The awards seek to promote scientific outreach and recognize the work of professionals in this field.
The PlànctON project of the Institut de Ciències del Mar (ICM) has won the first runner-up of the 3rd Edition of the ACCC Scientific Outreach Awards, which seek to promote the work of popularization of science and put them in value, as well as to recognize the work of professionals in science communication and create a meeting point for networking, sharing ideas and meet the other members of the Association.
The finalist projects of this edition, chosen by a jury of professionals in science communication and popularization, were: 'Biologueando', by Mireia Querol Rovira; 'La Demonio de Maxwell', by Mariona Esquerda Ciutat; 'La genética explicada por la Dra. Barbara McClintock', by Isabel Dias Loureiro; 'Reacciona... Explota!', by Josep Duran Carpintero; 'Sóc Tastaolletes', by Celia Ventura and Gabarró; and, finally, the 'PlànctON' project, led by ICM colleagues Magda Vila and Vanessa Balagué.
PlànctON: life engine of the ocean planet
The ocean is still largely unknown. Although scientific research in this area of knowledge has advanced considerably in recent years, the results of this research have not reached the population in a clear and massive way.
Given this scenario, the ICM promoted the project "PlànctON: motor of life of the ocean planet" which, with the collaboration of the Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology of the Ministry of Science and Innovation and the institutional support of the project "Who is there?" of the State Research Agency, seeks to give visibility to ocean microorganisms and thus bring marine sciences closer to the educational world.
"On the one hand, with this project we wanted to increase the presence of marine sciences in the classroom, since they have little representation in the educational curricula, making visible the marine science that is done at the ICM", explains Magda Vila.
For her part, Vanessa Balagué emphasizes that the project aimed to "make visible the plankton organisms that, although most of them are invisible to the human eye, perform very important functions for the planet, such as the production of oxygen and food, as well as intervening in processes that regulate the climate.
For the elaboration of the project, the ICM has counted with the participation of 21 scientists from the center and 3 educators from the Escola del Mar of the City Council of Badalona. In addition, since one of the main objectives of the project was to make science more attractive and visual, scientific illustrators, artists and non-formal educators participated in the project:
Thus, for example, for scientific illustration, interactivity and web design Mikel Graphic Science was involved, while for the writing and dynamization of the children's stories the Associació 1001 Històries was entrusted and the audiovisual creators specialized in the microscopic world of Science into Images also collaborated. In addition, SHOOK Studio was hired for the graphic design of the traveling exhibition, the plastic artists' workshop Can Xic for the elaboration of the models and the mural artist Laulópez Arts for the elaboration of the murals.
"Apart from increasing marine scientific culture in the classroom and in society in general and encouraging reflection and observation, this project has allowed us to unite information on plankton that in our institute was very fragmented in different research groups", celebrate the leaders of the project, who emphasize the inclusiveness of an initiative that has tried to include different functional realities in the development of resources and has worked mostly with public schools of high complexity.
A project for everyone
The project has conducted numerous workshops and talks in schools and institutes and others framed in city science events such as the Science Festival, the World Ocean Day, the European Research Night or 11F, the International Day of Women and Girls in Science.
The project resources were developed during 2021-2022, but the initiative is still alive and well with numerous plans for the future. These include scientific advice for the dance show "Plàncton" by the Big Bouncers dance company. The work premiered a few months ago at the CosmoCaixa in Barcelona and can now be seen at the Mercat de les Flors until January 15. It will also circulate throughout the CosmoCaixa of Spain.
Additionally, a dance and science workshop has been created with the same company, which was performed for the first time at the Science Festival 2023 and repeated during the European Research Night 2023 as part of the Ocean Night project.
Finally, the project provides teacher training sessions in the framework of projects of the Education Consortium such as the FAIG project of CESIRE, MAGNET of the Bofill Foundation, or Schools + Sustainable of the Barcelona City Council. Looking to the future, if funding is obtained, the initiative proposes the translation of all texts into Spanish and English, in addition to the paper edition of the stories and a Braille version developed in collaboration with ONCE.