This week we spoke with Dr. Carrie McDonough, a recent PhD from URI who has garnered attention from the public as well as other scientists for the blog she founded, Oceanbites. Carrie also has worked with the board for ComSciCon, a fantastic conference opportunity for graduate students interested in Science Communication. I highly suggest applying early and often for ComSciCon! Carrie told us a lot about her exploits with Sci Comm, especially focusing on her experiences starting a blog. She highlighted the importance of delegation for these kinds of efforts. Please feel free to reach out to her directly with further questions at carrie.a.mcd@gmail.com. She also urged me to tell you all to apply for the Bites sites if you'd like more formal practice with writing - Oceanbites especially is in need of new authors! (You do not need to study the ocean at all to write for them - I study freshwater fish for my own research but covered a lot of conservation genomics or evo/devo articles that focused on any marine organism).
For our last class next Monday, I will be running a workshop about tweeting research. Please bring a laptop if at all possible. You will be paired off, though, so as long as one partner has a laptop we can make it work :)
Last but not least, don't forget to send me your full blog post by next Monday after class. I look forward to reading them and providing feedback!