Talk Nerdy to Me

Talk Nerdy to Me

Five

years

ago,

I

experienced

a

bit

of

what

it

must

have

been

like

to

be

Alice

in

Wonderland.

Penn

State

asked

me,

a

communications

teacher,

to

teach

a

communications class for engineering students. And I was scared. (Laughter) Really

scared. Scared of these students with their big brains and their big books and their big,

unfamiliar words. But as these conversations unfolded, I experienced what Alice must

have when she went down that rabbit hole and saw that door to a whole new world.

That's just how I felt as I had those conversations with the students. I was amazed at

the ideas that

they had,

and

I

wanted others

to

experience this wonderland as

well.

And I believe the key to opening that door is great communication.

五年前，

我曾有过一个

有如漫游爱丽丝仙境的经历。

宾夕法 尼亚州立大学让我这个教沟通

学的老师

给工程系的学生上沟通学课。

我被吓到了。（笑声）

我真的被吓坏 了。这些学

生发达的大脑，

还有他们 所读的巨著，

及他们使用的又长又生僻的词语通通都吓到我了。

不

过随着对话的展开，

我的经历就如爱丽丝一样，

顺着那个兔子洞

下去，

看到了那扇通往一

个全新世界的大门。

这就是我和那些学生们对话时的感受。

我对他们的想法感到惊奇，

而

且我希望其他人也能体验这种在仙境中的感觉。

我相信打开那扇门的关键

就是要有很好的

交流与沟通。

0:58 We desperately need great communication from our scientists and engineers in

order to change the world. Our scientists and engineers are the ones that are tackling

our

grandest

challenges,

from

energy

to

environment

to

health

care,

among

others,

and if we don't know about it and understand it, then the work isn't done, and I believe

it's

our

responsibility

as

non-scientists

to

have

these

interactions.

But

these

great

conversations can't occur if our scientists and engineers don't invite us in to see their

wonderland. So scientists and engineers, please, talk nerdy to us.

0:58

为了改变世界，我们迫切需要从我们的

科学家和工程师那里得到良好的沟通。

我们

的科学家和工程师们解决的都是

我们所面临的最大的难题，从能源

到环境再到卫生保健，

等等。

如果我们不明白也不理解的话，

他们 的工作对我们就没有什么意义了，

并且我相信

我们作为非科学家们有责任与他们进行互动交流。

我们领进门

去看看他们的仙境的话，

我们之间也就不可能有很好的交流。< /p>

所以科学家和工

程师们，请跟我们说说 高科技是什么吧。

1:34 I want to share a few keys on how you can do that to make sure that we can see

that

your

science

is

sexy

and

that

your

engineering

is

engaging.

First

question

to

answer for us: so what? Tell us why your science is relevant to us. Don't just tell me

that you study trabeculae, but tell me that you study trabeculae, which is the mesh-like

structure

of

our

bones

because

it's

important

to

understanding

and

treating

osteoporosis.

1:34

我想来分享几个有用的方 法，

告诉你们如何才能保证

让我们也 觉得你们的科学

性感

< br>迷人、

你们的工程学魅力四射。

第一个要回答我们的问题：

高科技又怎样？

告诉我们，

为什么你们的科学与我们有关。

别光告诉我你们研究骨小梁，

要告诉 我你们研究骨小梁是

因为这种骨骼的网状组织

对认识和治疗骨质疏松症很重要。

2:02 And when you're describing your science, beware of jargon. Jargon is a barrier to

our understanding of

your ideas. Sure,

you can say

not just say

your ideas accessible is not the same as dumbing it down. Instead, as Einstein said,

make everything as simple as possible, but no simpler. You can clearly communicate

your

science

without

compromising

the

ideas.

A

few

things

to

consider

are

having

examples, stories and analogies. Those are ways to engage and excite us about your

content.

And

when

presenting

your

work,

drop

the

bullet

points.

Have

you

ever

wondered why they're called bullet points? (Laughter) What do bullets do? Bullets kill,

and they will kill your presentation. A slide like this is not only boring, but it relies too

much

on

the

language

area

of

our

brain,

and

causes

us

to

become

overwhelmed.