Workshop on Scientific Storytelling
Science is easier to understand if you wrap it in a story. MaP Doctoral School regularly organises workshops to help its doctoral students improve their storytelling skills. Marco Zbinden of Future Now Consultants has been our education partner for these workshops since 2022.
Impressions from the workshop in Fall 2022
- Learn to structure a pitch according to the basic rules of rhetoric to convey the relevance of a doctoral topic to an outsider compellingly in 3-4 min, thereby triggering a reaction in the other person: "Interesting! I would like to know more about that!".
- Comparing own and external perception to discover patterns and blind spots in one's self-perception.
- Improve performance skills on various communication levels (verbal, paraverbal, non-verbal).
The core question when presenting a scientific work is always: How can I do justice to my highly complex and multi-layered topic on the one hand, and the other hand make it clear to the other person why my work is relevant? Unfortunately, most of the time, the scales of serious academics tip to the side of complexity, and contact with the audience or the listener suffer accordingly.
In this practical workshop, Marco Zbinden focuses on teasing out how passion for the topic and social relevance come into play so that the listener is stimulated and, ideally, emotionally involved. To this end, Zbinden also works with tried-and-tested methods from the theatre sector, which are sometimes rather unconventional in the university context, to sharpen awareness of how to work on different levels of communication.
Kickoff: 30-min introductory online session
Introducing the workshop's goals, style, and flow, collecting participants' expectations and assigning two preparatory exercises for the main workshop.
Workshop: one-day, onsite practical training
Specific and holistic training in performance and communication skills, playfully and easily. Sometimes, we dare a step out of our comfort zone. Observing your colleagues is also key. By giving feedback, also one's patterns are reflected.
Agenda:
- Activation of body and voice with specific exercises from the context of theatre education
- Exercises on contact and presence
- Input on the three levels of communication (verbal, non-verbal, paraverbal)
- Feedback rules with a focus on the clear separation of observation and effect
- Short lectures on personal passion, including feedback round
- Brief input on the subject of storytelling
- Playful exercise to build a successful story
- (Short format with collegial case advice on pitching difficulties)
- 3-min pitches of own doctoral thesis, including feedback round
- Wrap up and reflect on the transfer of what has been learned into everyday life
- Individual objectives for the Pitch Lab
Pitch Lab: half-day interactive online session
Deepening what has been learned and applying concrete scientific storytelling examples in different situations. Participants get additional opportunities to deal specifically and in-depth with the presentation of their topic. This final training session will be tailored in consultation with the needs of the participants and may also cover additional inputs in the composition and structure of pitches, as well as rhetorics.
Workshop Instructor
Marco Zbinden graduated as an actor at the ZHdK in 2004. In 2012 he acquired a diploma as an adult educator (SVEB). In the last ten years, he has taught performance skills and practical rhetoric for different institutions (PH Zurich, SAQ Qualicon). Furthermore, he works as a voiceover speaker and personal coach for performance and communication. As a «Future Now Consultant», he advises companies on internal communication and moderates events (external page www.futurenow.ch).
Past editions
Announcement: Would you like to improve your presentation skills? Our Scientific Storytelling Journey aims to help you present your work in front of an audience in, but also bundle up your research into an interesting story. How do you arouse and keep the audience's attention? How do you effectively use your body language and your voice? What structural elements support your story?
That’s what you will be working on with the coach and former actor Marco Zbinden in a very hands-on and practical way.
The journey consists of the the following steps:
- Kickoff: 4 March | 10.00-10.30 | online
- Workshop: 21 March | 8.30-16.30 | HIT E 51
- Coaching session: between 21.03. and 24.04.2024 (one individual coaching session per participant)
- Pitch Lab: 24 April | 9.30-12.30 | online
The MaP Doctoral School | Advanced Manufacturing thematic track offered a new workshop on 'Scientific Storytelling', curated by Marco Zbinden of Future Now Consultants in fall 2022.
How to draw the essence of your doctoral topic and arouse curiosity about your work? The workshop in fall 2022 was structured in three parts:
- Kickoff: 10 October | 10.00-10.30 | online
- Workshop: 19 October | 8.30-16.30 | HIT E 51
- Pitch Lab: 9 November | 9.30-12.30 | online
