ScienceWriters 2008: NASW Workshops

Oct. 24-29, 2008
Cabana Hotel
Palo Alto, CA

Program

SESSION 1:

SESSION 2:

SESSION 3:

Happy Hour with Irreproducible Results from The Journal

A1) Science and Social Media: New Tools, New Ways to Talk?

Social media sites such as Facebook and MySpace are exploding; blog comment sections are becoming virtual salons; tagging, twittering, digging, and stumbling are the new ways to find information; and the younger generations have stopped reading print. How can science writers use these nontraditional tools to communicate science in this NEW new media world? Beyond the traditional Web site, what works to share science's excitement, news and exploration? Our presenters will discuss what works — and what doesn't.

Moderator and Organizer: Merry Bruns, content strategist/web writing trainer, ScienceSites Communications

A2) Who's Consuming Science, and How Do We Reach Them?

Are you as frustrated as a dinosaur watching an approaching asteroid? For PIOS, communicating science used to mean sending news releases, photos, graphics, b-roll and audio only to media. Enter the Web and the vaporization of newspaper space devoted to science. Who is our prime audience now? Are you using new and social media? We've watched in shock and awe as our world changed. We've talked in bits and pieces about new methods. Now many of us are inching forward. Is it time to just do it? Let's talk about who is doing what and how to take the plunge.

Moderator: Joe Bonner, director of communications, The Rockefeller University

Organizer: Jim Barlow, director of science and research communications, University of Oregon

A3) Science Writing for Kids: Skills and Markets

Whether you have kids, you know kids, or you think like a kid, writing about science for young people can sound like fun. Learn how to structure your sentences, where to find story ideas, and to whom to pitch your kid-friendly stories. And bring your ideas. The session will conclude with a pitch slam that will give audience members the chance to get feedback from editors in the great wide world of science writing for kids.

Moderator: Emily Sohn, freelance science writer; contributor, Science News for Kids

Organizer: Andy Boyles, science editor, Boyds Mills Press, Highlights for Children magazine

Organizer: Emily Sohn, freelance science writer; contributor, Science News for Kids

B1) Geeks, Freaks, and Deadlines: Writing About Technology and the Humans Who Love it

The Palo Alto area is home to superstars of technology, from pioneers like Hewlett-Packard and Apple to Google (founded a mere 10 years ago by two Stanford grad students). It's also home to ace science writers who cover how technology changes human life. Expert science writers and editors will explain how they uncover great stories on the tech beat, and how they use narrative and other techniques to bring those stories alive. The panelists will also compare blogs, print, and websites as markets for writers.

Moderator: Nancy Shute, NASW treasurer and senior writer, US News & World Report

Organizer: Tabitha M. Powledge, NASW board member and freelance science writer and editor

Organizer: Nancy Shute, NASW treasurer and senior writer, US News & World Report

B2) PIO Pitch Slam: Packaging, Delivering ... and Placing the Story

Having a good story is the easy part. Packaging and delivering it to the right person in just the right way is where pitching becomes an art practiced successfully by only the most skilled PIOs. New technologies, a changing media landscape, and increasing competitive pressures are making the story pitch all the more challenging. What makes one pitch appealing and another miss the mark? A panel of journalists will provide insight and advice. Willing PIOs can give it their best shot in a 60-second pitch; the panelists will react with helpful tips and suggestions on technique and style.

Moderator and Organizer: Karen Kreeger, senior science communications manager, University of Pennsylvania School Medicine & Health System

Moderator and Organizer: Lisa Rossi, director, Communications and External Relations, Microbicide Trials Network, University of Pittsburgh

B3) What's Science Got to do With It? Thinking Outside the Lab

The physics of Buffy? NASCAR? Religion? Chambers hidden in Mayan Pyramids? The mathematics of voting? Of O.J. Simpson? Just about anything in the news (or off the news) has a science story in it somewhere, and reaching outside the lab is a great way to reach people who aren't normally interested in science (or think they aren't). Our five science writers include a newspaper journalist/book author, a physicist/author, an astrophysicist/magazine writer/author, a blogger/author and a writer at one of our largest national labs (also an author), so we'll have a good variety of forms and viewpoints.

Moderator and Organizer: K.C. Cole, professor, Annenberg School of Journalism, University of Southern California

C1) Lights, Camera ... Action! Telling Institutional Stories Through Video

In a world where more people get their news from television and the Internet each day, it makes sense to tell science stories using video. But the logistics behind doing video stories can be daunting for people who typically come from the print side of journalism and may have little to no support for creating video content. The first talk will give you a basic outline on how to plan a video. The second will discuss how one scientific agency is partnering with others to create videos for television and the Web.

C2) Turning the Tables: Meet the Press Critics

In recent years, several online sites have started dishing commentary about the state of science writing — and science writers. It's our own form of peer review, providing real-time scrutiny of stories across the landscape of science journalism. But what have the media critics gleaned about the strengths and weaknesses of science journalism today, how it is changing and what might be ahead? What advice do they have for improving coverage of science, medicine and the environment? And what can science journalists learn from reading critiques of their peers' work? The session will start with a case study involving a recent story and move on to the big picture. It's a chance to put the press critics on the spot.

Moderator and Organizer: Cristine Russell, Council for the Advancement of Science Writing president and freelance science writer

C3) The Digital Science Writer: Deciding on Laptops and Demystifying Multimedia

What laptop should you buy? Faster processor or more RAM? Tablet or notebook? Light weight or desktop replacement — and are there manufacturers to avoid? How can you join the stampede to multimedia by adding video and audio to your science-writing skills? Podcasts or other video and audio? What hardware and software do you need? How much should you spend? This session will use demos to explore these questions and share expert practical, hands-on advice about multimedia tools and laptops suited to science and medical writers. Michelle Thatcher, CNET's laptop guru, will explore must-have laptop features, while journalism technology trainer Jerry Monti will put together a podcasting setup on the spot just to demonstrate how easy it is. MedPage Today uses multimedia intensively to tell science and medical stories, and Executive Editor Peggy Peck will show us how they do it.

Moderator and Organizer: Tabitha M. Powledge, NASW board member and freelance science writer and editor

D1) Building the Freelance Business You Want

Have you wondered how the successful freelancers make their business work or how they get that super-cool assignment you have always dreamed of? If so, then this is the workshop for you. The panel will discuss different freelance business models, talk about how to move your career (and income) to the next level, and provide practical information about how to take your writing life where you want to go.

D2) Pitch Slam: Meet the Editors

Come hear top print and online editors spill the beans on exactly what they look for in a freelance pitch, then put that info to use. This is your chance to pitch — and get immediate, on-the-spot feedback from — top editors at The New York Times, Sierra Magazine, Mother Jones, and SciAm.com, the online site for Scientific American. The session will provide a unique window into the assignment process, whether you pitch a story or not.

Moderator and Organizer: Robin Mejia, freelance science writer

D3) Why Good Reporters and Institutions Get it Wrong

Crisis management: How do you prepare for the worst, meet the problem, and come out smelling like a rose — or at least not smelling like or appearing to be a skunk? Not "spin control," but a dissection of the intricacies that comprise events surrounding research crises. Whom should you know? Who should know you? How do you get a seat at the table? Animal rights, other activists, human subjects questions and hazardous materials and research reactors create problems both for institutional PIOs and reporters. How do the Federal Educational Rights and Privacy Act (Buckley Amendment), FOIA and state laws affect you? This session will be a freewheeling discussion based on case studies that are posted on the NASW website and may be read before the conference by the prospective attendees. Workshop participants will analyze what happened, how it was handled, and provide post-mortem comments that will be added to the NASW website as a resource.

Organizer: Earle Holland, assistant vice president for research communications, Ohio State University

Organizer: A'ndrea Elyse Messer, senior science and research information officer, Penn State

Join us for skits, monologues, and wisecracks as Norm Sperling offers up hilarious spoofs from the science humor magazine, The Journal of Irreproducible Results, such as:

• Dark Suckers
• The Sidehill Gouger
• The Turboencabulator
• Spandex Graphs
• National Security issues:
• Make Your Own A-Bomb
• Sabotaged Bubblewrap
• Mentos/Soda Bomb
• Candidate for a Pullet Surprise
• Suplurals and Zero-Order Terms (including new ones never published)

Moderator, Organizer, and One Man Entertainment Crew:
Norm Sperling, editor, publisher, and janitor, The Journal of Irreproducible Results

Optional Wednesday Field Trips

Science and Art in Winemaking: Visit to the Ridge Winery

A coral atoll lurks in the mountains above the Stanford campus? Yes, the remnants of one, anyway. It hitched a ride on a migrating tectonic plate from the southern hemisphere some 60 million years ago, got mixed over time with local rocks, and has been repeatedly sliced and diced by the San Andreas Fault system. This exotic terrane has created soils that support truly world-class vintages, as you will discover.

Our excursion takes us 2,600 feet up in the Santa Cruz Mountains, to the Ridge Vineyards, where CEO Paul Draper judiciously combines traditional techniques and 21st century technology in his range of award-winning wines. We will learn about the local geology, as well as various factors, scientific and artistic, that result in these. And we will, of course, taste the results, both from barrels and bottles. In late October, Ridge will be finishing its harvest, and natural fermentation will be underway.

Our itinerary, subject to modification, begins with a tour of a vineyard, where the Vineyard Manager will describe the techniques he uses. Then, we will drive about a mile to the 19th century Upper Winery and its high-tech lab (not wheelchair accessible), take a walking tour of Ridge's production facility, and view the San Andreas Fault from an overlook. Draper and colleagues will describe their combination of traditional and technological wine making. There will be a tasting from barrel.

We round off the visit with a picnic lunch, accompanied by a selection of Ridge wines.

Departure from hotel: 8:30 a.m. sharp!
Return to hotel: Approximately 3:30 p.m.
Cost: $45 (includes lunch)
Limit: 44

Organizer:
Harvey Leifert, freelance science writer

NASA Ames Research Center Trip

Learn about the latest advances in aeronautics research, planetary exploration, the search for extraterrestrial life, and more on a field trip to NASA's Ames Research Center in Mountain View, California.

NASA Ames, located in the heart of Silicon Valley, is a leading research center in astrobiology (the study of the origin, evolution, distribution, and future of life in the universe), robotic lunar exploration, the search for habitable extrasolar planets, supercomputing, intelligent/adaptive systems, and airborne astronomy. Founded in 1939 as a national aircraft research laboratory, the center became a part of NASA in 1958 and is now one of 10 NASA field installations. The center has around 2,300 research personnel, more than $3 billion in capital equipment, and a $600 million annual budget.

Sites that NASW members will have an opportunity to visit on this field trip include the Ames Research Center's advanced supercomputing facilities; Future Flight Central (an air-traffic-control research center); the Vertical Motion Simulator; robotics, smallsat, and astrobiology laboratories (the latter including a rooftop "microbial mat garden"); and the LCROSS Mission Control Center. LCROSS, the Lunar Crater Observing and Sensing Satellite, is scheduled to be launched on October 28, so our visit to mission control could be quite lively! Throughout the tour, NASA experts will be on hand to answer questions.

Departure from hotel: 8:30 a.m. sharp!
Return to hotel: Approximately 6 p.m.
Cost: $25 (not including lunch, inexpensive cafeteria available for meal purchase)
Limit: 44

Organizers:
Linda Billings, communications coordinator, NASA Astrobiology Program
Kelly O. Humphries, director of public affairs (acting), NASA Ames Research Center

A Day in Monterey Bay

What's a trip to California without a visit to the ocean? We will travel to Stanford's Hopkins Marine Station at Monterey Bay, where we will watch researchers feed tagged tuna, part of a project to better understand the tuna's physiology and biology. We will hear from station director Stephen Palumbi, who studies the genetics and evolution of sea creatures, and George Somero, who studies the effects of environmental factors - temperature, salinity, hydrostatic pressure, and oxygen availability on marine animals.

Then we will get a behind-the-scenes tour of the adjacent Monterey Bay Aquarium, one of the nation's leading aquariums. The exhibits include tunas, sharks, stingrays, sea turtles, and a spectacular jellyfish gallery.

Departure from hotel: 8:30 a.m. sharp!
Return to hotel: Approximately 5:30 p.m.
Cost: $25 (includes lunch)
Limit: 100

Organizer:
ChiSook Hwang, Stanford University

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