Astrobites Science Communication Workshop at AAS 235

Astrobites, a collaboration of astronomy graduate students, is conducting a workshop at the 235th meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Honolulu. The 90-minute workshop, "Science Communication Through the Lens of Astrobites," will introduce attendees to the topic of science writing, geared toward writing summaries of modern scientific research that are accessible to undergraduates in the field as well as the general public.

The workshop will review general best-practice rules that Astrobites writers follow when putting together articles, and it will provide in-workshop opportunities to apply the practices to written science articles through critique and small-group discussion. After the workshop, Astrobites will remain in contact with participants and guide them through the step-by-step process of writing an Astrobites-style article. Participants will review and edit each other's work, gaining experience applying the best-practice principles. Eventually, completed articles will be published on the Astrobites website alongside those of regular Astrobites authors. The hope of the collaboration is that attendees will walk away from the entire experience with the practical skills to convey cutting-edge astronomy research to an audience that may lack the technical know-how to dive fully into the original articles on the arXiv preprint server.

This workshop is particularly intended for undergraduate and graduate students and any educators who are interested in trying their hand at science communication. It will be held on Monday, January 6th, from 10:00 am to 11:30 am, and registration requires a fee of $35. You can register for the workshop as part of your meeting registration.