Communicating science with videos: New project at the IWM

Scientific findings have increasingly become the focus of public interest. Behind supposedly simple results are usually complex research processes that are often difficult for non-professionals to comprehend. Nevertheless, an understanding of research processes is vital for an accurate interpretation of their results. So how can scientific research processes be communicated better? This is the question that Hannah Greving and Joachim Kimmerle from the Knowledge Construction Lab at the IWM are investigating in their sub-project "VideT: Fragility and Credibility of Scientific Findings", which is part of the interdisciplinary joint project "VideT: Communicating the Research Process - a Video-based Transfer Tool for Pupils."

"The overall project aims to develop and create videos that can be used to communicate scientific research processes in student labs and schools," says Hannah Greving about the new project. The IWM's focus is primarily on researching the effects of these videos. "At the IWM, we are taking a closer look at how different video formats and thematic orientations of the videos affect the perception of the fragility of scientific findings as well as the credibility of the researchers."

The interdisciplinary project is funded over a period of three years by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research and combines different research perspectives: In addition to the IWM, the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research (IZW) in Berlin, the Leibniz Institute for Science and Mathematics Education (IPN) in Kiel, the Ruhr University Bochum (RUB) and the Leibniz University Hannover (LUH) are involved as collaborating partners.