Oriol Marimon Garrido holds a PhD in Organic Chemistry from the University of Barcelona and is the co-founder of Big Van, Scientists on Wheels, one of the largest scientific communication groups in the world. He also has his own national and international research projects. One of these is Perform, the workshop Big Van will offer in Panama City during CILAC 2018. These participatory workshops use educational tools from the performing arts, in which participants work on a proposed activity to generate their own results.
Why is it important to humanize science?
A short time ago a came out article In a national newspaper in Spain, El País, it said that data doesn't convince people. And that's true. To get people who aren't currently interested in science to become interested and see its importance, it's important to introduce them to science.
To achieve this, you have to move them. You convince people, you approach them, and you interest them through emotions; and the truth is that moving people by talking to them about elementary chemistry is complicated. For that, we need the humanization of science, the sharing of stories, the reflection on the social challenges facing science: gender, ethics, and all the human aspects that science encompasses. We don't just have to provide content; we also have to manage to convey this more human and emotional aspect to get people interested in science.
What impact did the workshop have on the different groups?
Perform workshops have been implemented with young researchers, both male and female, and in educational centers. The researchers were pursuing their first or second postgraduate degree. The high school students were between 13, 14, and 15 years old. What we've observed with the researchers is that they learn to reflect on their scientific careers, on what they're doing.
They begin to ask themselves why, why they are researching, why they are doing what they are doing. The workshop greatly helps them increase their motivation for research and for actions in the field of science communication. They also understand the importance of disseminating and sharing what they are doing in their laboratories with others.
For students in general, for adolescent boys and girls, what we've seen is that they're incredibly motivated by science. Something that seems boring to them, something they don't want to do, becomes something they want to continue doing once the process is over; they love it. The truth is, we've noticed that they get incredibly excited.
What tools does Perform use?
The tools used are related to the workshop's outcome. We promote science by bringing the most human side of it closer to the student body, using methodologies based on the performing arts. This means we work on projects; students have to construct their own scientific monologue, and to build that monologue, we have workshops, spending hours with the students. During the activities, participants are given certain information, they reflect on it in small groups, and then present their conclusions through dramatized activities of various kinds.
This is how they learn about science, reflect on its more human side, and develop oral communication skills. They learn to construct texts, define information they want to explain, construct it in a way that's understandable, and develop tools to communicate it orally and present themselves in front of an audience. The fact that students can think for themselves, reflect on their own experiences, give their opinions, and work on topics they enjoy is what motivates them to speak about the subject.
Has science become closer to society in recent years?
I believe that, rather than science becoming more accessible to society, it was society that began to invest in science. It realized that science was necessary and began to allocate resources. That led to more and more people signing up for it.
doing science, and those people stopped coming from those wealthy families, who were the only ones who could afford to have someone doing research, and instead started having people who came from the humblest classes, from the most working classes. This has led to a large mass of people doing science, and this has caused society to become closer to science, since science itself is being done by more sectors of that society.
Why include Perform as a side event at CILAC?
I think it's necessary to include it because it's a project that connects young people's scientific vocations and increases the general population's interest in science and technology. People need to know what's being done in science and technology so they can turn to science to solve their problems. In other words, if we truly want to solve society's major challenges using science, society needs to know what science is doing so they can decide where to go, what research to do, and how to conduct certain research to solve those challenges and problems. Because challenges and problems are brought by people.
What is the biggest challenge facing scientific outreach?
One of our greatest challenges today for scientific outreach is to avoid becoming banal and maintain the professionalism of our outreach. It's essential to invest in resources and carry out research projects like Perform, a project in which science professionals have dedicated themselves to investigating how to disseminate science, how to communicate science, and to developing robust methodologies that are proven through the scientific method. I believe the greatest challenge is to accept that not everything is valid, that not everyone can become a science outreacher, and that science can't be disseminated in any way; it has to be done well. And that is a great challenge: to maintain professionalism within the field of scientific outreach and to deliver quality scientific outreach.
What characterizes the members of Big Van?
We are characterized by the fact that we come from the world of science. We have all completed a scientific degree, a master's degree, and a doctorate. We are all familiar with the research process, deeply familiar with science, and also have training in the performing arts or the arts in general. This allows us to have a dual profile, enabling us to approach the development of new projects and new pedagogical methodologies for the dissemination of science.
What are your expectations for CILAC 2018?
The hope is to reach out, above all, to policymakers, those who come from the world of politics, and also to decision-makers. All those people who are making decisions and investing in one type of project or another. We want them to learn about the Perform educational project and be able to convey its importance, the robustness of its methodology, and how, if we implement it, it is possible to truly bring science closer to society.