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LINK LINKVIDEO 6: LINK LINK LINK

LINK LINK LINK LINK LINK
LINK LINKHow to explain a science idea clearly
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to
watch

Sadly it’s rather common to be sat in a science talk, or to be listening to a radio

interview with an expert, and realise that although they’re speaking your
language you have no clue what on earth they’re on about. From dense,
technical terms you’ve never heard before, to descriptions of complex
concepts that leave you utterly confused, it’s easy to lose an audience’s
attention with a badly explained idea.

Video 6 helps you unpack your science, tech, engineering or maths subject in
an understandable way, and this Course Resource supports it. I’ve first written
some notes on the video’s tips, then I’ve included a printable worksheet to
help you plan your explanation and the language you use to deliver it.

8 top tips for explaining your science ideas clearly:

1. If you think it’s easy to explain, you’re not explaining it well enough
> The bad news: thanks to the ‘curse of knowledge’, what feels obvious to
you may be as clear as mud to people outside your world. It’s hard to
remember what it feels like to be someone who doesn’t understand
something that you now understand and it takes a lot of learning and
experience to craft and deliver really effective science communication.
> The good news: this course is the first step along that journey.

2. Try to explain everything and you explain nothing

You need to be realistic about the fact that you can’t turn a non-
specialist into an expert in the short time you’re with them. And you
need to be focussed on the core ideas you want to talk about. The fewer
the better.

3. Start from where your audience are

Different audience members understand different amounts of the STEM
subject you’re talking about. Use the Audience Profiles you sketched out
for Video 2 to identify the common ground. Also, don’t assume that
everyone in a group of scientists are at the same level - a Professor of
Molecular Biology may not have touched Astronomy or Geology since
GCSE Science, and if so, you’d need to start from there.

4. Before you build, PLAN

Think through your science story and identify in what order the ideas
need to be constructed. The printable worksheet will help you
deconstruct your concept so you know how to build it back up again.

These resources were developed by BBC Science Presenter & YouTuber Greg Foot
as part of the first ever YouTube Course on Science Communication, kindly supported by Google.
The Course is written by Greg, produced by his specialist scicomm consultancy
& digital-first production company sciencemedia.studio, and filmed & edited by Kūmba Creative.
 5. Taking it apart isn’t dumbing it down
Scientists are often concerned that they have to ’dumb down’ their
research when speaking to the general public. They worry about
oversimplifying the complexity to the point of inaccuracy. Personally, I
consider it ‘translating’, stripping an idea down to a level that’s
appropriate & engaging for your audience. You can then build it back up,
often taking it further than you originally imagined.

6. Jargon is not a credibility meter

Specialist words that not everyone knows or understands are ‘jargon’,
and your audience - even if they're fellow scientists - won’t respect you
more for using them. Use the worksheet to identify potential jargon in
your science story and decide how to handle it.

7. Beware false friends

> ‘model’ - catwalk, wooden plane or mouse?
> ‘heavy metal’ - Motorhead or Mercury?
Beware ‘false friends’ like these - words that can mean something very
different to your audience than to you.

8. Paint pictures with your words

Creative language and Comparators - comparing an unknown,
intangible amount of something to a known thing / amount - help your
audience visualise & understand your STEM. The cherry on the
explanatory cake though is an analogy. [A metaphor compares an
aspect, an element, of an idea with something, but analogies are almost
a rational argument that imply much deeper connections.]

Printable worksheet on the next page…

If you'd like Greg to come and deliver

bespoke science communication training
with your research group, institution,
We’re a charity or brand get in touch.
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what we’ve made
& get in touch
if we can
help you
tell your STEM
story.

This is the first ever YouTube Course on Science Communication, kindly supported by Google.
The Course is a sciencemedia.studio production, written by Greg Foot, filmed & edited by Kūmba Creative.
 LINK LINK
LINK LINKVIDEO 6: LINK LINK
LINK LINK
LINK LINKHow to explain a science idea
Click LINK LINK
to LINK LINK
watch clearly LINK LINK

Your task: Work through these steps in order to deconstruct your science
idea and ensure it’s clearly understandable for your audience…

#1 - First, write a couple of sentences that summarise your STEM idea / research /
concept / story, in your normal scientific language.
By that I don’t mean be overly scientific, just use your go-to words & phrases.
(It’s worth going through this process with your whole script / outline but this will
help you focus on your core ideas and the language & structure you use)

_______________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________

#2 - Identify your audience’s base-line knowledge of your subject.

Looking back at the Audience Profiles you wrote for Video 2, what level of
understanding do your audience share? When did they ALL last study this topic? It
may be helpful to identify an age or year group, but the most useful, practical thing
moving forwards is to jot down what that base-line level of understanding is - write
what your entire audience would and would not know about your subject:

The minimum the whole audience knows is: _________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________________________

So the audience don’t know about: ___________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________

If you'd like Greg to come and deliver bespoke

We’re a science communication training with your research
specialist group, institution, charity or brand get in touch Follow
scicomm Greg
consultancy & on
digital-first LIN social
production LINK LIN LIN LIN LIN media
company. LINK LINK LINK LINK LINK K
Check out K K K K LIN
what we’ve made LINK LINK LINK LINK LINK
& get in touch
if we can
help you
tell your STEM
story. These resources were developed by BBC Science Presenter & YouTuber Greg Foot
as part of the first ever YouTube Course on Science Communication, kindly supported by Google.
The Course is written by Greg, produced by sciencemedia.studio, and filmed & edited by Kūmba Creative.
#3 - Identify the jargon: #4 - Tackle the jargon:
Are there any technical terms in #1 that Look at the spectrum below and decide
your audience would not know or where you want to be on it.
understand?
(Personally I’m between B & C. If it is a
Write them below. term I’d like to introduce I’ll define it the
first time I use it and then I’ll repeat the
(And if you wrote #1 without any of
translation every few uses to ensure the
these, what terms often slip into
audience recall & understand what it is.)
conversation that would be new or not
understandable to someone with the Write down some translations for your
base-line understanding you wrote in jargon terms that are in an
#2?) understandable language your
audience would know.

_________________________________ _________________________________

_________________________________ _________________________________

_________________________________ _________________________________

_________________________________ _________________________________

_________________________________ _________________________________

_________________________________ _________________________________

A B C D

#5 - Any ‘false friends’? #6 - Translate the false friends:

Are there any words that mean one A n d n o w t r a n s l a t e t h e m . Wr i t e
thing to you but something different to alternative words you could use to
your audience? describe them, in an understandable
language your audience would know:
If so write them here:
_________________________________ _________________________________

_________________________________ _________________________________

_________________________________ _________________________________

_________________________________ _________________________________

_________________________________ _________________________________

These resources were developed by BBC Science Presenter & YouTuber Greg Foot
as part of the first ever YouTube Course on Science Communication, kindly supported by Google.
The Course is written by Greg, produced by his specialist scicomm consultancy
& digital-first production company sciencemedia.studio, and filmed & edited by Kūmba Creative.
 ____________________________________________________
____________________________________________________
#7 - Plot a construction plan
____________________________________________________
from the common-ground
____________________________________________________ you worked out in #2, up…

____________________________________________________
Repeat what you wrote for
____________________________________________________ “minimum the whole
audience knows” in #2 here.
____________________________________________________
____________________________________________________ Then build up step by step
f rom this understanding.
____________________________________________________
O n l y p e rm i t yo u r s e l f to
____________________________________________________ introduce a new idea or term
if your entire audience
____________________________________________________
already have all the building
____________________________________________________ blocks needed to piece that
understanding together.
complexity

____________________________________________________
Each step needs to be
____________________________________________________ logical, understandable, and
feel like a simple step up
____________________________________________________
f rom their current
____________________________________________________ knowledge.

____________________________________________________
For example you can’t
____________________________________________________ explain what photosynthesis
is until your audience all
____________________________________________________
appreciate that light comes
____________________________________________________ f ro m t h e s u n a n d t h a t
there’s something called
____________________________________________________
carbon dioxide in the air
____________________________________________________
around us. You need to
____________________________________________________ introduce those concepts
and understanding before
____________________________________________________
you combine them.
____________________________________________________
____________________________________________________

If you found this helpful it’d be worth going through this process with your entire script.

NB I’ll be going into how to craft a great analogy for your science communication in a future video so
make sure you subscribe to my YouTube channel to catch that - www.youtube.com/gregfoot
I may also do a video on helpful comparators for different areas of STEM - if that’d be useful drop me a
tweet @gregfoot or comment on Video 6.

These resources were developed by BBC Science Presenter & YouTuber Greg Foot
as part of the first ever YouTube Course on Science Communication, kindly supported by Google.
The Course is written by Greg, produced by his specialist scicomm consultancy
& digital-first production company sciencemedia.studio, and filmed & edited by Kūmba Creative.