The SciComm Confessional

Summary: The STEM Response Team and The Royal Institution have a wealth of experience developing and delivering science demonstrations, but things still go wrong.
Everyone finds it hard to admit they’ve made mistakes, especially Health and Safety ones. We believe it reflects poorly on us, but they do happen. We’ll encourage scicommers of all experiences to share mistakes they’ve made and the lessons they learned. By sharing these we hope to collectively learn without the mistakes.
We encourage attendees with decades of experience to show those with less that everyone makes mistakes and together we can all get better and safer.

Lead: Dan Plane, Head of Public and Family Programmes (Including the Demonstration Team), The Royal Institution

Session type: Discussion session - cabaret/classroom layout essential
Duration: 1 hour

Notes: At last year's conference Martin shared a video of an accident he had. He shared the assumptions and oversights that led to the accident and I felt it was not only very brave to share it, but I learnt a lesson about that demo without ever being put in harms way. It inspired me to suggest this session where scicommers share accidents they have had and be honest and open about what led to those accidents.
It can be hard for people to admit they have made mistakes, so Martin and I will open proceedings by sharing our own accidents and fostering a supportive atmosphere. This may include implementing a promise of confidentiality and having everyone agree that what is said in the room stays in the room. That is why I have said "maybe" to it being hybrid and recorded, as people may feel anxious about admiting to mistakes in a public forum.
We may also allow anonymous stories to be submitted to support people's openness.
A screen would also be useful as we have some videos to share, but I wasn't comfortable demanding that we "Absolutely" needed one, but we'd definitely appreciate one.

Email: dplane@ri.ac.uk Tel: 07764484135

Other participants: Martin Khechara, The STEM Response Team, University of Wolverhampton, MPKhechara@wlv.ac.uk