Course Description

Museums and science centres shape how science is encountered outside of formal academic settings. This course examines how scientific research is translated into exhibitions, public programs, journalism, and digital media. We will look closely at audience, narrative, design, and evaluation, and explore how communication decisions influence how science is understood in these public spaces.

The course begins by situating scientists as storytellers and by examining reconciliation as a professional and institutional responsibility. We then turn to audience—how we define it, how we misjudge it, and how our communication style shifts when working with children, teenagers, or broader public audiences. From there, we will consider science in public conversation, journalism, and new media, paying attention to how scientific research circulates beyond institutional boundaries.

In the second half of the term, the focus moves more directly to museums and design practice. Students will examine exhibit development strategies, spatial layout, interpretation, evaluation, and community engagement through site visits and conversations with professional practitioners at various local museums, science centres and design studios. Throughout the term, students will analyze and develop communication initiatives across formats, including exhibits, participatory activities, and digital media. Readings, student-led seminars, field trips, and hands-on projects are structured to move between theory and practice, giving students moments to connect their learning across course topics. The final course project invites students to design and prototype a small-scale interpretive experience. Each student will select a scientific concept and present it through a printed exhibit panel, a live participatory activity, and a written project package reflecting on their design decisions and testing process.
 

Course Objectives

The primary goal of this course is to introduce students to science communication as it is practiced beyond academic settings and to provide structured opportunities to try it themselves. Students will examine how museums, journalism, public conversation, and digital media shape the way science circulates in public spaces. They will experiment with storytelling, audience adaptation, interactive and iterative design, and multimedia communication, developing greater flexibility in how they explain complex ideas across different contexts and audiences.

Through partnerships with local museums and science centres, as well as guest speakers working in the field, students encounter science communication in practice rather than only in theory. The emphasis is on practice, feedback, and reflection—testing ideas, refining them, and becoming more comfortable communicating science to varied audiences. By the end of the course, students should feel more confident and deliberate in how they present their work both within and beyond academic environments.
 

Course Learning Outcomes

By the end of this course, students will be able to:

1. Explain how museums, journalism, public conversation, and digital media shape the public interpretation of scientific research.
2. Analyze audience needs and adapt communication strategies for children, teenagers, and non-specialist publics.
3. Apply storytelling, interactive design, and multimedia approaches to communicate focused scientific concepts clearly.
4. Incorporate considerations of reconciliation, cultural respect, and community engagement into science communication practice.
5. Critically evaluate science communication initiatives in informal learning environments.
6. Design and prototype a small-scale interpretive experience grounded in audience awareness, strategic reasoning, and reflective testing.
    

Visual Course Map