achieving their goals and making changes. You listen with a sense of satisfaction, the changes might not be huge but at least they’re happening. This is how most change comes about, “green” or not.

Then there are times when this slowness of pace gets to you a little… You begin to hanker for some mountainous shift in the ways things work, some outrageous plan or project or people just getting on with things – regardless of apparent restrictions. For me, these are the moments that make all the small steps and the consistent effort worthwhile. And it doesn’t have to be something I’m personally involved in, I’ll accept inspiration from anywhere!

This is where the latest Adelaide Forum from the Living Future Institute of Australia (LFIA) comes into the story…”

Follow the link to read more on the LFIA website: https://living-future.org.au/blog/

 

A Guest Lecture on Urban Agriculture

The Urban Ag. Scientist2 Comments

Last week I gave my first ever guest lecture for a UniSA course called “Environment: A Human Perspective”. There were about 50-60 first year students present and my nerves came on strong at the beginning. But I made it through, and listening back I think I managed to get my passion and enthusiasm for urban agriculture across to the students –  I even made them laugh couple of times!… intentionally, of course.

Part #1 of the lecture covered the basics of urban agriculture (UA), some of its differences around the world and how common it is in South Australia.

In Part #2 (which is still being edited) I describe how there is more to UA than simply the productive side (how much food people can grow) – there is also a strong social value side. In the middle there’s some interaction where I ask the students what it takes to grow food from start to finish, and how this in turn influences your research design.

I mention both my honours research on the social reaction of people to aquaponics, in addition to how some of the local councils react to the idea of aquaponics. And finished up with a little on my PhD research on the productive capacity and social value of UA via the Edible Gardens Project.

I know there are a couple a little rough moments in here. But I would still love to get any feedback you may have.

Enjoy!
Georgia the Urban Ag. Scientist

Book breakdown – “Don’t be such a Scientist” Part 4

The Urban Ag. ScientistLeave a comment

The fourth instalment of Dr Randy Olson‘s book explores the trait of “likability” and its place in scientific communication.

“Don’t be so unlikeable”

Even just the title of this chapter made me think – “What does he mean ‘unlikeable’? Is he talking about always agreeing with people? Or trying to look pretty and make friends?” It turns out there’s a bit more to it than that…

To begin with, Olson once again describes the value of scientists as society’s truth tellers, or as the “designated drivers” of reality. Scientists are those who resist getting swept up by fantasy and instead try to take a good hard look at the facts.

Scientists play an important role – there’s no denying it. However the question remains, can you be a scientist and still be liked?

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Project Launch!

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After almost two years of planning, I am utterly excited to introduce you all to the Edible Gardens project!disc_edible-gardens-logo-small

Many people across Australia grow some of their own food. In fact in South Australia, 59% of households do so (Wise, 2014). As most of us now live in urban areas, this food production is taking place in cities, towns and suburbs. Urban agriculture is any form of urban food production from growing vegetables, fruits, herbs, to even keeping urban livestock such as chickens, fish or bees

Have you ever wondered how much food your garden actually produces each year? Or how much water, time and money went into producing that food? The Edible Gardens project wants to find out.

The project is currently open to all South Australian home, community and school gardeners. Feel free to share this with anyone you know living in South Australia who produces urban food.

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Crusaders of Science

The Urban Ag. Scientist1 Comment

A recent article by Richard P Grant on why scientists are loosing the communication fight, really struck a chord with me.

Richard comes across as actually saddened by the way in which many scientists attempt to communicate with the public. He points out that most of the people who actively argue and disagree with science are just people. They’re people who want their concerns, fears and needs listened to and taken into account. And instead of doing this, we scientists have the tendency to fight the good fight and defend science at all costs.

This article certainly made me wonder – is the habit of defence so ingrained in all scientists that it’s actually eroding our ability to communicate?

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Confronting the 3 Minute Thesis

The Urban Ag. Scientist2 Comments

I finally sat down after the first School of NBE round of the 3 Minute Thesis (3MT) and thought, “Well I tried but I don’t think I’m getting through.”

This was because I have never been so overwhelmingly nervous during a presentation ever before in my life. At one point I even remember thinking, “If I just lie down right here on the ground… will everyone just go away and leave me alone?”

So thank goodness I did better than I thought I did.

The 3MT was developed by the University of Queensland and has been running since 2008. It’s a deceptively simple concept:

Can you take your 4 (or 5 or 6 or even 7 years!) of PhD research and explain it to a non-expert audience in under 3 minutes? Oh and you’re only allowed one slide behind you, with no moving parts or sounds. Sounds like a reasonable challenge yes?

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Book breakdown – “Don’t be such a Scientist” Part 3

The Urban Ag. ScientistLeave a comment

Here we cover the third instalment of Dr. Randy Olson‘s book which gets a little deeper into the “arouse and fulfil” tactic of getting people interested in the point you’re trying to make. And although that simple two-step process can work just fine, one way to mix it up is via storytelling…

“Don’t be such a poor storyteller”

By now you may have noticed… many scientists aren’t brilliant storytellers. They can be passionate and big picture oriented, but also long-winded, detail obsessed or even dull. In Hollywood, people study for years to learn how to tell a good story. Scientists study and train for the complete opposite – to always constructively review whatever they are told, and to keep an eye out for any inaccurate details. But to get your information across to a non-academic audience… you have to be able to tell a good story. 

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