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Storytelling for Scientists Offered Feb. 16

February 3, 2017

In the world of multimedia and fast-paced news, it is imperative that scientists become stronger communicators and champions of their work. University of Wyoming faculty members and students have a unique opportunity to get their science out of the lab and offer their stories to the public.

A workshop, titled “Using Video to Tell Your Story, Storytelling for Scientists,” is offered Thursday, Feb. 16, through Saturday, Feb. 18. The workshop is offered by Wyoming EPSCoR (Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research).

“Participants will have three days to learn how to shoot, edit and make a one-minute film,” says Emily Stewart Vercoe, project coordinator, senior, EPSCoR-IDEA.

Workshops will be held 8 a.m.-5 p.m. each day at various locations throughout campus, including the Engineering Building, the Classroom Building and Wyoming Public Media in Knight Hall. Stewart Vercoe says all 20 workshop slots have been filled by UW faculty, graduate and undergraduate students, and even a few staff members.

The video platform is a powerful way to reach a broad audience beyond the silos of science and discipline. Today, the technology to do just that is in one’s pocket -- a smartphone or point-and-shoot camera.

“That’s really our goal, to have a supplement for a thesis talk or something you can post on your website,” Stewart Vercoe says.

Participants interested in using video to effectively communicate their research will spend three days learning the essential storytelling and technical skills, and then immediately apply those skills to produce short films. During the course, participants will find and develop a story; capture it using the technology tools held in their pockets; and edit it down to a one-minute film.

Objectives include providing participants concrete skills to communicate with a diverse audience through video; give students the opportunity to put skills into immediate practice; and to produce short science stories that can be used for outreach.

Morgan Heim and Jane Zelikova will serve as workshop facilitators. Heim is a producer at Days Edge Productions and a fellow of the International League of Conservation Photographers. Zelikova is an ecologist interested in the impacts of environmental change on natural and managed ecosystems. Currently, she is a science and technology policy fellow with the American Association for the Advancement of Science at the U.S. Department of Energy, on leave from her position as a research scientist at UW.

On the final evening, participants will show their films on the big screen in the Berry Biodiversity Conservation Center, Stewart Vercoe says.

Attendees should bring their smartphones and any film equipment they would like to use. Footage will be edited using software on campus computers. However, if attendees want to use their own computers, they will need to download Adobe Premiere Pro.

For more information and to register, go to www.uwyo.edu/epscor or email Stewart Vercoe at evercoe@uwyo.edu.

Contact Us

Institutional Communications

Bureau of Mines Building, Room 137

Laramie

Laramie, WY 82071

Phone: (307) 766-2929

Email: cbaldwin@uwyo.edu

Find us on Instagram (Link opens a new window)Find us on Facebook (Link opens a new window)Find us on Twitter (Link opens a new window)Find us on LinkedIn (Link opens a new window)Find us on YouTube (Link opens a new window)