About Me

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I'm an assistant professor of neuroscience at Washington State University in Vancouver, where I use tiny zebrafish (the size of an eyelash!) as a model system to study human hearing loss and how we can prevent it. I'm also a long-time Toastmaster and I teach communication workshops. This blog represents the merging of my two passions - science and communication, which has really become one central passion - the science of communication. There's a revolution in science right now...the idea that we scientists should sometimes leave the lab and talk about what we do, and why we do it, to real people. This blog looks at why we should do this, and how to actually talk about science with non-scientists (and with each other!). Portions of this blog are also featured on Qualia, the AAAS MemberCenter blog site.

Thursday, April 11, 2013

Authenticity: just be you

By Janine Castro, PhD

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I’ve been teaching a number of public speaking workshops for scientists lately and have stumbled across an interesting dilemma.  As an instructor, I make a diligent effort to model the behavior that I am trying to teach, because, after all, public speaking is a performance art. My goal, however, is not for students to emulate my style, but to create a style all their own. Demonstrating the “right” way to present invariably leads to the “wrong” way to present. I have come to the conclusion that there really is no correct presentation style, but there is your correct style.