SCIENCE AND THE MEDIA - A COMMUNICATION PROJECT FOR SCIENCE STUDENTS

All BTEC science and technology courses require students to develop Common Skills, defined as 'skills of a general, transferable character'. A programme is outlined under this theme, in which students consider the level of public understanding of science, analyse the role of one element of the mass media, national daily newspapers, in communicating news and information about science, and gain insight into the problems of popular scientific communication by writing pieces on scientific topics, suitable for various types of newspaper. The programme could be used in a variety of other educational contexts.