Communication in Science

Code:

DPI1002

Acronym:

DPI1002

Keywords
Classification	Keyword
OFICIAL	Personal and Communicational Development

Instance: 2019/2020 - 1S

Active?	Yes
Responsible unit:	Department of Physics and Astronomy
Course/CS Responsible:	Bachelor in Physics

Cycles of Study/Courses

Acronym	No. of Students	Study Plan	Curricular Years	Credits UCN	Credits ECTS	Contact hours	Total Time
L:F	57	Official Study Plan	1	-	3	30	81
MI:EF	75	study plan from 2017/18	1	-	3	30	81

Teaching language

Portuguese

Objectives

The UC sensitizes students to the importance of developing personal skills in Science Communication and works in particular on the preparation of scientific reports, the preparation and execution of oral communications, and the preparation of scientific articles.

The objectives are:

• draw attention to the importance of effective communication;


• disseminate resources and tools for improving personal written and oral expression skills.


• know the structure of scientific documents (reports, articles, theses, ...)


• know the process of  scientific communications dissemination: paper submission, review, poster presentation and oral communication

Learning outcomes and competences

The acquired skills will be immediately used in the course's UCs and in the students' professional future. In particular:

• techniques for improving oral and body expression in public;


• techniques and resources for improving written expression;


• use of bibliographic, text editing, graphic composition and other communication support tools;


• graphical representation of experimental data;


• ability to summarize the communication of an article in a short abstract;


• organization and production of oral communications and multimedia support material;


• strict compliance with submission deadlines.

Working method

Presencial

Program

1. Written and oral communication in science




• phases of the scientific process


• the circulation of information in science (logbook, data, report, conference, proceedings, article / patent)


• the structure of scientific documents: report, article, thesis


• techniques and resources for improving written expression.


• scientific writing support tools




• scientific text editing


• research and management of bibliographic references


• production of schemes






2. Introduction to analysis and presentation of experimental results.




• measurement and experimental errors




• Random and systematic errors.


• Precision and resolution.


• Evaluation of experimental uncertainties.




• Basic rules of uncertainty propagation.


• data tables


• graphics and adjustments.


• experimental data processing tools




3. Oral scientific communication




• Poster


• oral presentations




• Analysis of oral presentation types, audience and personal style of speakers with emphasis on objectives, language, structure and means;


• Preparation techniques and presentation structure;


• Exposure techniques.


• Presentation editing tools (the projector and the overhead projector).




• techniques for improving oral and body expression in public




4. Other relevant documents




• memo


• curriculum vitae


• motivation letters

Mandatory literature

Strunk Junior William; The elements of style. ISBN: 978-0-14-311272-3
Estrela Edite; Saber escrever, saber falar. ISBN: 972-20-2534-1
Sarah Jacobsson Purewal (PC World); The world's worst PowerPoint presentations , 2016
Garr Reynolds; Top Ten Slide tips, 2016
Taylor John R; An introduction to error analysis. ISBN: 0-935702-75-X (measure and error analysis)
Berendsen Herman J. C.; A student.s guide to data and error analysis. ISBN: 9780521134927

Complementary Bibliography

Zinsser William Knowlton; On writing well. ISBN: 9780060891541
Lagendijk Ad; Survival guide for scientists. ISBN: 978-90-5356-512-4
TeX Users Group; TeX Users Group Website (URL: http://www.tug.org/begin.html), 2016
BIPM; International Vocabulary of Metrology, 2012
Amanda Zantal-Wiener (blog.hubspot.com); How to Create the Best PowerPoint Presentations, With Examples [+ Free Powerpoint Templates], 2017
Tobias Oetiker; Uma não tão pequena introdução ao LaTeX2e; ou LaTeX2e em 137 minutos,, 2011 ( URL: ftp://ctan.tug.org/tex-archive/info/lshort/portuguese/pt-lshort.pdf)

Comments from the literature

Addional information is available in the Moodle webpage for the curricular unit.

Teaching methods and learning activities

Software

JabRef
Latex
SciDAViS
BibTeX
Python
LyX
Inkscape
Mendeley Desktop
Jupyter notebook

keywords

Natural sciences
Physical sciences
Technological sciences

Evaluation Type

Distributed evaluation without final exam

Assessment Components

designation	Weight (%)
Prova oral	40,00
Trabalho escrito	60,00
Total:	100,00

Amount of time allocated to each course unit

designation	Time (hours)
Estudo autónomo	31,00
Frequência das aulas	30,00
Trabalho escrito	20,00
Total:	81,00

Eligibility for exams

The achievement of frequency is guaranteed by the cumulative fulfillment of:

1. attendance, in accordance with the Regulations for the Evaluation of Student Achievement;
2. confirmation of acceptance of the Summary Article submitted by the student within the due dates, in accordance with formal requirements;
3. the accomplishment of the respective oral communication in the sessions of Communication in Science, in date in the Period of Examination.

Calculation formula of final grade

Final mark for students who satisfy attendance requirements:
X - Evaluation of the short article (0-12)
Y - Evaluation of the oral presentation (0-8)

C = (X + Y) 

Examinations or Special Assignments

The evaluation is individual, and it emulates the process of submitting papers to scientific meetings with revision. It is performed in two phases:

1. evaluation of a summary article submitted by the student;
2. evaluation of the respective oral communication, in public session - presentation (10mins) and discussion (2mins).

To this end, a list of mini-projects and / or scientific articles will be published in a timely manner, open to suggestions from the students (validated by the teachers). Each student individually chooses their topic.

The submitted papers will be pre-analyzed by the faculty of the UC, which will result in feedback to students on aspects to improve in the elaboration of the article. Within a short notice period, students will be able to re-submit the corrected version of the article. For evaluation, only the last version received will be considered.

The deadlines for either topic choice or submission of the summary article will be set at the beginning of the semester in Moodle.

Special assessment (TE, DA, ...)

does not apply

Classification improvement

Improvement requires the repetition of the assessment process (submission of short article and presentation) on the dates established for the students of the CU.

Observations

• Carla Susana Santana Carmelo Rosa


• Catarina Gasparinho Godinho Lobo


• Ariel Guerreiro 

and:

• André Pereira


• Augusto Rodrigues 


• Caroline dos Santos da Silva


• Eduardo Filipe Vieira de Castro


• João José de Faria Graça Afonso Lima


• Jorge Filipe da Silva Gameiro


• Manuel António Salgueiro da Silva


• Manuel Joaquim Bastos Marques


• Maria de Fátima Gonçalves da Mota


• Maria Manuela de Romero e Silva Alves Lopes dos Santos


• Paulo Vicente da Silva Marques


• Paulo Simeão de Oliveira Ferreira de Carvalho


• Pedro Alberto da Silva Jorge


• Teresa Monteiro Seixas