Science communication can take many formats, from the diaries of explorers, meticulous records of experiments in the field and laboratory, the detailed and highly technical publications in scientific research journals and textbooks, to popular science books, magazines, documentaries and diverse media web content.
While the first set in this list is predominantly made by scientists for scientists, the latter set is all about outreach – reaching out to a much wider sector of the population to engage and inform, educate and enthuse, even to open minds and make curios.
Naturally, the communication styles for either target audience differ immensely and while I’m not saying that there is no excitement in writing a scientific paper, I’m certainly having more fun with the outreach!
Chatting with scientist, animation artist and sailor Hannah Whitman one day resulted in an opportunity to engage kids, run a competition and create a short animation on an ocean conservation theme. Perfect for integrating Art into STEM education to gather STEAM and communicate in a snappy, fun and catchy way on social media.
In collaboration with Seas Your Future, Hannah of Science Animation Studio ran a story board workshop for 5 – 10 year old visitors on the sail training tall ship Pelican of London during the 2023 Teign Shanty Festival. Hannah and I looked at entries with the hard task to select a winner from a range of great ideas and drawings put to paper. Libby’s story was about marine litter, some of its sources, impacts and a call for solutions.
Hannah worked with Libby to add some narration, all documented by Yasmin on Seas Your Future social media.
Then Hannah got creative and in true STEAM education fashion videod the process of creating the animation:
Today is release day, a nice pre-Christmas present for Libby, a showcase of Hannah’s talents and a great outcome of our collaboration between Seas Your Future, Science Animation Studio and Challenging Habitat.
I hope you find it as charming as I do, and please let us know your thoughts about animation as a means of science communication.
Featured Image: Fishy characters in the animation. (C) Hannah Whitman 2023.
All illustrations in this post are subject to copyright and may not be downloaded and distributed for any purpose without permission of Hannah Whitman of Science Animation Studio.
Challenging Habitat 