The essentials of science communication in a course engaging both for students and professionals

Abstract

[EN] On the one hand, science is increasingly entering the governance of modern society. On the other hand, society seems to be lagging behind scientific achievements, increasingly often unable to understand its language. The language gap is based on the well-known intimidating appeal of STEM programs and the unreasonable timidity of scientific degree courses to include communication skills as mandatory. An open course was experimented to provide students with the necessary tools to decode and encode the essential elements of science communication, regardless of disciplinary content. The course, which was designed following the 5W+H "golden rule" of non-academic science communication, has been offered for three consecutive years to nearly one hundred students. The students' perspective is analysed in terms of their perception that they have achieved their own learning expectations. The main result is that it is possible to involve undergraduates, graduates and professionals in rethinking their approach to communicating scientific content to the general public, with rewarding results for all players, when focusing on the greatest common divisor instead of the least common multiple among the disciplinary languages and communication templates.