It's hard to believe that I'm completely done with all the classes required for my master's. The last four months of the program will be spent doing my internship and research, and after that I'll get to start being a real (non-student) adult. I'm really glad I decided to come to Canada for the year and pursue this path. Now it's time to press onward and finish this final stretch!
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To finish off my posts on final exams, this post will focus on two projects I did for Practice I. Practice I: The Class As you can probably guess from the title, this class was all about practicing. But practicing what? Basically, this class had us practice all the theoretical concepts we learned during the fall semester. Instead of simply reading about pathos and eye contact and pejorative language, we were now presenting written, verbal, and visual science communication pieces that put those concepts into real-life contexts. Practice I: The Final The main final for this class was a collaboration between the science communication students and some master’s students in biology. Each SciComm student was paired with a bio student, and together they worked to create a 5-7 minute presentation on the research the bio student is doing for their master’s. The talk was supposed to be in the style of a TED Talk (i.e., minimal slides) and focus on developing the bio student’s ability to communicate about their research to a non-specialist audience. I was really lucky that I already knew my bio student before the project. We have the same advisor for our master’s research, even though our research topics are totally different. The topic she is researching is… Biomining What is biomining? To answer that question, let me first talk about regular mining. In regular mining, humans use a process called smelting to extract valuable metals. After rock is crushed into small pieces, these pieces are put through a heating and melting cycle. This cycle, called smelting, causes the metals in the rock to separate from the rock, and which point the metals can be collected. But after smelting, there is a ton of leftover mine waste.
One way we might be able to extract the metal from the mine waste would be to put the mine waste through the smelting process again. However, this takes a lot of time and money and still leaves a lot of the metals untouched. How else could we potentially extract the metals from the mine waste then? That’s where biomining comes in.
Sudbury became known for its nickel mining in the early 1900s, when stainless steel was invented. Nickel is a main component of stainless steel, and for years Sudbury cornered the market (hence the city’s nickname ‘Nickel Capital of the World.’) Yet all this mining had a lot of negative effects on the environment, and to this day the city is still working to clean up the mess. One way they are looking to do this is through biomining, and thus why my bio student is doing her master’s research on it.
For those interested in learning more about biomining research at Laurentian, check out this great video by Dr. Nadia Mykytczuk. All the bio students presented their TED Talks during a session at Laurentian’s Research Week, a week at the university where students publicly present the research they did over the past year. We recorded each of the presentations, and afterward the SciComm students edited their bio students’ presentations into 3-minute videos. These videos were shown at a potluck dinner the professors hosted for the SciComm and bio students, to celebrate a job well done. Below is the video I made with my bio buddy, who I think did a wonderful job. 😊 You rock, Arielle! While the biology presentations were our main final for Practice I, our professor also asked us to do one more small assignment before calling the class done. She wanted us to write a briefing note. A briefing note is a short paper meant to quickly and effectively inform a decision-maker about an issue. Usually you hear the term ‘briefing note’ in the context of government, where politicians do not have time to read extensive articles on every issue they could possibly vote on. Instead, the politicians have their aides create briefing notes for them, so the politicians can then have at least a general knowledge of the issues at hand. We could choose any topic we wished, and so I decided to do my briefing note on the recent nuclear negotiations between Saudi Arabia and the United States. I had a lot of fun researching this topic, and below is the briefing note I created! So that wraps up the finals I did this semester. With less than 48 hours before I fly out, I’ll make sure to create an end-of-semester photo compilation before I go!
Originally, I thought I might include all the rest of my finals in a single post. But as I began to write, I realized that to really appreciate what I did this semester would require me to give a bit of a background on each class from which the finals came. As such, I decided to split my final projects into separate posts. This post is dedicated to the final from the class New Media. New Media: The Class New Media is a brand-new class this year, so we’re the first SciComm students to go through the course. Remember in my last blog post I mentioned Traditional Media? That class is what the program usually required, since it focused on traditional means of communication, like journal articles and podcasts. However, ever since the advent of the Internet, there have been many, many discussions on if print news is dying or if it will stick around. Regardless of the debate’s outcome, what is sure is that digital media plays a giant role in how people consume information, so we better understand how to wield the platform effectively. In the class New Media, we focused on three things:
After all the groups presented their infographics, we agreed that Snapchat is definitely NOT a good platform for science communication. While it might be good for science organizations like Science North to create custom filters for special events to engage visitors, the vast majority of Snapchat users only use the app to send direct messages to friends, not to consume news. For lasting science communication, it’s much better to use platforms* like YouTube, Instagram, and Facebook. *Specifically, these platforms work well for communicators looking to reach the general public. For communicators looking to network with other science communicators, Twitter is a great option. New Media: The Final The final for the class was the most ambitious thing we tackled: creating a social media communication plan for a science organization. The organization my group worked with wasn’t really an “organization.” Rather, there are several different parties working to bring more awareness of fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD) to the Sudbury community. Our job was to:
Since the only thing that causes FASD is consuming alcohol during pregnancy, a lot of people mistakenly assume that FASD is 100% preventable. But assuming this completely ignores those situations where a woman might have consumed alcohol before realizing she was pregnant, or consumed alcohol because of emotional stressors happening in her environment. By portraying FASD as 100% preventable, it shames women who have consumed alcohol, either knowingly or unknowingly, but still want the best for their babies. These are just a few of the things we needed to keep in mind when creating a social media communication plan. Below is the final plan we came up with. If you look at Section 3, you will see we got to try making personas. Personas are fictional characters created to represent the different users who might possibly interact with your service or site. Once your service or site is mostly ready, you can run a hypothetical situation where your personas engage with the product, in order to better understand the specific needs of your target audience(s). This class definitely gave me a much better appreciation for the different social media platforms out there. Specifically, after using social media analytic services like Meltwater, I improved my understanding of and ability to critique the current uproar concerning Facebook and Cambridge Analytica. Going forward, I know these skills will make me much more adept at effectively communicating my science on whichever platform I choose.
Hi, everyone! I leave for Switzerland in only six days, so it's time for me to wrap up the semester with blog posts on my final projects. This post will focus on the Exhibits class and gravitational waves. Communicating Science Through Exhibits During winter semester, all the students chose one of two classes: 1) SCOM-5076 (Communicating Science Through Exhibits) 2) SCOM-5106 (Communicating through Traditional Media) The majority of my cohort picked Traditional Media, but I and four others went with Exhibits. Since the goal of Exhibits was to design an exhibit for Science North, our classes were held at the science center. During our first class January 11, six Staff Scientists—each in charge of a different area of Science North—presented their exhibit concepts as potentials for further development. The concept that most piqued my interest came from Olathe MacIntyre, Staff Scientist of Space Place. MacIntyre hoped to design an exhibit explaining gravitational waves to visitors, so I and one other girl chose this to be our semester-long project. What are Gravitational Waves? Gravitational waves first made headlines in February 2016, when the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) announced they had observed gravitational waves for the first time in September 2015. Gravitational waves are waves in the fabric of space-time, created when the gravity wells of massive objects, like black holes and neutron stars, interact with each other.
The interferometer at LIGO, which detected the gravitational waves, is very large, with each arm of the observatory covering 2.5 miles (4 km). To put this in perspective, it would take almost an hour to walk from one end to the other. The detection of gravitational waves at LIGO won the 2017 Nobel Prize in Physics.
Short version We decided to aim the signage of our exhibit at an older audience, with the hopes that those people (like parents and teachers) would then be able to explain the science to the younger visitors (like their children and students). However, we knew there would need to be something to attract the younger audience to the exhibit as well. After looking through YouTube, we came across this awesome "wave table" demonstration: Using this as an example, we brainstormed what a wave table exhibit might look like, and sketched some preliminary ideas. After meeting with people from the tech shop, we had to scrap a lot of the interactive components (like being able to change the distance between wheels) so that the exhibit could be completed in the short amount of time we had. Then, we started building. Here is a preview of us testing the fabric. It's a bit hard to see the waves without slow motion film, like the YouTube video used. Here are close-up versions of what our two main posters looked like! After spending a week evaluating our exhibit on the floor at Science North, we drew up a new sketch illustrating how the exhibit could be improved. Full version If we're lucky, our exhibit will eventually become a permanent one at Science North, after the remodeling takes place later this year. Stay tuned later this week to hear about the finals for my other classes, New Media and Practice I!
Though my last in-person final took place on Friday, I still have a few papers I will be handing in this week. While I finish up those last few things, I wanted to take the time to write about a visit we had the week before last from two amazing women who are increasing science opportunities for low-income communities in the Toronto area. These women are from… Visions of Science (VoS)
Barriers to engagement Eugenia explained that the key to increasing science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) engagement among students requires three things: Start early, Foster interest, and Enhance awareness. But when it comes to students from low-income areas, they face a lot of barriers. These barriers include: -Negative perceptions of students from low-income areas -Limited financial capacity -Limited access to opportunities Taken together, these barriers result in persistent underachievement and underrepresentation of youth from low-income areas in STEM. Making changes in formal learning environments (i.e., schools) to increase STEM opportunities for low-income students can be difficult since that requires changes on a provincial or federal level to the school curriculum. Thus, Visions of Science works to create informal learning opportunities for low-income students in three ways. Community STEM clubs From October to April each year, VoS runs weekly STEM get-togethers in each Toronto-based community where they’ve established a club. Club activities involve curriculum and experiments VoS developed, and these activities change year-to-year as VoS develops new ideas and club members voice opinions on what topics they wish to learn more about. These clubs are for students grades 3 to 8. However, Eugenia said that many of their students wanted to stay involved after reaching high school, so VoS started its second informal learning opportunity: STEM Community Leaders. STEM Community Leaders STEM Community Leaders are students grades 8 to 12, who have aged out of the VoS club program but still want to stay involved. Instead of doing the curriculum and experiments, the students are now the ones running the curriculum and experiments! The STEM Community Leaders officially started in summer 2017, and Eugenia says it is a great help for VoS since there are only nine full-time staff at VoS and the community STEM clubs rely on volunteers to run them. Having students who went through the club take over the club activities not only ensures the clubs will continue, but it strengthens each club’s kinship since the community members themselves are the ones driven to keep the club alive. Summer Learning Camps Last summer, VoS held their first 7-week summer term with 19 students from nine of their communities. Eugenia said the experience was crazy but amazing, since VoS was creating the curriculum as they went, depending on which of their community partners were willing to host events (like the Ripley Aquarium giving the students a behind-the-scenes tour). One of the most fortuitous happenings during the summer was when the University of Toronto discovered they had leftover funding from the Da Vinci Engineering Enrichment Program (DEEP). DEEP is a summer opportunity for high school students to take courses in a variety of engineering, technology, business and science disciplines. However, because of its price, usually only high-income students can participate. But since the University had leftover funding, they hosted the VoS students for free, and even held a banquet for the VoS students’ families at the end of the course! While these are the current informal learning opportunities that VoS offers, Eugenia and Hamna said they are working toward a fourth opportunity: In-School Enrichment. In-School Enrichment Since a lot of the VoS-developed experiments complement curriculum taught in local schools, Eugenia said VoS hopes to work with teachers to incorporate the activities as supplemental material in the classrooms. So far, VoS has only worked with one teacher to see how such a program might perform, and discovered it will require a lot more planning than they anticipated. As such, they are not currently able to work with any more teachers, but Eugenia said VoS hopes to begin rolling out this initiative in the next few years.
In order to find grants to apply for, Eugenia said she uses Grant Connect. This website lets charities know about grants offered to Canadian charities by both Canadian and American foundations. It is through this website Eugenia discovered the Toronto Pearson International Airport funds a lot of grants, and she’s since received quite a bit of funding from them. Avoiding tokenism One rule Eugenia makes very clear with any funding organization or partner is that the VoS students will not be used as token minorities in any public communication campaigns. Not only are the students low-income, but many of them are from racial and ethnic minority groups, and Eugenia said that funding these informal STEM opportunities cannot come at the cost of the students being used in “Look, we funded disadvantaged kids!” campaigns that many organizations (in)advertently promote their image as social do-gooders. In class, Eugenia showed us two promotional videos VoS created that demonstrate the work they do while avoiding tokenism: Eugenia said that organizations like VoS are fairly common in the United States, but VoS is basically the only one of its kind in Canada. While she would like to expand VoS throughout Ontario, she knows that with their current resources, sticking to the Toronto area is their only feasible option. These resources don’t just include grant funding; it includes challenges inherent to working with low-income communities. Eugenia talked about one time they went to work with a group of students only to discover half of the kids did not get breakfast that morning. Before starting, the VoS staff had to run to the local store for some cookies, so the kids would have energy to focus on the STEM activities. People who are not from these low-income communities do not appreciate just how steep the climb is to tackle all the challenges preventing students from accessing STEM opportunities, Eugenia explained. Even she, who came from a low-income community, was shocked by some of the communities they’ve worked in, since it showed her that the community she came from wasn’t representative of just how challenged a low-income community can be. But Eugenia hopes that the more they work with these communities, the more they will learn about how to tackle these challenges, and the better STEM opportunities they will be able to offer. For those interested in more details on the VoS activities, you can read this article that Eugenia published on the program:
Understanding the delivery of a Canadian-based after-school STEM program: a case study After I finish my last few papers for the semester, I’ll share them with you on here. In other news, only 20 days until I leave for Switzerland to start my internship at CERN! 😊 |
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