BIO 148-ENVS 80: Polar Science, Policy and Ethics

Course: BIO 148-ENVS 80: Polar Science, Policy and Ethics
Instructor: Ross Virginia
Assignment: Science Communication on Polar Change: A Video Project

Science has provided overwhelming evidence of human-influenced Arctic climate change and the likelihood that the pace of change is accelerating. The effects are and will be felt around the world in the environment, weather and oceanographic conditions, commercial shipping and fishing, exploitation of natural resources and energy, agriculture, and wildlife. Indigenous peoples’ way of life is changing, and new health and disease concerns are arising as climate changes in the North. Arctic residents see these environmental changes first-hand, but public awareness of these changes is low and the educational experience for young students in many northern locations does not provide an understanding of the drivers of change and the feedbacks that accelerate or decrease rates of change in biological and physical processes.

Video and multimedia presentations are being used more and more by researchers and teachers to communicate scientific concepts with diverse audiences. This assignment is designed to give you practical skills in producing a video product and in designing science- centered content suited for a target audience. You will work with one or two other students. The target audience for the project will be either: 1) the general US public, think of a Super Bowl infomercial to communicate information about climate change, or 2) high school students living in Greenland.

Susan Simon, media learning technologist with the Jones Media Center, will guide our project. She will lead a media workshop to introduce the basics on project design and will go through the technology and tools available to us on line and at the Jones Media Center. Class time will be devoted to working as a group and in smaller teams on forming the project and intermediate goals and short assignments will keep us on schedule. Three “check-in” sessions have been scheduled at the Jones Media Center during class time so we can work directly with their staff. More information will be distributed in class. My hope for this project is that it will be interesting, challenging, and I dare say fun.

Example of Student Final Project