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NUS Physics Module Review: SP1541 ES1541 Exploring Science Communication through Popular Science

SP1541 is the continuation of ES1103 for science students that are also a requirement to graduate for FoS Students. This module focuses on how to “communicate” science, i.e. how to tell the results of our research to the general public so they can appreciate the finding, although they do not have a deep knowledge on that field. We also learned how to do an oral presentation of a scientific research.

Every lecture, the instructor will go through a topic, explain the usage / formula and gives illustrative examples for these. The lecture expects high participations from the students, with the lecturer actively asking students their opinions about the topic. Because of this, a focus is needed to keep track in the lecture and net participation points.

There are various types of writing assignments in the module. The Book Chapter Review assignment is about reviewing a book chapter where we are asked to identify how the author delivers “science” and asks for our opinion (~250 words). The news article(s) is about writing a popular science article based on a recent research using techniques discussed in class so that non-specialist can understand the research paper (~800-1000 words). The reflection is more like “free” style, with writing a small piece about the module. These are pretty tiresome, so please finish them ASAP and to score well, adhere to the moves described.

Finally, the oral presentation consists of making a recorded powerpoint presentation about one of the mentioned news article using guidelines explained in the lecture. After the presentation, there will be a small QnA session for everyone to ask questions. To score, prep the video well, anticipate questions and be active asking questions.

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