Posts by: Sarah Sunu

It’s hard to believe that 2020 is just around the corner! It’s going to be a significant year for COMPASS— we'll be celebrating our 20th anniversary!   Many organizations never make it this far. Nonprofits work with limited resources on big, complex topics in a big, complex world. That COMPASS has reached this milestone is a testament both to our visi...

Dr. Carlos M. De León-Rodríguez recently completed an Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education (ORISE) post-doctoral fellowship with the Centers for Disease Control in San Juan, Puerto Rico. His research focused in developing diagnostic tools to differentiate between the Zika and dengue virus infections, which have similar early symptoms and are both mosquit...

Over the years, we’ve been asked for tips on how we create presentations. A key thing that we always try to remember is to use the same principles that we talk about with the Message Box (knowing your audience, crafting your messages with them in mind, limiting your key points to 3-5 things, sharing the ‘So What?’), but to apply them visually, as well as with...

In our trainings, and on this blog, we talk a lot about the importance of getting to know your audience. As science communication trainers, we also need tools that help us get to know our audience! But sometimes it’s just not possible to gather that information ahead of time. We know that this is something that many scientists struggle with as well—whether you ...

What’s one way to get the attention of adults and children alike? Say the magic words: “Once upon a time….” Of course, those words aren’t magic in and of themselves. It’s what they signal to people that’s important. When we hear that phrase, we know that a story is coming, and as humans, we are primed to pay attention to stories. Stories, and how t...