| Description |
This “Ribbon Game” is an audience-participation activity in which the audience is connected ("wired up") with ribbons, in the pattern of the brain circuits involved in hitting a ball (eg in cricket). We seek to generate an appreciation of how much careful choreography must have gone into making the circuit in the first place, and how much coordination goes into executing simple actions we take for granted.
In presenting this activity, I would like to initiate a discussion on the importance of Science Communication in our graduate training programs. Next semester I will offer a new course on “Developing a Science Workshop” in which groups of students will develop their ideas into a concrete presentation, and offer it in a local school or college. The Ribbon Game is presented here as an example of one possible workshop that could have arisen out of such a course.
It is expected that through this course students will develop more clarity and appreciation of the fundamental issues of their own area and also experience the extremely positive reinforcement of being able to successfully communicate these to a wider audience. This has certainly been the case for us with the Ribbon Game! Would this not be an important component of our graduate training program?
|