Blog 6 waCkY qUeStiOns1!

Where does scientific research explanation break down in communicating results to other scientists, funders, and the general public, and how can design help solve this issue?

Rehash 1:
How can motion design bridge the gap between scientists and the general public/funders to create support and action for their research?

Prez Deck outline

Design Problem
- Talk about how the scientific field is struggling to communicate certain aspects of work.

Preliminary Research and Exploration
- Explain where I came into this topic 

Research

SME

DME

Interviews

Solution

Nick's stupid ass Research Summary

Preliminary research_

https://www.independent.co.uk/student/student-life/field-science-when-your-degree-takes-you-to-the-jungle-8512656.html

I took a look at the people who would be out doing research on certain biomes/organisms and felt I needed to become more familiar with what they actually do before I could see if there is anything they need fixed.


https://journals.tdl.org/watchbird/index.php/watchbird/index

Early resource for a possible project avenue, this thing sucks, and it helped confirm my direction into this field of science communication as something like this is practically unusable, and this is for scientists.

Notes from research and interviews_

1. Reptiles and amphibians are cryptic and detection is difficult. Funding is a very difficult task as well because of the lack of charisma that amphibians and reptiles possess.

2. Documentation, tactile specimens (like a corpse). Visual evidence/vouchers are not very easy to trust/come by. Equipment failure. The animals are always a target for predation. Because of the small size of reptiles and amphibians, having an active transmitter is very difficult because smaller transmitters have to have smaller batteries or else they will burden/harm the animal.

3. When it comes to other scientists, interest can be challenging. Finding a new species that lives in a park that was not there before this can be important. But if it is not from very far then it is difficult to even publish results. When communicating to the general public/agency, scientists are not interested in science communication. Bringing lay people to the empathy and passion for your work and project is very difficult and an unrealistic goal.

4. Without communication it is impossible to garner support. Lots of emphasis on conferences. Graphics are better, higher quality interactions when in person though, conversations can be the richest interactions, however this is limited. Facebook live is also something that has been good because of the large outreach, local news media as well. Looking at a visually engaging graphic is what it can take to make people take away the information that is being presented.

How do you personally communicate to lay people and scientists? 
Finding grounds of commonality and not shaming people. Pairing data driven information with anecdotes. Instagram is one method.

Resources I have tracked down
- Dave Steen - @alongsidewild

- Rattlesnake solutions: short term translocation and long term observation - Brian Hughes - @Rattlesnakeguy

- Advocates for Snake preservation - Melissa Amarello ASP @Snakeadvocate

All of these people are individuals who would be in my sphere that I will continue to pursue contact with as they will have important experiences and information for me.

- http://www.coparc.org/

This particular link is something I will be using to collect more resources and contact other SMEs that might be able to help me.

- https://cpw.state.co.us/Documents/WildlifeSpecies/SWAP/CO_SWAP_FULLVERSION.pdf

This specific PDF will be the jumping off point for my research and narrowing down what my exact subject may be. There are some animals that are marked as locally endagered and would be some of the animals that require help.

Tier 1 reptiles and other animals. (cricket frog, massasauga, northern leopard frogs...)

4. Without communication it is impossible to garner support. Lots of emphasis on conferences. Graphics are better, higher quality interactions when in person though, conversations can be the richest interactions, however this is limited. Facebook live is also something that has been good because of the large outreach, local news media as well. Looking at a visually engaging graphic is what it can take to make people take away the information that is being presented.

Example: When are rattlesnakes active? Andrew created a table about when they are active but they are not very visually appealing.

Snakes are a very good animal that can draw interest 
Rattlesnake maternal instincts and life.
Hell bender movement and paternal behaviors.

Conservation models globally are organismal and not ecological minded. Look at it holistically. The job of conservation is not to preserve the species and keep them alive, what are some of the unforeseen impacts of species not being present in their environments. For instance, cricket frogs have gone extinct in Colorado, some may not care cause there are millions in Illinois, but we would like to know what they did here in Colorado. The first rule of responsible tinkering is keeping all the parts.

Blog #7 SMEEEEEEE

Andrew Dubois
https://andrewdubois.weebly.com/

Questions:

1. what are some of the challenges you face out in the field when you are collecting data?
2. When you record your results or findings, what are some things you wish were made simpler?
3. How do you communicate these results to different groups of people (other scientists, students, academic boards, etc...)?
4. Are there problems communicating to any of these groups of people that are frustrating?
5. Are they the same problems or are there different problems depending on each group of people?
6. What kind of findings do you typically report back to people?
7. When do you need to present what you have found visually? would it help if you had that option?

Blog #8 DME?!

Josh Blair, Motion Designer.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshblair13/

Questions:

1. How does your process differ for particular motion projects?
2. What are some key aspects to a powerful motion piece?
3. What makes a successful thesis?
4. If anything, what does not change project to project?
5. what are important aspects of data visualization?
6. What are some things you do to look for inspiration?
7. How do you like to approach something you are not familiar with?
8. What kind of research do you find yourself doing to inform yourself on a project?

Notes:
News background

1.
- knowing what you can do in your toolkit
- proper setup for a project will help in long run
- maximizing your workflow
- plugins: move anchor point, fx console, animating characters(duik and rubber hose), ease copy,
- think ahead over being retroactive when laying out a prject

2.
- whether or not the audience remembers what it is, and whether they act on it (showing others or do something because of it)

3.
- planning
- gant charts, sticking to your plans
- organization
- not changing the entire idea because of one critique"be open to tilt"
- asana <---- planning heLP build in time off

4.
- motion language, 12 parts of animation
- play with how things come on of off the screen
- BE LEGIBLE
- highlighting the info that is most important.
- let more important info sink in
- offshoot question: what makes you go back to a motion piece?

5.
- pinterest, dribbble, vimeo, art of the title, motionographer,
- cyberpowerpc, affirm, grayscale gorilla, idesign, TUTORIALS

6.
- lots of research, being independent about it.
- emulating a style that a client looks for, or making something close/comparable.

7. what does not change project to project
- project structure;
- make an organized folder structure


initial surveys! of reptiles and stuff.

Blog #5

Problems



My design problem is that currently, biologists have a difficult time communicating certain concepts in an educational setting to students, especially newer research or other data. Specifically, my research led me to see how difficult it is to illustrate taxonomic data and why it is a huge hassle for people to work with.

Blog #4

I wanna look at the field of Biology to see if there is something that needs fixing, especially for those who are doing field research in nature.

Taxonomy

My first look into this field was quite some time ago, specifically with the taxonomic study of raptors. Since then I have found a few interesting resources about how people actually reseach specific taxonomy or identify birds.

https://journals.tdl.org/watchbird/index.php/watchbird/index

Follow this link and have fun.

As the website states, this has a membership "consisting of bird breeders, pet bird owners, avian veterinarians, pet/bird store owners, bird product manufacturers, and other people interested in the future of aviculture."
This website is used by a variety of people and is basically just a link to possible bird resources.

https://journals.tdl.org/watchbird/index.php/watchbird/search

The search feature itself is very frustrating and does not give the user a clear look at the database that might be accesible to them. Just a bunch of boxes that one has to keep trying to see if a keyword lands them the right results.


https://www.google.com/search?q=handbook+of+reptile+taxonomy&oq=handbook+of+reptile+taxonomy&aqs=chrome..69i57.5638j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

My continued resource led me to asking my Anthropology teacher about this and he said that if I wanted to I would have better luck searching "handbook of ______ taxonomy" on google. So I did just that with my category of choice being reptiles. What I got was links to multiple books that all need to be bought if you want a possibly outdated list of animals.

https://www.itis.gov/

This is the closest I have so far found to a taxonomic animal database... I don't really want to look at it anymore though.

https://www.itis.gov/servlet/SingleRpt/SingleRpt

I searched eagle to see what I might get and I have reached this page. Next I selected "Black Eagle"

https://www.itis.gov/servlet/SingleRpt/SingleRpt?search_topic=TSN&search_value=175562#null

While this is very in depth, it looks like a nightmare to navigate or understand.

Field Science

https://www.independent.co.uk/student/student-life/field-science-when-your-degree-takes-you-to-the-jungle-8512656.html

I took a look at the people who would be out doing research on certain biomes/organisms and felt I needed to become more familiar with what they actually do before I could see if there is anything they need fixed.

This article was not entirely helpful but it has pointed me in the right direction.