How did the All-Russian Lab Session come to be, and what's its difference from today's popular outreach programs?
Actually, the reasons behind conducting this project are quite serious: there is a great amount of scientific knowledge that has to do with how the world works; such knowledge is really important for understanding the world we live in, yet it's something we easily forget after graduating from school and we mostly miss out on during our adult lives. That is the paradox which makes science journalists and writers think up new formats for promoting such knowledge.
Current popular science formats are aimed at people with some knowledge in the field, people who already go to popular science lectures, watch channels like Science 2.0 and the like. Such people have every opportunity to satisfy their interest in science. What's more, there are events like Come out and Solve! that are aimed at the narrow group of those who participate in contests and know well what knowledge in mathematics and physics gives them. Yet, even though more and more formats for promoting science appear, the amount of people in Russia who appreciate scientific knowledge remains relatively small. As someone who works on television, I know well that the number of people who watch popular science programs is minuscule in comparison with those who prefer serials, pseudo-science programs or programs about crime.
Olga Orlova
Surely, one can accept this situation and do nothing about it. Still, I believe that such choice is wrong and even dangerous. Among those who passed the ban on genetically modified foods were people who do not give credence to scientific reasoning; people who believe homeopathic treatment to be effective against cancer die or lose their dear ones. All of that contributed to our decision to try finding a format for promoting scientific outlook to a wider audience.
The All-Russian Lab Session's participants will be to answer 20 questions about how the world works. Some of those will be really tricky. What knowledge does one need to participate in the Session? Will re-capping school curricula be enough?
The All-Russian Lab Session is in no way a test on the school curricula, as a lot has changed in science and technology since the current adults graduated from school. Our goal is to update the knowledge they now posses or had since school. This is one of the features that make our projects special. It just happened that the event will take place on April 22 - many adults remember that this is the day Lenin was born. In Soviet times, everyone participated in the nationwide Subbotnik (cleanup day -- Ed.) on this day. We've decided to be a little sarcastic about it and thought up another slogan for the event: "Participate in a Subbotnik on science, cleanup your head".
That is why we created a whole module of questions related to myths and pseudoscientific ideas. One has to do it from time to time - update his knowledge and revise his outlook, check it against the recent scientific knowledge and inventions; thus, testing the knowledge of one's school curricula is meaningless, as one has to speak of the present situation.
The project's geography. Credit: http://roslaba.org/registration
The Total Dictation that gathers thousands of people every year is one of your project's partners; its success reflects the trend on literacy which has recently been becoming more and more popular. Yandex's Quod Erat Demonstrandum test in mathematics is another good example of that. What approaches did you use for bringing natural sciences to a wider audience?
Our colleagues from the Total Dictation and Quod Erat Demonstrandum approved of the importance of our task, yet noted that it will be really difficult. Indeed, skills in Russian are important for any citizen, and one doesn't have to explain why one needs to be literate. Why knowing elementary math and keeping the brain fit is important is also obvious. On the other hand, why someone who doesn't work in science-driven fields needs knowledge in genetics, paleontology or astronomy is not obvious at all. So, we came up with the following answer: one can believe that he doesn't need to know how our Universe works, yet if he has small children, or younger brothers and sisters, they can ask questions that imply proper answers.
Each of us - I mean the event's organizers - had this experience when he couldn't explain something to a child and just let it slip. This is what we've decided to task the participants with: answering such childish questions, which can be totally unchildlike. It’s an opportunity to test yourself. This is both a challenge and a plea: what can we tell our children, what right do we have to lecture them, if we ourselves don't know how the world works?
What is the project's future?
The event is organized by the Rybakov Foundation, which supported our project and plans to introduce it in other countries as well. Our project is not just an educational one, it aims to raise awareness and promote a certain outlook. This goes in accordance with the foundation's mission.
What's more, we reflect it in our image: for example, we shoot promos where children ask scientists questions, and those are to some extent ironic. We aim to show the stupid situations we often find ourselves in - we, the scientists, the parents. Children want to understand some things, yet scientists find it hard to explain them in layman's terms, to adapt the vast scientific knowledge for children, and parents often don't know the answers. That is why we keep looking for artistic approaches, turn to psychology and such. This year, our topic is Unchildlike Questions; in the future, we will also continue to use solutions that provoke an emotional response, search for pressure points.
What are these pressure points?
Unfortunately, these are the same pressure points advertisers and marketers work with. One is fear. Our goal is to show the real dangers and problems ignorance and incomprehension result in. Another pressure point is childcare. Most people have or plan on having kids; many can relate to that. This is why showing what a child's future can be in an ignorant environment is also important. Everything has to do with these two basic instincts. Yet, we want to do everything both science-based and tactful. We want to explain that it is not some little green men shown by RenTV (Russian television channel with many pseudoscience programs -- Ed.) are what's dangerous, but one's ignorance. We want to tell that the better future is based not on consumerism or stories from Dom-2 (Russian reality television show -- Ed.), but on your children's health and freedom.
What we do is experimental, and we have to study a lot, as no one ever worked in this format, few can even imagine how to do it right. There are still too few projects like ours.
Yet, the situation gradually changes. For instance, there's the Just Like All Animals program by Evgeniya Timonova - a good example of a proper project aimed at a wide audience. If one looks at what Asya Kazantseva (Russian science writer and journalist -- Ed.) does, that is also very important - she is using new approaches to promoting science. Science news and lectures by Irina Yakutenko is yet another example of such work.
As for our All-Russian Lab Session, we aim at an older audience, as we believe that working with this part of society is very important. Adult people have more power and take decisions that affect our world the most, and it's most dangerous if such people are ignorant. Also, adults are those who play an important role in defining a child's outlook. If one grows in a family that believes in horoscopes or solves problems by going to a fortuneteller, it's hard to expect that he will grow to understand how the universe works from a scientific point of view. That is why one has to promote science to parents as well.
