The main reason I applied for an industrial placement was to gain experience for my future career (whatever that may be). Leaving university can (and I’m sure will be) intimidating, so I figured a year’s worth of experience would be invaluable. Now half way through my placement year, I‘m glad to say I‘ve taken every opportunity to develop relevant skills.
My placement is Science Communication for ISIS Neutron Muon Source, part of the Science and Technology Facilities Council. It involves reading scientific papers and writing articles about them, speaking to the scientists that work here or visit to use our facilities and being responsible for our social media accounts.
Developing my skills
Over the past six months, I’ve built on lots of skills that I already had, like my writing and social media skills. Working in these areas, combined with science was what attracted me to the role in the first place. They say practice makes perfect and being able to work on so many small projects, each different from the next, has helped build on those skills.
I love writing, and in the past, I naturally wrote about things I was interested in. Now though, I write about a lot of experiments and studies that I previously would never even have looked at! It’s definitely a challenge to write about areas of physics and chemistry that I know nothing about. But it will help me in the future to be able to write about a broad range of scientific areas.
Professional training
My team at ISIS is very encouraging of me signing up to training courses and building my networks in the Science Communication industry. Thus far, I have completed training in social media, filmmaking, graphic design and tour guide training. I’m sure I’ll do more before the end of my placement. In October, I attended a conference with other placement students and PhD students from my department. I gave a presentation titled “Science (mis)communication: some examples of why we need dedicated science communicators” which won a prize. I already enjoy public speaking, but winning a competition is a big confidence boost.
I’ve also taken part in public engagement activities, talking to the public at family events and school visits about science. Not just about the science we do at my facility, but about topics from fossils to AI. It’s constantly building my skills to communicate science in an array of subjects and by a variety of methods.
Putting my skills into practice
When I return to York for my final year of my biology degree, I hope to do a science communication project, where I can put into practice all the skills I have built. I‘ve also been inspired by my placement to get more involved in science outreach and engagement, which I would love to continue next year.
Leave a Reply