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Story Circles – Demo Day: Using Narrative & Story in Grant Proposals
January 11, 2018 at 9:30 am - January 12, 2018 at 4:00 pm
Presenters: Randy Olson and Jayde Lovell
Sponsored by Texas A&M Division of Research, Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station, and USDA
January 11, 2018 – 9:30 a.m. – 4:00 – MSC 2406 – This session is full.
January 12, 2018 – 9:30 a.m. – 4:00 p.m. – MSC 1400 – Space is still available.
Story Circles is a new form of communication training for research scientists and communicators, applicable to everything from grant proposals to research papers to oral presentations. An understanding of narrative is important for clarity in writing. But, even more important, the process of developing a narrative enhances the overall quality of your research as you clarify and focus your goals. Thus the benefits are far beyond clearly written project plans. For competitive funding the better you can tell “your story” the greater the likelihood of success. Story Circles was created by scientist-turned-filmmaker Randy Olson, author of three books on science communication including the recent, “Houston, We Have A Narrative” from University of Chicago Press. It is built around the ABT Framework developed by Olson and to date has involved over 1,000 scientists and communicators from a range of universities and government agencies including USDA, National Park Service, NASA, USGS, UCLA, Yale, Tufts, Univ. Chicago, and Univ. N. Dakota.
Randy Olson earned his PhD in biology from Harvard University, then achieved tenure as a professor of biology at the University of New Hampshire before departing academia for film school, followed by two decades of filmmaking in Hollywood, and now has circled back to science and academia to relate what he has learned. His first book, “Don’t Be Such A Scientist,” sold over 50,000 copies and will be released as a second edition with 50 pages of new content in March, 2018.
On Thursday, January 11 and Friday, January 12, 2018, in College Station, TX, Texas A&M University, TEES, and the Plains Area OSQR will be hosting a full-day kick-off Demo Day with Dr. Randy Olson on how to use narrative in science and scientific writing. This session will provide an introduction and explanation to the training to help participants understand what is involved and decide whether to commit to the full program. The training consists of 10 one-hour sessions following the structured curriculum spread over three months in “Story Circle” teams of 4-5 individuals.
Participants will receive (in advance) a copy of Olson’s “Houston, We Have A Narrative” and will have an opportunity to be part of the extended training. Costs for the Workshop are being paid by TAMU, TEES, and OSQR so there is no cost to individual attendees.
For questions please contact: Dr. Laurie Garton, lsgarton@tamu.edu
Register at: https://tamu.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_02QuBwHejOnZ7PD&Q_JFE=0
