The "Souk Science" 2016! with new complementary animations about plankton :-)
April 2016
Here we are again this year! On last wednesday 27th of April, the "Science Souk" happened again at Cours Belsunce, a really common area of Marseille.
Marseille, if you don't know, is the second biggest city in France (population density) but also the poorest one, and thus, with a clear lack of ressources. In those areas, bringing knowledge to the street has a special importance.
I got really lucky this year to get some help from Luc Frindel, a student in science communication, as well as some advices from Maximillien Degonville, PhD student in physics, also involved in science communication. At a time when work load is heavier (spring), Luc made my graphic work operational, printing it on plastic sheets and the result was really impressive!
Another student, Riwan Leroux (master student in marine ecology at the MIO in Marseille), helped me to entertain the public the whole day and to make this day even more enjoyable. Thanks!
This year, we made adding to the last year animations about plankton. The main themes were "What is plankton?" and "Why is it important?". The stand was named "Plongeon dans l'Océan avec le plankton" = "Dive in the Ocean with plankton".
Thus, we had the regular presentation about what is plankton and what type of organisms are composing it (including plankton size class explanation) and we also presented how to sample plankton (we had a small plankton net installed behind the stand). A small plankton foto quizz was also proposed. We also made people thinking in term of plankton appearance on earth :) For this, I had made a geological time frame where people have small pictures of organisms and have to place them on the geological time frame according to their appearance period on earth. Lots of people got really interested!
We also had activities about the marine food-web and the impacts humans, us, have on it. The example of "top predator" removal through fishing was used. People had to interact saying what will happen to the lower trophic levels in the case of sharks removal.
A poster on wastes in the Ocean was also presented to sincrease public awareness about their impacts through rubbish (this poster is the same one that I used for the "Science party days"). Different commonly used items are shown on this poster and people have to guess the degradation time of of each of them in the Ocean. Luc animated this part most of the time and did it brilliantly!
People could also use a binocular to look at plankton samples. Videos were also shown on a screen to present the various types of plankton organisms existing in the Ocean .
We had a great time, and I hope the people who came enjoyed as well!
I woudl like to thank the association "Tous chercheurs" and the Scientific cultural part of Aix-Marseille University for the organization, and more particularly to Amina Mokrane.
The Science party days edition 2015
October 2015
This year in "Bouches-du-Rhône" department in south of France, the Science party days were split between Marseille and Aix-en-Provence.
In Marseille, "Climate Change" was the big theme and some stands were proposed at "La Villa Méditerranée".
In Aix-en-Provence (where we were last year), we had a stand representing the MIO during the whole w-end.
As for the previous year, the aquarium with alive animals attracted lots of people. Beautiful to look at but not to touch! That was the message we spread (making some adaptations from last year experience).
In addition we had a part on wastes in the Ocean to increase public awarness about human impacts through rubish. For this, we showed a poster about the degradation time of most common wastes that can be found in the Ocean. People could also use binoculars to look at sea water samples containing micro- and macro-plastics from the Marseille area.
A poster about bioluminescence in the Ocean was also presented.
Bringing marine sciences to the street: The "Science Souk" organised at "Cours Belsunce", famous popular place in Marseille
April 2015
This year, the "Science souk" was organised on 22rd of april (2015), at "Cours Belsunce", a popular area in the city center of Marseille (picture on the right).
I was in charge of a stand about marine biology. I decided to show material about plankton (types and size) that I had already used for the "Science party days" in 2014 (see post below).
I added to it a "picture quizz" for children which consisted in identifying different types of plankton. I also brought a poster about bioluminescence in the ocean since the event had to fit into the big 2015 science theme "Year of the Light".
I was really pleased to get help from one student from my institute in the afternoon, Guillaume Marchessaux, who brought containers with alive medusa. This was particularly appreciated by the visitors!
Guillaume with some interested visitors
I have to say that I really appreciated to explain marine sciences to people who were fewly educated about it. they showed real enthusiasm to listen and learn! Two classes of school children, between 6 and 8 year's old, visited the stand in the morning and they have been really interested by the activities and subjects. They have been asking a lot of questions!
Despite some pessimism expressed in regards to this activity by my surroundings the day prior to this event (related to the place of the event), this experience has been a really positive one. It made me feel happy to contribute bringing marine knowledge to a public not familiarsed with marine conservation and management.
To communicate about Marine Sciences to the general public and the youngest! Example from the "Science Party Days"
October 2014
Last year, in October 2014, the "Science Party Days" were organized as an "itinerant science village" over 5 days in the PACA region (South of France). With colleagues from the MIO (Mediterranean Oceanological Institute), we presented a stand in order to make the public interested and aware of the organisms that live by their coast. Our main attraction consisted of tanks filled with sea-water presenting coastal low-depth living organisms from the Marseille area: seagrass, urchins, sea cumcumber, etc...
We also presented activities using binocular and microscops to show sand composition from the local posidonia meadows ecosystems. People were invited to observe and to find organic items (everything they would guess is biological: pieces of shells, etc..).
I also presented a part on plankton organisms, showing the different types of plankton according to their function and zize and explaining that plankton does not mean "everything small"!
We got a lot of success with the presentation of alive organisms with young children. Many of them had never seen an urchin of their life while living by the coast!
At the end of the day we were quite tired aftertaking care of all the children who wanted to touch the organisms and who were asking lots of questions. But all in all, we were really happy to have contributed sharing the curiosity for marine life! After all, the ones who suffered the most were the organisms which got released at the end of the day!
How to communicate marine science in a fun way !
In 2010, I got the chance to participate to a 3 days video workshop organised by APECS in the frame of the Arctic Frontier Conference. The workshop was run by Randy Olson, a marine scientist who turned to an Hollywood film maker! ;-) He has produced several short movies and longer ones, most of them treating about Climate Change with notably "Sizzle: A Global Warming Comedy" in 2008. His way is to use humor and derision.
During this workshop, we selected 5 student-project-ideas and then worked on them in small groups of 4-5 students. The objective of this w-end workshop: to produce in 48 hours a 60 seconds movie focused on one specific science issue! And all of this, with only on own material (own music, etc..).
The making of the videos of this 3-days workshop!! ;-)
I have been working in the group of "Spawning smart" in which we communicate about salmon spawning using soft salmon toys!!! When mentionning that we had to use our own material.... it involved that we even asked a professional singer to sing for us! I don't say more and just let you discover our video result!!! ;-)))