Time flies by and the Covid-19 situation in Taiwan is getting worse with the Delta variance. At this time, it is a pity that I cannot do in-person research and giving local marine issues exhibitions in the museum settings. However, it turns out that sometimes misfortune is a blessing in disguise. Specifically, I got an opportunity to make a marine environmental issue website to share with the public. Before discussing what I’ve learned during the website construction, I would like to talk a little bit more about OSU’s IRB application.
To start the project, I will have to apply for OSU’s IRB. One thing worth mentioning is that my research subjects are mainly early adolescents – the youth; therefore, I will need to have additional steps when providing the documents to apply for the IRB. For those of you unfamiliar with the term “IRB” I will provide you some basic idea of what is IRB? According to the FDA’s definition, the term “IRB” – “Institutional Review Board” – is a committee that provides reviewing and approval of applications for research projects involving human subjects. So, what is the purpose of IRB in human subjects’ research? The main purpose of the IRB is to protect the rights and welfare of human subjects. Particularly, children are more vulnerable and require special considerations in the research. I followed the Research Ethics Committee Guidance Research Involving Children to design and conduct research that is suitable for the youth.
For those of you unfamiliar with the term “IRB” I will provide you some basic idea of what is IRB? According to the FDA’s definition, the term “IRB” – “Institutional Review Board” – is a committee that provides reviewing and approval of applications for research projects involving human subjects. So, what is the purpose of IRB in human subjects’ research? The main purpose of the IRB is to protect the rights and welfare of human subjects. Particularly, children are more vulnerable and require special considerations in the research. I followed the Research Ethics Committee Guidance Research Involving Children to design and conduct research that is suitable for the youth.
As for making an outreach website, I started to find information regarding marine issues around the world for my website. Something interesting is that although different places have different kinds of marine issues, it seems that these issues are not independent to each other. I found that they will finally point to one of the critical problems related to humans – marine food security. This is the ‘Aha’ moment for me. Because one of the challenges of communicating abstract issues with the public is that they are rarely related to people’s life experiences. And this finding could be one of the keys to making people link their life with abstract or/and complicated issues. In addition, by doing so people would raise their awareness on critical environmental issues especially marine issues in this case.
Overall, one of the challenges for me is that, although there is a large amount of online information, I need not only select specific marine environmental issues that are suitable for the public but also be careful to edit educational video and text contents that I wrote for the youth. To be more specific, knowing your audience is an important step in science communication.
Things that I have practiced from what I have learned are useful for scientific outreach. First of all, “being inspired”, is somewhat important when communicating science to the general public of any age. That is because people usually want to learn something new and interesting or exciting that more or less makes them see or learn the world differently. Additionally, researchers have indicated that in museum settings keeping the audiences engaged or pay attention can be difficult at the best of times. And in my case, not to mention science education (environmental education in particular) for the youth.
Following the guide that “children just starting out in primary school may only be able to focus on an activity for around 10 minutes or so” the contents that I selected should hook children’s eyes and not going too far that is beyond their understanding. Although there are challenges to work with the youth, one of the advantages of my research in youth environmental education is that local marine issues would be as place-based learning for the youth and this may hook their eyes. Also, I believe through learning new knowledge from this virtual museum, early adolescents could construct or refine their environmental identity and stewardship.
To conclude, no matter what age of my audience is, things that a general public audience would be willing to learn – from the museum exhibitions or the online learning website (or virtual museums) – are interesting, inspiring, and somehow related to their life experiences. Therefore, if someone would like to try doing science outreach, I would recommend you think about what excites you regarding your work and then build it into a talk that is suitable for your audience. Above all, you should amaze yourself first. Finally, the greatest thing I enjoy in science outreach is I can engage with people, create a scientific dialogue and listen to their life stories – their life experiences with marine science.
