Friday, February 9, 2018

NSERC - Science, action!

NSERC has a great video competition for students which runs annually - Science, action! Students are invited to submit 1:00 min videos describing their research projects. The 15 videos that tell the best stories will receive a cash prize and be featured as part of museum exhibits, science fairs and during larger STEM outreach events at schools.

It is a great initiative encouraging students to think about creative ways to introduce their work to a non-scientific audience. For many scientists it is very difficult to do exactly that in a way that is clear and meaningful. It is much easier to talk about research in a group of peers that speak the same language and share your fascination. However, at one point everyone wants to share a bit of their enthusiasm outside such mostly very small groups. Think of the next family gathering where somebody asks what you are currently doing at work. 

You can't learn such skills early enough and this competition judges the videos based on clarity, creativity, and technical quality. All of the 75 selected contestants are now up on the web and ready for public voting to select 25 for the judge's panel to decide on. Of course I am totally biased towards University of Guelph participants which is why I show the links here (Youtube views are counted so no embedded videos to make sure everything counts). However, it is worth to watch more, there is a lot of creativity among Canada's young academics.




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