When I first heard the term “sabbatical student,” I pictured old-timey scholars taking long breaks to mull over grand ideas. Not that I took this image literally, but somehow this is what sprang to mind. In reality, I was lucky enough to hold this position for three months at UWE Bristol despite only being a master’s student.
Funnily enough, studying cognitive sciences in Croatia as part of my master’s programme, is exactly what led me to this opportunity in my hometown of Bristol. Through the Erasmus scheme, I was funded to undertake an internship of my own choosing. And fortunately, Professor Clare Wilkinson warmly accepted my request to join the Science Communication Unit (SCU) at the University of the West of England (UWE), allowing me to further explore my interests in science communication.
I wasn’t only attracted to science communication (SciComm) by my love of writing, I was also eager to explore what topics lay beyond this. I was especially curious to see how this experience would inform my own cognitive sciences research project.
First Encounters with SciComm
I came into this experience with a relatively blank slate in terms of science communication experience, but it didn’t take me long to realise that I had underestimated the breadth of this field. I was amazed by the varied SciComm approaches that the team were involved in, from teaching science through performing arts, to standup comedy, and even videogames like Minecraft.
It wasn’t just the variety of approaches that surprised me, it was also how much SciComm crosses different fields. I initially saw it as a means of making information more accessible, but it’s actually much more than that. It’s a rich, interdisciplinary field that connects areas such as the arts, humanities, and social sciences.
Getting to know the students on the MSc Science Communication programme at UWE reminded me just how flexible this field is. Suyi Tay a current student, is blending art and science and plans to share soil science in a future activity by transforming the sounds of soil samples into a live musical experience. Meanwhile, Ross Metcalfe, a further friend I made from the programme is exploring how research conducted by a charity might reach the public more effectively, by building a framework to improve that process, a fascinating example of how SciComm and society intersect.
Learning highlights
Me and a group of the 2025-26 Science Communication MSc students at UWE Bristol
Instead of just observing from the sidelines during the sabbatical, Clare encouraged me to actively explore and engage with SciComm in ways that matched my own interests. With this, I decided that I wanted to audit the Writing Science MSc module, which the senior lecturers Dr Andy Ridgway and Andrew Glester kindly approved.
One experience that particularly stood out to me on this module was the chance to interview a researcher and turn that conversation into a news article. I had the chance to interview Dr Amanda Webber, the MSc’s programme leader, who is also a senior lecturer and anthropologist. She was nothing short of captivating as she shared insights about the student learning experiences taking place in the forests of Madagascar. The process gave me valuable real-world practice, and with the article set to be published in the UWE Science Matters magazine, it’s a piece I can showcase to potential employers.
Another highlight from my sabbatical involved Suyi taking me along to the BCfm radio station, where she was presenting on a UWE led science show, Love & Science. She introduced me to the radio host George Edwards, who despite his multi-tasking, took the effort to explain how everything works as he went along.
I enjoyed listening to Suyi and George as they eagerly discussed a news article about ADHD diagnosis. The atmosphere felt like friends chatting in a pub, except that there were hundreds of people listening. This feeling of ease made me realise just how approachable these spaces are; they no longer seem distant and intimidating to me. George even offered me a chance to present on the show, which I hope to do after completing my masters.
My master’s thesis looks at how language is used in animal cognition research papers; specifically, how wording choices shape the claims that signal to readers.
Coming from a cognitive sciences background, I was already interested in how claims reflect the strength of the underlying evidence. For instance, a researcher might write, “These birds appear to remember locations for up to a week.” The word appear signals appropriate caution in a study which only tested a small number of birds under specific conditions.
But auditing the Science and Society module as part of the MSc programme pushed me to think beyond accuracy alone. I started to notice how claims also work on a social level, shaping how findings are received by readers and the wider scientific community.
For example, authors often write “the results indicate” rather than “I show.” This kind of impersonal phrasing creates distance between the researcher and the claim. It can make findings sound more objective and easier for the community to accept.
One of the most valuable outcomes of this sabbatical was being able to bring these perspectives together. I’m now approaching my thesis with a more rounded view of what scientific claims actually imply.
Presenting my thesis progress to the SCU team also played a big role in this. Although it was initially daunting, everyone was incredibly warm and supportive. Their enthusiastic response gave me a real confidence boost and made me feel part of a community where perfection isn’t expected, and sharing learning and the reality of experiences is also important.
Even though my project has since evolved beyond that which I originally presented, the feedback from the team at the SCU gave me important points to reflect on and ultimately helped me find a clearer direction.
Goodbye & thank you!
Looking back, this sabbatical truly surprised me, it pushed me to see SciComm and my own research in new and exciting ways. I am very thankful for the knowledge and skills gained from this experience, as well as the new friends.
A huge thank you to everyone in the Science Communication team and the MSc students, you were all incredibly inspiring. I look forward to seeing some of you again in the future.
By Megan Todd, Cognitive Sciences Master’s (MSc) student, University of Rijeka, Croatia.
Wildscreen’s Science in Storytelling event this March opened with the “Artificial Intelligence: An Altruist’s Guide” panel. Given the heated conversations taking place in production houses across Bristol, and beyond, there was nowhere else to start.
Bristol is famously celebrated as “Green Hollywood”, being home to a number of production companies, the Wildscreen Festival and, of course, our MSc in Science Communication here at UWE Bristol. The industry has been pondering the impact of AI in the world of wildlife film after something of a bombshell panel (AI Won’t Take Your Job, But the Person That Can Use It Better Than You Will…) at last year’s Festival.
The full Wildscreen Festival took place in Bristol in October 2024, a weeklong event for the wildlife film industry with delegates from across the globe. Midway through the week, Eline Van der Velden, founder and CEO of UK-based production company Particle6, and Christopher Paetkau, senior MD of Canada’s Build Films, formed part of a panel on AI and it became clear from their comments that you could be forgiven for thinking that AI had very much arrived in the industry, with all the subtlety of a bear in a production office, and was about to make lots of jobs obsolete.
Van der Velden announced, “Pre-production, ideas, budgets, scripting, it can do everything for you,” she said, “then cameras, you don’t need operators anymore because it will do it all for you.” Cue an audible gasp from the room. “You may laugh, but I’m telling you. Everything is done for you. You wouldn’t send a camera in a helicopter anymore would you? You’d use a drone. This is the same.”
Paetkau quipped, “that’s a good thing.” and was, if anything, even more dismissive of the prospects for voice over artists.
In a room full of filmmakers, the reaction was as you might imagine. As a lecturer leading two modules in this area, Wildlife Filmmaking and Science On Air and On Screen, I felt more than a little uneasy sitting there alongside many of our students. More than anything else, I feared for the real, authentic films we’ve made and loved. From the stage, someone called for “a new kind of authenticity” in the new world brought to us by AI. Behind me, a voice shouted “Fake News”. It was clear I was not alone in my discomfort.
A member of the audience raised a hand, “I think authenticity matters. Here’s a thought. If your wife had just punched in the (AI) chat five minutes before your wedding. ‘Write me some wedding vows’. And she read them out and they sounded beautiful…does that matter to you? Or do you want her to write her wedding vows and say something meaningful?”
As has already been reported, Paetkau replied that he had used AI to compose his wife’s Christmas card and he felt that that was “completely authentic”. People laughed, perhaps a little nervously.
After the panel, conversations all either began or ended with an expectant “Did you see the AI panel?” In the weeks since the Festival, colleagues and friends in the industry often returned to the conversation. In our sessions on campus with the MSc students, we had to work hard not to allow discussions of AI in filmmaking to derail the rest of our learning.
On another panel at the festival in October 2024, Keith Scholey, co-director of Silverback (Our Planet, Our Oceans) was asked about the impact of AI, sharing “The big challenge for natural history will be what is real and how you put a value on reality. You could very quickly see cheap AI content just flooding the market, and we have to consider how you persuade the world to pay for the world of reality.”
Whilst Walter Kohler, founder and chief executive of Terra Mater Studios agreed, stating that “AI is the biggest problem we have in the room. You are used to seeing an image and believing it is real. This will be a big disturbance to our mind if we’re sitting there asking if it’s real or not.”
Personally, I cannot imagine a time when I reach for the remote and think that I really want to watch something generated by AI. Sir David Attenborough has been the face and voice of Natural History film in the UK for some time. It’s not his face and his voice which make him quite so iconic. It’s his insight. The world is full of faces, voices and opinions. Insight is valuable.
Returning to last year’s Festival, Paetkau showed a sequence of a polar bear, several aspects of which were enhanced or generated using AI, explaining “we spent under 24 hours there filming this and got footage that we wanted to put into a sequence. We went to the BBC’s Planet Earth, we took a script from a lion hunt, copy and pasted into ChatGPT and altered it to the behaviour we described. Then we got ElevenLabs to produce a voiceover. From the day of filming to putting that together was two days.”
The sequence looked good. It was well edited. The script was fine but the voice over delivery felt, at least to me, like it belonged somewhere on the edge of the uncanny valley. To others in the room, it felt real enough to become a shockwave.
My expectations were then high for the most recent event. The panel in Wildscreen’s Science In Storytelling panel in March 2025 was intriguingly titled, calling for a human focused outlook: “An Altruist’s Guide”. With the AI panel in October 2024 derailing conversations midway through the Festival, the organiser programmed this panel to open the day. Perhaps with one eye on keeping things light(er), it opened with PhD student Prem Gill who is studying seals from satellite data and using AI in his work, conducting a quiz with the audience deciding whether a sound was a “seal” or “space”. Unfortunately, a series of mishaps with the sound meant that it fell a little flat. Prem, however, is an entertaining presenter and as the technology failed, his warm and dry humour made the best of the situation.
There’s no doubt that AI is a tool and can be a useful one. That it can be used in conservation efforts like PhD research is, perhaps, slightly tangential to whether it should be used in wildlife filmmaking. Heading into the panel in March, I was instead wondering how we should use this tool in our stories and what stories might they enable us to tell. Perhaps, more importantly, how honest are we prepared to be about how we use AI tools (if we do at all) in our creative work?
We are used to filmmakers using Computer Generated Imagery (CGI). Some of it considerably better than others. For CGI, Animators and VFX artists manually design and animate scenes or characters. For AI, a person (not described as an artist) types prompts and the AI does the rest. Proponents for AI often suggest that it will reduce the more mundane parts of our jobs and free us up to be more creative. 62% of users in a recent report into AI’s use in media said their biggest use was “Content Creation”. I am interested to know what the more creative parts are of media than content creation but, joking apart, it’s a lovely thought that we might altruistically use AI to make the world a better, more diverse place filled with creativity. I suspect people might, all too often, take shortcuts where they are available.
If we do use AI to create our films, write our articles and tell our stories then what are we freeing ourselves up for? It seems unlikely that many people will look back at their lives and wish they had fewer moments making beautiful things, really getting to the heart of a story and finding ways to enthral audiences. Whether they will wish they spent more time typing prompts into generative AI remains to be seen.
In an adjacent discussion in the world of filmmaking, we are constantly being told that our attention spans are shrinking, although the evidence for that is scant, to say the least. There is evidence that filmmakers believe it and tell audiences that it is true but it does not necessarily follow that people’s propensity to concentrate is diminishing. Oppenheimer, The Brutalist and, to a certain extent, Adolescence tell a different story about audiences and their attention spans. If you want to make long form pieces, you can find the audiences and research to back it up. If you want to make short, snappy social media style films, there’s research to back that up too. Let’s not pretend the audience are all one homogenous group.
I suspect that some filmmakers will use the tools of AI extensively. Some audiences will lap it up. Other filmmakers will strive for a more standard meaning of the word “authentic” and, doubtless, open their films with a badge that declares that AI was not used in the making thereof. Other audiences will seek that content out the way a select band of teenagers are heading to record fairs, hunting for vinyl. Personally, I hope our stories will continue to be rich, deep and authentically told. Perhaps the AI could help with the risk assessments?
By Andrew Glester, Lecturer in Science Communication, MSc Science Communication, UWE Bristol.
By George Edwards, Priya Bala, and Corragh-May White
It’s not every day you get to create your own short film. Yet the MSc in Science Communication at UWE Bristol not only provides this opportunity but does so on such a scale you can’t help but feel incredibly lucky, supported, and excited!
In an assessment for the Science on Air and Screen module, groups of students were tasked with creating a short 7-minute science documentary about a topic of their choice. Our group, consisting of George Edwards, Priya Bala, Corragh-May White and Casey Spry, chose to focus on beavers.
So, how did we come to create “Slowing the Flow”? Keep reading to see how we navigated each key step, and dive into stories to show just how much we enjoyed every stage of the process.
Beaverin’ Away at Research – by George Edwards
Let’s face it. When you hear you’re going to be creating a scientific documentary, your first thought isn’t “Oh, let’s get on with research,” it’s more “Oh wow! We’ve got to do the coolest thing ever!” And I personally think we did.
Forming an Idea
We’d like to say we knew beavers would be a good animal to film to engage our audience, and to an extent we did. But, if we’re honest, we also just really wanted to have an excuse to see some beavers! (Read on to find out if we did!)
Having settled on beavers, we needed a scientific story to focus our film on, and at the time, there had been a lot of news about water pollution in UK rivers, most notably in the River Wye in Wales. It is also commonly understood by global scientists that beavers play key roles in maintaining the water quality of streams and rivers, thanks to the filtering systems of their dams.
So, our idea was formed – we were going to explore how beavers can impact river quality in the UK. But putting together a film wasn’t as easy as we’d expected – especially when beavers don’t want to play ball….
Background Research
One key thing that we had been taught was to avoid exploring a topic that had already been covered by other films, so our first port of call was to sift through other wildlife documentaries on beavers – and to our surprise, we found that no film had specifically focused on this idea.
With the idea formed, and the knowledge it was new, we set off researching the ecology of beavers, river pollution and the intersection between the two. While doing so, I came across a scientific paper, led by Gareth Bradbury, a PhD researcher at the University of Exeter, about how beaver dams can reduce pollution levels in streams and rivers. This gave us a basis on which to build a story, and further research into the topic helped flesh out the science, providing evidence for the topics we’d talk about.
Having emailed Gareth and set up an interview, the next thing we needed was beavers, and someone with knowledge of their conservation. As it happened, Casey had recently been given the contact details of Chris Jones, a farmer and conservationist at Woodland Valley Farm, who had also led the Beaver Trust for many years. Soon, we had two interviews set up, and an offer to stay at Woodland Valley Farm overnight to give us a chance of capturing beavers on camera!
Storyboarding, Interview Planning and Preparation
Possibly the hardest, yet also enjoyable, part of the process was the storyboarding and planning of the film. Deciding where to put what parts of the film, without having any footage, proved difficult, but working as a team helped us find a way to weave together a story and plan based on the information we’d gained via research, and the knowledge of what we wanted to film.
Creating a storyboard, where each scene is carefully planned out, proved incredibly useful when filming. For each scene, we already knew where we wanted the camera, landscape, and people to be positioned, and knew exactly what order shots/scenes would go in. This laborious, yet entertaining, task provided us with much-needed support during the filming and editing portions of the project and brought us closer as a team.
But how did we film “Slowing the Flow”? What was the experience like? Read on to find out, from Priya’s perspective!
Eager Beavers Begin Filming – by Priya Bala
Embarking on the project was an adventure for our team. Our journey took us from the historic city of Exeter to the lush, secluded Woodland Valley Farm. Along the way, we explored the dynamic relationship between nature and humans, focusing on the reintroduction of beavers into the UK. We interviewed passionate individuals, camped under the stars, and experienced the thrill of wildlife observation – complete with all its challenges. But beyond the work, the trip was filled with laughter, camaraderie and unforgettable moments that brought us closer.
Day 1 – University of Exeter
In our journey to document the intersection of nature and sustainability, our first stop was the University of Exeter where we interviewed Gareth Bradbury. His work focuses on a subject increasingly relevant in today’s landscape – how reintroducing beavers can impact the water quality of streams and rivers in England, and he has been exploring this since 2020.
Our chat began by discussing the current state of UK rivers, in which Gareth noted nearly all UK waterways are polluted, a fact found by the 2022 House of Commons Environmental Audit Committee Report. This report underscores a dire reality: most UK rivers struggle with poor water quality, due to pollution from agriculture and wastewater treatment plants.
Given the state of our rivers, the next question was whether beavers could improve water quality. Gareth’s research suggests they can, as beaver dams slow the flow of water, allowing sediments and nutrients to settle, reducing the level of harmful nutrients continuing downstream. One aspect of Gareth’s research is the comparison between rivers with and without beaver activity. According to his findings, there is a noticeable difference in water quality. To see what he told us, go give the film a watch!
As we wrapped up our conversation, it became clear Gareth’s work wasn’t just about studying beavers but was also about finding sustainable ways to restore the health of our rivers.
Day 2 – Woodland Valley Farm
Next, we made our way to Woodland Valley Farm – a beacon of sustainable farming nestled in the Cornish countryside. The farm isn’t just a place of work, but a living example of how agriculture can coexist with wildlife conservation. Here, we met Chris Jones, an enthusiastic advocate for rewilding, whose story is one of dedication to the land, its ecosystems, and the reintroduction of beavers.
Our interview with Chris was nothing short of inspiring. He spoke of his journey from conventional farming to embracing sustainable practices and the challenges and triumphs that came with it. He also shared his excitement about the reintroduction of beavers, a species that plays a crucial role in ecosystem restoration.
After a day of exploring and talking to Chris, it was time for the real adventure: camping out in the hopes of capturing the elusive beavers on camera. Setting up our tents near the river, we were buzzing with excitement and spent the evening huddled around camp, sharing stories, having the famous British Fish and Chips, and laughing about our day. The farm’s serene atmosphere made it easy to forget about the pressures of the project, even for a night.
As the night grew dark, we set up the cameras and kept our eyes peeled on the beaver lodges and dams for any sign of a curious beaver. Despite our high spirits, this was a test of patience. We heard rustling and splashes, but the beavers remained just out of sight. Though we didn’t get the footage we wanted, the experience of working in the quiet night was something we cherished.
Day 3 – Woodland Valley Farm
Determined not to give up, we woke before dawn for another attempt. The early morning mist added a magical quality to the landscapes, and our hopes were renewed. As we waited in silence, we finally saw a beaver gliding through the water, even if our cameras were not quick enough to capture it. Instead of being disappointed, we laughed about the irony of it, appreciating the beauty of the moment instead of worrying about the missed shot.
Success and Reflections
While the beavers evaded our cameras, we didn’t walk away empty-handed. The landscape was rich with evidence of their presence, and we captured footage of gnawed trees, carefully constructed dams, and the channels they carved through the wetland.
As we wrapped up our time filming, there was a sense of accomplishment and a deeper bond among us, and we reflected on the experiences of the past few days, from the academic discussions at Exeter to the hands-on conservation work at the farm, and we had come together as a team, sharing not just the work, but they joy and frustrations that came with it.
While we didn’t capture the perfect shot of a beaver, we documented something perhaps even more meaningful: the intricate relationships between humans and nature, the passion that drives conservation efforts and the undeniable signs of wildlife reclaiming its rightful place in the ecosystem.
This journey reminded us that sometimes, the most powerful stories are not just about what we see, but about the connections we make along the way. Whether in the halls of academia or the wilds of Cornwall, the message was clear—conservation is not just about protecting wildlife, but about understanding and nurturing the intricate web of life that sustains us all.
Editing – Some Dam Fine Work! – by Corragh-May White
After calling cut, we packed up our gear and returned to Bristol incredibly pleased with ourselves. But we scarcely had time to kick the mud from our boots before the next stage. Our project wasn’t over yet – oh no – it had only just begun. Now it was time to begin the editing process.
Editors for 2 Days
Some of our group had video-editing experience, however, beyond what I had learned in previous classes, all I had under my belt was a short-lived career making bad My Chemical Romance covers on GarageBand as a teen. So I was excited for the opportunity to add to my skill set, especially because I wasn’t learning how to edit in a classroom, but in an actual editing studio, Films@59, no less; the same editing studio that brought us Blue Planet and the Great British Bake Off – and we would be under the tutelage of their editing staff.
On the first day, we entered the Films@59 office, pinching ourselves as we passed security with our shiny new passes. The class was separated into individual editing suites and given a workshop on how to use the editing software, Avid, by a Films@59 editor. Then, we were unleased onto the editing suites and the clock was set – each group had just over 2 days to edit all our hours of footage into a seamless narrative story. It was an interesting and productive way to learn a new skill, to say the least, learning while creating a solid portfolio piece that demonstrates my ability, all while getting the opportunity to network with professionals in the industry.
After picking out the footage we wanted to use, it amounted to over 15 minutes – and our final film had to be just 7. This included B-roll, beginning and end credits, so naturally, what followed was 2.5 days of trying to “Kill Our Darlings”, as our lecturer puts it, while coming to grips with every aspect of Avid, from syncing visuals and audio, to focusing footage in post-production, to the fine detailing of trimming a single 0.3 second clip for that perfect shot. Luckily, our mentor Ben Williams-Butt was on hand to guide us through it all.
The Final Countdown
After days of arduous work (and only a small smattering of sweat), when the clock hit zero, we had a completed final film we were very happy with. We then headed to Films@59’s other location, where the company showcases its finished films to clients in their own miniature cinema, but that day, it displayed our own films. It was the most rewarding experience to see how far we had come, comparing my most recent work to earlier projects and seeing how much we had learnt and grown over the course of the module. To be able to cheer on my classmates and hear them cheer me on in return was a fantastic experience and a wonderful way to end the module. Seeing the finished film that we had nurtured from tentative doodles and ideas to a finished product on the big screen made it all worth it.
It was a long, and hefty process of getting to a final film, but our group genuinely enjoyed the whole experience, and are incredibly grateful to the Science Communication Unit and UWE Bristol for giving us the chance to make our first nature documentary! We would truly encourage anyone interested in science documentaries, journalism, education and more to consider taking this course and module to further your own careers in Science Communication.
If you’d like to go give “Slowing The Flow” a watch, it’s available on YouTube here:
Find out how MSc Science Communication student Casey Spry created a podcast about UWE Bristol’s repair café
Leaning against the kitchen window on a warm summer’s afternoon, I suddenly realised my first September with no plans was approaching. Feeling nervous, I scrolled through courses online when I came across one that grabbed my attention – MSc Science Communication. It sounded interesting. My mum peered over my shoulder and said, “Apply, what have you got to lose?” One year later, I was listening to my own voice rumble through the car radio, discussing all things science and sustainability.
I entered the Master’s course at UWE Bristol hoping to discover a new career goal; I wanted a role that allowed me to talk about environmental science and be creative. So, when I was asked to make a podcast package about UWE Bristol’s Repair Café event, I jumped at the opportunity.
The Repair Café is an event held once a month at UWE Bristol’s School of Engineeringbuilding, where students and community members can get broken items fixed for free. But it is also much more than that. The event is part of a wider sustainability movement, as it prevents environmentally harmful items from ending up in landfill. It is run entirely by dedicated volunteers, and I was thrilled to be chatting with some of them for this podcast.
Interviewing people was a new challenge for me, but I was up for it. What I didn’t anticipate, was finding myself in a situation where I would have to interview three people, all at once. Sitting in the open-access area of the engineering building, I set up the microphone, tampered with the recording button more times than necessary, and started the interview with a shaky “Welcome everyone”.
Alongside the interviews, there also needed to be an underlying narrative. It’s all about the story. I was excited about this part, but how could I make this podcast more relatable? I often pondered such thoughts while doing mundane tasks like cooking dinner. Tapping my foot with anticipation, I pulled open my air fryer drawer, only to find the door handle clenched between my fingertips and burnt chips forever locked inside. Instead of immediately throwing the air fryer away, I contemplated its fate as the broken drawer sat miserably on the kitchen counter for weeks. It just didn’t feel right to throw something away when the most expensive part of it, the electricals, wasn’t broken. Could there possibly be a cure? Yes, the Repair Café at UWE Bristol was happening the following Wednesday, and I had faith I could return it to my student house with a new lease of life.
Drew, a volunteer repairer, became the hero of this story; he fixed the air fryer with only two screws. Admittedly, I felt ashamed that I couldn’t have figured out how to do that myself, but it seems I am not the only one who has lost these basic repair skills. As I discovered, during the interviews, the Repair Café also focuses on teaching people how to fix things at home, which is an important skill that many of us no longer have.
Our four-way conversation had flowed better than I could have hoped for, but now it was time to get editing and cut it down to something concise and engaging. Having an active video editing hobby and three years of experience using Adobe editing software, I was undoubtedly looking forward to this part the most. Yet, as with any project, I had plenty of hurdles to get over. Somehow, during the interview I had managed to block out the almost comedic sounds of students playing giant ‘Connect 4’ on a table next to us. Putting my audio editing skills to the test, I worked for days to reduce the noise, but in time I found enjoyment in the immersivity of the surrounding ambience. Including background noise, in fact, became a technique I would use in future radio and podcast creations.
I first heard the package on Bristol City FM as it aired live on the Love and Science radio show. The experience was slightly surreal, but I felt grateful to be sharing it with family and friends as they listened from different locations. Anyone can now listen to the package on the Science Chatters podcast, which can be found through the following link…
While I am only two-thirds of the way through this course, I already have a clearer picture of what it means to be a science communicator. I discovered that this experience wasn’t just about creating a podcast, but also the chance to meet incredible people, all with the same goal as mine – working to create a more sustainable and healthier planet. In addition to learning how to put life back into kitchen appliances, I discovered that there are no limits to the science I can learn and share when creating a science podcast.
Discussions about zombie fungi, exoplanets, and vegetarian spiders; seamless segues; and Taylor Swift. All to be expected during a typical live Love & Science show on local Bristol radio station, BCfm Radio.
Love & Science was started by former UWE Bristol SciComm lecturer Malcolm Love, many years ago. Now, it’s run by Andrew Glester, current Lecturer in Science Communication at UWE Bristol, and a collective of science enthusiasts with a wide range of interests and backgrounds. Many of the episodes are aired live, with sparkling discussions about science stories that have been making headlines, and occasionally interviews with individuals working in science. Some episodes are also partly or completely pre-recorded, like a special episode I had the opportunity to create on the discovery of the shipwreck Endurance. This means anyone can get involved – living local to Bristol is not a requirement.
I got involved in Love & Science after completing the Science on Air and Screen module, and I’m so glad I did. It’s such a fantastic opportunity for any MSc Science Communication student to get involved in live radio and science communication. I found myself using so many of the skills and knowledge that I had learnt on the MSc, from across all the modules. BCfm is predominantly aimed at Bristol residents, but is also streamed on DAB and online, and people can listen in from all over the world, so it’s important to really think about the audience, and how to best communicate different science topics in an engaging and accessible way. Presenting the live shows involves using interview techniques and story crafting, and finding fun and novel angles. I also enjoyed looking out for local science stories, as well as the more national and global ones. Pre-recorded shows and segments enabled me to develop my editing skills, and to create pieces of radio that I’m proud of, and have been able to add to my portfolio. If you’re interested, there is also the opportunity to learn how to use the desk in the studio, which maybe isn’t for the faint-hearted, but feels brilliant once you’ve got the hang of it.
One of the great things about Love & Science is that it’s a safe space to learn and practice. Even making mistakes is to be expected – it’s all about how you handle them. Personally, I feel that getting involved with Love & Science should be viewed as an essential add-on to the MSc, especially for anyone with an interest in radio or podcasting. But even if radio or podcasting isn’t your main area of interest, it’s still perfect for developing skills in engaging audiences, communicating about complex science topics, or telling science stories. Plus you get to pick your favourite cheesy tunes to play on the radio. Who wouldn’t want that?
Rebecca Landon, MSc Science Communication student at UWE Bristol.
Students on the Science on Air and on Screen module in the 21/22 academic year made a 7 minute film to fit in a magazine programme like The One Show or Countryfile. Students were given free reign to choose, research, storyboard and film their sequence before heading to the post-production house Films@59 in Bristol to work with industry editors to complete their films.
Secrets of the Avon gorge
Delving into the stories and science of Bristol’s Avon Gorge, Holly Stevenson, Aimee Milne, Cerys Baker, Laura Thomas, Yi-Hsuan Lee and Jayasuriva Perera made this film.
Reconnecting with nature
Inspired by humanity’s reconnection with nature which, for some, was an unexpected side effect of the Covid-19 pandemic, Dorothy Giles, Elizandra Cripps, Martin Lewis, Lisa Frew, Derek Troutman and Annie Wilson’s film explored our relationship with the natural world around us.
Students on the Science on Air and on Screen module in the 20/21 academic year had to contend with social distancing and restrictions on travel as they developed their science TV programme – one of the assessments for the module. They were tasked with making a film which was roughly seven minutes long in a news feature style about a scientific subject of their choice. The rest was down to the filmmaking training they received – and their creativity. And this year, because of the limitations on what they could do due to the pandemic, they had to get particularly creative about where and how they filmed. But they put together some fantastic videos. Here’s a small sample of what they produced.
Gemma Kerr produced a video about Bristol Museum’s archive and its ‘living fossil’. Her film includes an interview with Rhian Rowson, a Curator at Bristol Museum.
Lucy Perrott put together a Focus on Fungi Q&A that features an interview with Dr Andy Bailey from the University of Bristol.
