Archipelago

We pay a lot of attention to the way environmental issues are communicated; both in the media AND in the pub. When it comes to understanding problems and discussing solutions, there are some obvious hurdles.

Laziness, resistance to change, short-term thinking, self-interest… let’s call it the ‘Jeremy Clarkson’ effect ;-). But I believe that people’s perception of Science can also be a major stumbling block.

Science can seem impenetrable. This may stem from the way scientific information has traditionally been presented; the ‘Textbook’ format – pages of text with the odd illustration, and a linear structure that forces you need to read the whole thing from start to finish before any of it makes sense.

When we first scan a dense page of text, full of unfamiliar words, we make a split-second decision about whether or not to read it. Our thought process might look like this:

There’s a lot of information – I’m not sure I have time.

It looks complex – I might not get it.

Then I will feel stupid, or frustrated.

I’m going to the pub instead

We all go to great lengths to avoid feeling stupid, so we must remove this barrier if we want to engage people.

One solution is to separate information into layers. The first layer is the overall concept, and the context. It should answer these questions:

What is this about?

Why is this important?

The next layer could outline the main processes involved, and the key points that need to be made.

The last layer might be technical detail and sources of further information.

Once the information is layered, we need to present it so that the reader/viewer can explore it, in whatever order makes most sense to them. We do this naturally in any conversation – we jump about, go back to something that was mentioned earlier, and absorb information whilst allowing our own train of thought to keep its momentum.

An example of this approach is an interactive animation we’re working on, that explains the Oscillating Water Column (OWC) Method of generating electricity from wave power. (see link below)

I’m pretty scientifically minded, but when I researched this it took over 45 minutes of trawling through information from different sources to fully understand the process. There is a lot of info out there but, because the people writing it have big heads crammed full of technical knowledge, they can’t imagine what it’s like to know very little. They write what would make sense to them, but often fail to convey the absolute basics.

The animation communicates the basic concept almost instantly, and requires no scientific knowledge at all. It conveys a simple, elegant process, and helps us visualise an important piece of technology in action.

Science should not be dumbed down. But I believe we can do a lot more to hold the door open.

View OWC Wave Power Animation