Scientific Explainers
Imagine you have to explain a complex topic to a 7-year-old. How do you approach that task? You focus on the essential aspects of that topic. You find a way, often through images and metaphors, to make that topic accessible. You avoid any jargon, and if you have to use a specialized word, you define it clearly.
An explainer follows the same general guidelines, except the goal is to make a topic understandable to any non-expert.
In the realm of the sciences, technology and society, an explainer may explain how a vaccine boosts immunity, how the scientific method works, why trees may rely more on cooperation with each other that we realize, and so on.
A good explainer feels engaging and relevant, using stories, analogies, fun facts, etc. and connecting it to current events to show why the topic matters.
You can read more about explainers here as well as read examples of explainers below:
Charting a Coronavirus infection
What are marine macrofauna?
How does the Venus flytrap work?
If you would like to know more about how you might write an explainer for the SPACE website please contact Ursula Sommerer at usommerer@dawsoncollege.qc.ca and she will connect you with one of the SPACE coordinators.
