Questacon Outreach Education Coordinator

Closes: 27 November 2009 Salary: $62,239 – $69,507

Duties: Questacon’s mission is to inspire future scientists and the wider community and enhance awareness and understanding of the contribution of science to Australia’s future.

The Questacon Smart Moves program is an exiting innovation awareness program funded by the Federal Government. It aims to raise the awareness of cutting edge science, technology and enterprise in secondary students, and to develop a culture of entrepreneurship, particularly in regional Australia.

The program consists of a rural and regional travelling multimedia presentation, a website and a national youth conference. The conference is for secondary students from years 8-12 and is designed to empower participants with skills and confidence to enable them to commercialise their science, engineering or technology ideas.

The Outreach Education Coordinator will take responsibility for the delivery of the 2010 national youth entrepreneur conference (the Questacon Smart Moves Invention Convention). To prepare educational content for, organise and deliver the Questacon Smart Moves Invention Convention, national youth entrepreneur conference from 2010. They will draw on the experience of previous conferences and utilise the resources of the current Questacon Smart Moves team, Questacon Marketing and Events staff and Outreach administrative staff for support. The position will be based in Canberra.

Employment Details: This is a full time, non-ongoing position being offered initially until the 31st December 2010, with the possibility of extension, working Monday to Friday, 37.5 hours per week with flexibility provided by Questacon’s Collective Agreement to work evenings, weekends and public holidays as required.

More information: See the website http://www.questacon.edu.au/recruitment/ for more information.

Classification: UNCLASSIFIED

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Media Skills Workshop

The University of Western Australia, Crawley, WA

9am to 5pm on December 4 & 11, 2009

Have you ever wondered… What makes a media friendly story? Why doesn’t the story look like the information I provided? Why do I feel at the media’s mercy?

This two-day Media Skills Workshop will help you: * increase your confidence in working with the media, * understand factors affecting successful media outcomes and * define your message.

During this Media Skills Workshop you will: * learn how to prepare yourself for interviews, * be interviewed on your topic by an experienced journalist, * receive extensive feedback from an experienced journalist, * use the feedback in subsequent workshop interviews and * receive a record of your interviews.

Contributors to previous workshops have included Geraldine Mellet (radio and television broadcaster), Babs McHugh (ABC Rural – resources reporter), Miriam Borthwick (television news and current affairs journalist and media consultant), Janine MacDonald (print journalist and UWA media manager) and Danielle Barrass (ABC radio).

Maximum workshop size is 12 participants.

Cost for two-day workshop is $600 +GST includes tuition, materials, morning and afternoon tea, lunches and CD of interviews.

To register interest or for further information, contact: Sophia Bickford

What have previous participants said? “A really enlightening two days- informative, confronting and confidence building!” Kim Cooper, Country Services Coordinator, Western Power Corporation

“Viewing myself again reminded me of what a huge difference there was between take one and take two. So thank you for assisting me to make that positive shift.” Jacqueline McNally, Decisions and Designs Pty Ltd

“I found the course was really useful and learnt how to engage both the media and their audiences with my topic.” Jill StJohn, Research Scientist, Department of Fisheries

Associate Professor Nancy Longnecker Science Communication Program Faculty of Life and Physical Sciences (M011) The University of Western Australia 35 Stirling Highway Crawley, WA 6009 T 08 6488 3926 F 08 6488 1058 E nancy.longnecker@uwa.edu.au www.science.uwa.edu.au/science_communication

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Get inside the worlds of science and television

Join us at three free public forums in Melbourne on 4 December 2009

* UK neuroscientist Baroness Susan Greenfield will discuss the brain with Robyn Williams at 9.30 am to 10.30 am

* Ripping Yarns: murder, dance, obesity, evolution and stars. Five scientists and historians pitch their stories. See what it takes to grab the attention of the world’s TV producers: 11 am to 12 noon

* We Are Family: Sleek Geeks Adam Spencer and Dr Karl will explore our deep ancestry with Dr Spencer Wells, National Geographic explorer-in-residence and leader of the Genographic Project at 1.30 pm to 3.30 pm.

Grand Hyatt Hotel, 123 Collins Street (cnr Collins and Russell).

Free but booking essential. Details online at www.wcsfp.com. Bookings open 20 November.

The World Congress of Science and Factual Producers is an annual meeting of the global community of people who make, buy and broadcast science and factual television. The BBC, Discovery, History Channel, National Geographic, Rai, ABC and over twenty other international broadcasters will be represented.

The organisers are throwing the doors open to the public for the last day of the Congress.

There are LIMITED seats available across the day so book online or miss out.

The sessions are:

Understanding the Human Brain – Baroness Susan Greenfield

ABC Science broadcaster Robyn Williams explores what we know about the brain with UK Baroness Susan Greenfield, neuroscientist, author, broadcaster, and director of the Royal Institution.

In the last few years there have been massive developments in our understanding of the brain’s complexity and plasticity, much of which has been presented on television throughout the world. We’ll see clips from the best work on the marvels and mysteries of the human brain as we hear from two of the big brains in the world of science.

9.30 am to 10.30 am, Grand Hyatt Hotel, 123 Collins Street (cnr Collins and Russell).

Free but booking essential. Details online at www.wcsfp.com

Ripping Yarns: what makes good factual TV?

Five scientists and historians pitch their stories to TV producers – hear their stories and see what it takes to grab the attention of the world’s TV producers.

Was one of Australia’s most distinguished scientists a secret murderer?

Scientist and historian Professor Iain McCalman explores the secret past of William Saville-Kent who published the first serious scientific study of the Great Barrier Reef and reformed the fishing and pearl industries.

Astronomer, communist, woman – the short career of one of Australian astronomy’s brightest stars

US astronomer Professor Miller Goss is fascinated with the career of Ruby Payne-Scott.

Ruby was a pioneer of radio astronomy in the 1940s and 50s and a leader of secret radar research during World War Two. She was also a communist, attracting the attention of ASIO. And she secretly married – to bypass a public service rule that a married woman could not hold a permanent position.

Miller Goss is on a mission to see Ruby’s achievements recognised.

The Dance of the Little Aboriginal Girl

Faith Bandler is CELEBRATED as a political activist. Her career as a dancer is much less well known. In 1951 Faith toured Europe performing the lead part in ‘The Dance of the Little Aboriginal Girl’, a ballet designed to reveal discrimination against Aboriginal people and to promote Peace and Friendship between the Communist & non-Communist Worlds. On returning to Australia her passport was confiscated for 10 years. Professor Marilyn Lake will reveal Faith’s story.

Breaking the link between fat and diabetes

How does our brain know we’ve eaten enough? How does it know we’ve got enough fat reserves? And what’s causing the global epidemic of obesity and diabetes.

Professor Michael Cowley has the answers. He’s shown unequivocally that losing weight isn’t just a matter of will power. He’s working on solutions and has founded a biotech company that’s now trialling four obesity treatments.

Was Wallace cheated – the story of the story of evolution

Alfred Russel Wallace proposed a theory of evolution at the same time as Darwin. So why are we remembering Darwin this year and not Wallace?

Dr Scott Hocknull will explore Wallace’s work in Malaysia and the Wallace line – where Asian and Australian evolutionary lines collide. How important is Wallace’s work to evolutionary theory. Does he deserve more of the credit?

The jury

A panel of producers from RTE, SBS, NOV A/WGBH, ABC TV and Thirteen/WNET will give the researchers’ stories the thumbs up or the thumbs down.

11.00 am to 12 noon, Grand Hyatt Hotel, 123 Collins Street (cnr Collins and Russell).

Free but booking essential. Details online at www.wcsfp.com

We Are Family – the Sleek Geeks and Dr Spencer Wells

The ABC’s Adam Spencer and Dr Karl (the Sleek Geeks) explore their deep ancestry with National Geographic explorer-in-residence Dr. Spencer Wells.

We’re all descended from a group of African ancestors who-about 60,000 years ago-began their journeys out of Africa. But how did our ancestors end up here?

National Geographic explorer-in-residence Dr. Spencer Wells heads up The Genographic Project, which is analysing historical patterns in DNA from more than 370,000 participants around the world to better understand our human genetic roots and the migratory history of the human species.

Dr. Wells will discuss The Genographic Project and the making of the National Geographic TV documentary The Human Family Tree with Adam and Karl. The Sleek Geeks and a number of luminaries from the WCSFP family have provided samples of their DNA to the project. In this session we will reveal which particular branches of the human family tree they belong to.

1.30 pm to 3.30 pm, Grand Hyatt Hotel, 123 Collins Street (cnr Collins and Russell).

Free but booking essential. Details online at www.wcsfp.com

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Posted on behalf of ANAT

Super Human: Revolution of the Species Symposium

23-24 November, 2009

BMW Edge, Federation Square

Melbourne, Australia

Join artistic and scientific researchers from the fields of cognition, augmentation and nanotechnology as they consider what it means to be human, now and into the future.

Tickets are selling FAST, register now to ensure you don’t miss out on this high-calibre event.

Tickets selling FAST

Visit http://www.superhuman.org.au/ for more information, registration and ticket sales.

Ri Australia PO Box 3652 RUNDLE MALL SA 5000 Ph: (08) 7120 8604 | Fax: (08) 8221 6563 | skern@riaus.org.au| www.riaus.org.au The Royal Institution of Australia Inc is a Charitable Institution and is a Deductible Gift Recipient (DGR) ABN: 98638459658

Think B4U Print 1 ream of paper = 6% of a tree and 5.4kg CO2 in the atmosphere 3 sheets of A4 paper = 1 litre of water

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Posted on behalf of the Australasian Medical Writers Association.

Join the Victorian members of AMWA for Christmas drinks and an evening of networking.

Featuring a conversation on writing for the consumer with Dr Cal Miller, Director, Mi-tec Medical Publishing, and Fiona Landgren, Director, Communicating for Health and Project Health.

Cal and Fiona will discuss:

· What constitutes successful communication in this genre · Different areas of consumer writing · How writing for the consumer differs from other types of medical writing

Tuesday 1 December 2009 @ 6.30 p.m. New venue: Royal Melbourne Hotel, 629 Bourke St, Melbourne. (just off Spencer St. near Southern Cross Station)

Admission is free for AMWA members, $10 for non-members. Drinks and meals at pub prices

RSVP for numbers to L.E. Ohman: le@medicalwriters.org or Jacinta Miller: membership@medicalwriters.org

www.medicalwriters.org

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Dear ASCers,

We’re looking for science stories, scientists for media training, and if you’re interested in science television take a look at the information on December’s World Congress of Science and Factual Producers in Melbourne.

Contents:

Stories of Australian Science 2010 now open for contributions

2009 World Congress of Science and Factual Producers

Media and communication training for scientists

Stories of Australian Science 2010 now open for contributions

Put your science in front of the world’s science TV producers and journalists.

We’re producing a second edition of Stories of Australian Science.

This magazine-style collection of short science stories will put your research and researchers in front of over 1,000 science journalists and television producers. It will also reach wider audiences through Australia’s embassies and consulates worldwide. Stories of Australian Science will be available in print and online.

The first distribution will be at the World Congress of Science and Factual Producers (see below). Your story will be given to the leaders in science television – from the BBC, Discovery Channel, History Channel, National Geographic, the ABC, SBS and dozens of other television and production companies around the world. 100 copies will be given to each storybook contributor.

The cost of participation ranges from $650 for a story to $1,800 for a full page advert.

All stories and adverts received by Monday 16 November will be included in a special preview edition published for the World Congress of Science and Factual Producers in Melbourne in December. There may be a later deadline for the full publication which will be circulated in January 2010.

For more information on how you can be involved call me or visit www.scienceinpublic.com.au/blog/storybook.

On the website, you can also see the storybook we published in 2007 to coincide with the 5th World Conference of Science Journalists, which was held in Melbourne.

2009 World Congress of Science and Factual Producers

Melbourne is hosting the 2009 World Congress of Science and Factual Producers from 1-4 December 2009. This is the premier annual meeting of the international community of broadcasters and producers of science and history television.

It offers a unique opportunity to highlight Australia’s science, technology and culture to a high profile group of program makers and broadcasters from Australia and overseas. Broadcasters attending include the ABC and SBS, BBC, Discovery and National Geographic, and there are producers from over 80 Australian and over 85 international organisations.

A limited number of non-commercial organisations may exhibit at the Congress, including a large poster board, an item in the Congress email and an A4 insert on the delegate bag. Call Niall on (03) 9398 1416 or email niall@scienceinpublic.com.au if you are interested in an exhibition package.

Some of the Congress sessions are also open to the general public: http://www.scienceinpublic.com/blog/category/tv-producers

More information on the Congress is on their website: http://wcsfp.com/index.php/

Media and communication training for scientists

These one-day training workshops focus on science and scientists.

The workshop will help you create and present a compelling view of your research to the media, the public and your stakeholders.

It will help you improve the chances of being accurately reported, and to understand what to expect when the media covers a story. All participants are involved in practice interviews with working journalists.

The workshop has evolved over the years, and now includes a strong emphasis on how to shape your story to suit the media and your other audiences.

We concentrate on how to extract the essence of your story and how to work with the media to get the story across. This contrasts with the adversarial approach of much corporate media training.

Three working journalists will join us in the course of the day to talk about newspapers, radio and TV, and conduct practice interviews. Journalists we have used in the past have included Gerard Scholten from Channel Ten, Bridie Smith from The Age, and Donna Demaio from 3AW news.

Previous participants tell us that after the course they feel more prepared not just for media interviews, but also for other presentations to stakeholders, customers and the public.

This workshop is a modified version of the courses developed by our colleagues at Econnect Communication and is licensed from them.

Each course is limited to 12 participants.

Upcoming dates:

* Wednesday 18 November 2009 * Tuesday 8 December 2009 * Thursday 21 January 2010

Time: Start at 9.30am, finish by 5pm

Venue: The Clare Café/Bar/Bistro, 421 Rathdowne St, Carlton.

Cost: $650 + GST per person

Morning and afternoon tea and lunch will be provided.

Who: The courses are suitable for anyone attempting to communicate complex, evidence-based ideas via the media – scientists, engineers, technologists and others.

This practical workshop will help you:

· know what to expect when the media does a story

· practise your interview techniques with working journalists

· get your message out as accurately as possible.

Specific topics include:

· understanding what makes a good story on TV, radio or in print

· interview practice with working journalists

· taking control of the media agenda

· making the big announcement

· knowing what to do when a journalist knocks on your door

· handling the more difficult questions

· writing a good media release.

To book yourself, or members of your organisation, into one of these courses, please email niall@scienceinpublic.com.au. We will then send you some more specific details.

For more information please call me on (03) 9398 1416 or email me at niall@scienceinpublic.com.au . There is also a flyer about the course online at www.scienceinpublic.com/mediatraining.htm

Kind regards,

Niall

_______________

Niall Byrne

Science in Public

26 Railway Street South, Altona Vic 3018

ph +61 (3) 9398 1416 or 0417 131 977

niall@scienceinpublic.com.au

Full contact details at www.scienceinpublic.com http://www.scienceinpublic.com/

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People,

I’m doing some Poetry and spoken word with two others this Saturday in Kings Cross. Some of my material includes reference to science and technology – let me know if you turn up and are interested in that material.

Poetry and Spoken Word Performance

11.30 am – Noon,

Saturday 14th November

Grassy area behind the Organic Markets,

Fitzroy Gardens / El Alamein Fountain, Kings Cross

(Junction Macleay and Darlinghurst Streets)

The Performers :

Jenny Campbell – Pointed performance poetry drawing on the current political scene – are hedge funds in need of a trim ?

Stuart Collins – Original poetry on the sights, scenes and sounds all around us.

John August – Dramatic pieces from history, such as the Egyptian Book of the Dead – along with traditional poetry by Rudyard Kipling and others, and also some original work.

Contact : John August, 0419 683 353

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We need a freelance writer to help produce content for our research compendium.

The compendium audience consists mostly of people with scientific training, but across a range of disciplines (e.g. vets, public health professionals, microbiologists, virologists, computer modellers). Consequently, we are adopting a quasi-scientific style (can assume some scientific terminology is acceptable, and can include figures, tables, etc.).

Each chapter synthesises the major outcomes of the past 7 years of funding of the Australian Biosecurity CRC in that thematic area. Most chapters are being written in-house, but as this is a major project we are looking for someone to write the following chapters:

– Livestock Disease Diagnostics (estimate 7000 words)

– International Outreach and Postgraduate Program (estimate 5000 words)

All content needs to be finalised by March 2010

If you are interested in this work please forward your quote and some examples of your work to corinna.lange@abcrc.org.au by close of business Tuesday 24 November. For more information contact either Corinna Lange (P: 0423 782 198; E corinna.lange@abcrc.org.au) or Liz Williams (P: (08) 9266-1705; E: liz.williams@abcrc.org.au)

Corinna Lange

Communication Manager

Australian Biosecurity Cooperative Research Centre for Emerging Infectious Disease

Building 76 Molecular Biosciences (SMMS)

Cooper Rd

The University of Queensland

St Lucia QLD 4072

AUSTRALIA

P +61-(0)7-3346 8864

M 0423 782 198

F +61-(0)7-3346 8862

E corinna.lange@abcrc.org.au

www.abcrc.org.au http://www.abcrc.org.au/

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