INTRO: The proposal suggests an innovative approach to the initiation and framing of conservation discussions. It is critical to increase and improve such dialogues; scientists/communicators should be equipped with a range of techniques for this purpose. The session therefore provides a good opportunity for participants to consider how they might employ creative methods that they might not previously have considered in order to achieve vital outreach and impact goals.
MERITS: The proposal focuses on a novel topic that should be both interesting and useful for attendees to consider. It blends science and communication in a creative way, emphasising the power of interdisciplinary 'STEAMM', rather than just 'STEMM', ways of thinking. This sort of endeavour is increasingly being recognised as fruitful and worthwhile, so it is an important concept to consider within the context of scicomm and conservation outreach.
CRITIQUE: There are no major weaknesses
DISCUSSION: The proposal looks interesting and relevant as-is and does not require any edits for improvement. Implications and relevance are already mentioned in the above sections.
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INTRO: This abstract lays out a proposed talk on using science fiction as a tool for science communication, particularly in the scope of nature and the natural world.
MERITS: This abstract reads well and poses relavant questions on the topic of science communication. It effectiveley engages and interesting the reader in the topic of the talk.
CRITIQUE: None
DISCUSSION: This talk lays out an element of science communication that is often overlooked by many within the scientific community. I hope it will help foster more thought into potential future collaborations between authors and scientists, and encourage more scientists to explore the role of science fiction for communicating their science.
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INTRO: This presentation will offer a novel perspective from that of a fictional author who has worked to integrate nature into their stories in a way that is different to mainstream science finction novels. The author will discuss he impact that science-fiction writing can have on environmentally-conscious changes in people's lives.
MERITS: This presentation will offer conference attendees a novel perspective about how they can integrate their knoweldge and passions about nature (or other topics) into different writing forms like science-fiction.
CRITIQUE: It would be nice to see some other cases shared in the presentation, and possibly to integrate some peer-reviewed literature on the benefits of writing in relation to conservation and science.
DISCUSSION: As I highligthed above this presentation will offer novel perspectives for many of the conference attendees, and offer them an opportunity to engage with a writer who has an interest in changing the way that nature is viewed in science-fiction; an area that many scientists might not have engaged with. I think to enage scientists fully the talk would benefit from some broader considerations or cases where nature has been integrated in science-fiction writing in unique ways, or where scientists have collaborated with science-fiction writers, and what has resulted from that.
