Course Title: Storytelling and Science Communication
Course coordinator: Raffaella Mulas
Location: Department of Mathematics, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
Participants: 10 students across the Bachelor's, Master's, and PhD levels
Timing: October–December 2025.
Note: No EC are awarded for this course.
Funding: The course is funded through the VU Startpremie Grant awarded to Raffaella Mulas.
Goals and structure of the course
The main goal is to help students learn how to communicate science in a clear, personal, and engaging way. The course is highly interactive and ends with a live theater show, titled Science speaks: Stories that move minds. In this final show, each student has 7 minutes to share (without slides):
A scientific topic in an engaging way,
A historical note about science,
A personal story about their journey in science,
Or (even better) a mix of all of the above!
To prepare for the performance, students take part in several workshops and feedback sessions.
After the Science speaks show, students are also encouraged to bring their stories into schools and/or at outreach events, in collaboration with Nora – Center for Science Communication and Platform Wiskunde Nederland (the Dutch platform for coordination and promotion of mathematics) and in particular Nicos Starreveld.