Popularizing science in Luova web magazine

Popularizing science in Luova web magazine

Suvi Korhonen, sub-editor / toimitussihteeri

23.1.2009

LUMA centre, the University of Helsinki

23.01.09Suvi Korhonen, Luova web magazine 2

The national LUMA centre

LU stands for ‘luonnontieteet’, natural science in Finnish,

and MA for mathematics

An umbrella organisation coordinated by the Faculty of

Science of the University of Helsinki to bring schools,

universities and industries together.

The aim of the LUMA Centre is to promote the learning,

studying and teaching of natural science, mathematics,

computer science and technology on all levels.


Luova in a nutshell

Web magazine popularizing mathematics &

natural sciences and technology for the

Finnish youth

Enabling extracurricular and informal

learning

Target readers: 12 - 18 year olds

Project launched in late 2007

Luova is non-commercial, funded by a

handful of organizations

Staff: editor & sub-editor

Writers: researchers, teens, from several

organizations


Popularizing science - why?

• Reducing sciencephobia and countering wrong beliefs

("There are genes in my tomatoes?!")

3. Helping the youth in making career choices

4. Preparing the ground for good public reception of

scientific endeavours, which in long term affects public

funding


Science not interesting to the youth

"Despite their love of gadgets and technological wizardry,

too many young people see science as being

uninteresting, distant and, above all, ‘uncool’. This has

translated into a gradual dropping off in the numbers of

young people pursuing science and technology (S&T)

studies and careers." - From European Council's site

Reasons:

The way science is taught in schools

The complexity of these subjects

Shortage of attractive career prospects


What to do about it?

Making science, both fields & careers, more familiar

Present science as relevant to everyday life, not a parellal

universe

Example: chemistry of beauty products or molecular gastronomy)

Enabling self-study

Programming, geocaching, astronomy as hobbies

Making science learning more exciting at school

Experiments and field trips: edutainment science centres &

museums are making learning fun

Not frowning upon fiction or games

Scifi has drawn a lot of youngsters into science


Writing popular science

(Mainly) not making citations to research articles

Writing shorter sentences than in scientific writing style

Explain difficult concepts

Use common words instead of jargon when possible

Illustrations are good: they are both eye candy & help in

understanding the text by visualization

Writing in active is better than passive

A bit of personal flair is encouraged

! You don't have to dumb it down for Luova's readers. Smart

teens understand the same level content as adults.


Luova is published as blogs

Blog platform as CMS = easy to use content management

system

Luova has several theme/field based blogs

For example: Bioinformation blog Koodia ja geeninpätkiä aka

Code & bits of DNA

New post to a blog once in every 2 – 3 weeks

Readers can subscribe to RSS feeds

Discussions & linking in blogosphere

We can link to your blog

You are free to publish the article in your blog or elsewhere


Writing a blog post

Catchy title (and sub-headers in a long article)

2-3 lines ntroduction, shows on the first page

Blog posts are short: one main idea per post

Images attract readers and work as bouncers from main

page

1-3 images in every post/article

Captions for images

Embedding videos from YouTube is enabled

You can link from the text or add "Read more" list in the

end

Editors can help you by finding pictures and editing the text

and giving feedback.


Ideas & inspiration

Tell about your own current project or your career path

Get inspired by some news on your field

Yoe wrote about the Nobel price winning innovation in last December and

how it has advanced neuroscience and how it affects her research

Current events

"Ada Lovelace Day on 24 th March is an international day of blogging to draw

attention to women excelling in technology." http://findingada.com/

Introduce a web resource: archives, web videos, online

games, ...

Fold It– a game about protein folding, fun & educational at the same time

Write a review: books, theater, movies, exhibitions, ...

http://www.helsinki.fi/luova/2008/10/10/lyhtyja-pimeassa

http://www.helsinki.fi/luova/2008/10/10/lyhtyja-pimeassa

http://findingada.com/



http://fold.it/portal/


Some example articles

Ecologist Tom Haven wrote about reptiles in English:

http://www.helsinki.fi/luova/2008/08/19/meet-two-fellow-finns

Tommi Nyrönen wrote about computer modeling proteins

and finding fitting drug molecules in Finnish:

http://www.helsinki.fi/luova/2009/01/20/koodia-ja-geeninpatkia-laake-loytyy-laskemalla

Janne Korhonen wrote a comparison of what studying

mathematics is like at school and at university:

http://www.helsinki.fi/luova/2008/05/06/

janne-korhonen-niin-mitas-se-matematiikka-nyt-onkaan









http://www.helsinki.fi/luova/2008/05/06/janne-korhonen-niin-mitas-se-matematiikka-nyt-onkaan





Thank you!

Comments? Feedback?

Suvi Korhonen

[email protected]

Education

Popularizing science in Luova web magazine