Teaching students to profile Trent research

A writing program that teaches science students how to make scientific information understandable to the general public is coming this fall to Trent University.

Trent was one of four institutions selected to take part in a program called SPARK (Students Promoting Awareness of Research Knowledge) funded by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC).

SPARK was launched in 1999 at 10 Canadian universities, based on a successful University of Guelph program.

Trent's SPARK mentor will be Professor Magda Havas of environmental and resource science/studies. Havas designed and teaches a Trent course called communicating science that trains science students how to make scientific information understandable to the general public.

Beginning this fall, Havas will oversee the recruiting and training of Trent students with an aptitude for communications who will be paid to write stories based on the university's NSERC-supported research. Their writings will help profile NSERC-funded research at the university.

Stories by SPARK authors appear on NSERC's Web site and in some of their print publications. Havas anticipates that the SPARK project at Trent will produce 40 research stories annually.

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