As a graduate student at the University of California, San Francisco more than a decade ago, Sarah Goodwin witnessed her PhD advisor, biologist Ron Vale, establish a unique science communication project. With the vision to use videos as a medium for science communication, Vale set up a green screen studio to film interviews with some of his colleagues.
“This was in the early days of YouTube,” recalled Goodwin, who helped in the coordination and management of this project called iBiology. A few things fell into place soon after: As Goodwin graduated, Vale received a grant to expand this project, enabling her to run the platform.
As the director of the Science Communication Lab, Goodwin oversees different aspects of science storytelling through videos, ranging from ideating and offering creative input, to looking for funding sources and producing films.
Lee Goodwin
What started out as a tool for the scientific community to engage with the public soon snowballed into material that helped educators convey science to high schoolers and undergraduate students. This eventually morphed into a platform called the Science Communication Lab, which Goodwin now directs. The nonprofit organization creates films and collaborates with educators to design hands-on activities for students to showcase how science works, who scientists are, and why science matters in daily lives. In addition to providing creative and scientific input for the films, Goodwin has also produced some of them.
The Power of Video and Humanizing Scientists in Science Storytelling
Towards the end of her graduate training, Goodwin found herself at a crossroads. While she had a postdoctoral fellowship lined up, she was also passionate about science education. When Vale offered her an opportunity to work at iBiology, she dove into this nontraditional career path with the hope of using videos for science education.
Through trial and error, Goodwin and her team at the Science Communication Lab have figured out what their audiences appreciate. While they started out with lecture-style videos explaining science, their formats have evolved over the years to make documentary films.
“There's just something about the way documentaries can immerse people into the world that you're presenting,” said Goodwin. “You get to really meet characters, see how they talk, how they think, how they communicate.”
In this manner, Goodwin and her team place people at the center of science stories. “What we really aim to do in our work is to show the scientists in the process of science,” said Goodwin. “We really focus on their research stories…trying to illustrate how science is a human endeavor and how it's not linear; it's collaborative. You build on each other's work. It's about curiosity and exploring the unknown.”
Through feedback from their viewers, Goodwin and her team have realized that audiences connect best with storytelling that brings out scientists’ human characteristics. “Maybe it’s passion, devotion to their craft. Maybe it’s curiosity or wonder. Maybe it's that they have someone, just because of the way they talk, that reminds them of a relative of theirs. Maybe they've heard stories of a family member that the person on screen reminds them of,” she said.
Using Video as a Science Education Platform
Goodwin and her team at the Science Communication Lab often use 10- to 15-minute-long films for the purpose of science education. They also create hands-on learning activities that go with the films, largely designed for middle- and high-school kids.
“The outcomes [of pairing films and activities] have just been really fantastic,” said Goodwin. “That includes them seeing themselves more as scientists. It includes how they see other science people. It includes understanding how science works. It promotes their participation, and that’s really rewarding.”
Goodwin is particularly proud of their film called “Observer,” which explores observation as a fundamental way of doing science, that was released last year. They collaborated with educators to screen this film and paired it with hands-on activities. These involved students observing their environment and analyzing how this evidence leads to inferences, offering insight on how scientists interpret observations.
“The feedback we're getting [is] the stories of how kids—even as young as elementary-age—are now engaging in observation, because they see the film and they get to do these activities, and we have games that they can play,” said Goodwin. “[That] has been really rewarding”
With the intention of weaving science communication videos into education, the Science Communication Lab team has made all their short-films accessible for free on YouTube, while some of the longer documentaries are free of cost for educators.
The Challenges of Science Communication in Today’s Landscape
While Goodwin is passionate about science education, her role as the director of the Science Communication lab goes beyond this aspect. “There's a lot to running a nonprofit that is behind the scenes,” she said. This entails thinking of projects, offering creative input on them, and looking for grants. “Right now, I'm budgeting, but next week, I might be reviewing a film and giving notes on the next cut of it,” said Goodwin.
A large part of her role also involves finding funding sources that align with the Science Communication Lab’s mission. Over the last 14 years, the organization has received support from federal sources like the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health, as well as philanthropic organizations like the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation.
However, obtaining funding is one of the hardest parts of her job, Goodwin said. “It's especially tough right now, with all of the changes that have undergone in terms of federal support of especially science education and science communication,” she said.
Despite the challenges, Goodwin focuses on the encouraging aspects of science communication and education through videos. Looking toward the future, she hopes that the films they make empower others to engage with science throughout their lives. “I think that really starts young,” she said. “So, if we can be a part of that process, I find that really rewarding in terms of the impact that we can make.”