{"id":21216,"date":"2013-05-02T10:42:30","date_gmt":"2013-05-02T14:42:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/?p=21216"},"modified":"2015-03-05T16:20:27","modified_gmt":"2015-03-05T21:20:27","slug":"npr-correspondent-to-teach-wright-state-university-course-in-bringing-clarity-plain-language-and-fun-to-scientific-communications","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/2013\/05\/02\/npr-correspondent-to-teach-wright-state-university-course-in-bringing-clarity-plain-language-and-fun-to-scientific-communications\/","title":{"rendered":"NPR correspondent to teach Wright State University course in bringing clarity, plain language and fun to scientific communications"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/2011\/05\/25\/noted-author-samuel-shem-to-deliver-commencement-address-at-the-wright-state-university-boonshoft-school-of-medicine\/bsom_logo\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-5107\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-5107\" src=\"http:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/files\/2011\/05\/BSOM_logo-260x204.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"260\" height=\"204\" \/><\/a>Jon Hamilton, a science correspondent at NPR, will teach a Wright State University graduate level course this summer in how to communicate scientific information in a way that is brief, clear, engaging and fun.<\/p>\n<p>This is the fourth year that Hamilton will teach the WSU web-based course, Communications in Science. Hamilton, who loves science but hates jargon, was part of NPR\u2019s team of science reporters and editors who went to Japan in 2011 to cover the crisis at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant after the earthquake and tsunami.<\/p>\n<p>In his job at NPR, he talks to scientists every day. While almost all of them have something interesting and important to say, he says many of them have trouble conveying what they know in a way that the average NPR listener can understand.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI decided it would be fun to teach a class in how to communicate science effectively. Of course, not everyone in the course is a scientist,\u201d said Hamilton, who received the Michael E. DeBakey Journalism Award in 2009 for his piece on the neuroscience behind treating autism. \u201cI\u2019ve had educators, journalists and just plain curious people take the class and love it. But what my students have in common is an interest in science and a desire to convey scientific information to others in a way that\u2019s entertaining, clear and informative.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Hamilton also expressed concern about people and elected officials who don\u2019t understand the basics of important scientific issues like climate change, environmental toxins and evolutionary biology.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat\u2019s led to a lot of bad decisions, like not vaccinating children for deadly diseases or ignoring the sea level rise until a storm puts Lower Manhattan under water,\u201d said Hamilton, who agreed to teach the summer course after spending three days in 2010 on the WSU campus for a story he was working on for NPR, previously known as National Public Radio. The story focused on Lisa Daxer, a WSU biomedical engineering major who has autism.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf journalists, educators and scientists did a better job communicating scientific ideas, we could make better decisions in the future,\u201d Hamilton said.<\/p>\n<p>For more information about the class, call Stacy Hendry, B.S., at (937) 775-4091.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Jon Hamilton, a science correspondent at NPR, will teach a Wright State University graduate level course this summer&#8230; <a href=\"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/2013\/05\/02\/npr-correspondent-to-teach-wright-state-university-course-in-bringing-clarity-plain-language-and-fun-to-scientific-communications\/\" class=\"morelink\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":34,"featured_media":5107,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[722,725,2016,715,2132,719],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21216","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-academics","category-home-news-sidebar","category-medicine","category-news","category-pharmacology-and-toxicology","category-special-categories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21216","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/34"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21216"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21216\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21377,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21216\/revisions\/21377"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5107"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21216"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21216"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21216"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}