In attempts to communicate to the general public, short videos are an outstanding tool that can be used in direct presentations and also on-line on web pages, blogs, You tube and other social networking formats. This workshop award provides funding for the University of Delaware to organize a ?Film Festival? workshop to be held at the American Society for Limnology and Oceanography (ASLO) conference in February, 2011. The proposed workshop will support the efforts of scientists who are willing to present their research in the short video format. The workshop builds upon two separate workshops that were held in prior years at ASLO conferences.
Jonathan H, Sharp University of Delaware At the 2011 Aquatic Sciences Meeting held by the Association for the Sciences of Limnology and Oceanography, a video workshop was held, titled "Aquatic Sciences Film Festival". Marine Biologist turned independent Hollywood filmmaker, Randy Olson, served as the expert critic to assist scientists in preparing short videos for general public viewing. The purpose for this workshop was to encourage marine scientists to make efforts to translate research results in a format that is interesting and understandable to the general public. From previous workshops and ongoing efforts by the PI of this grant and Dr. Olson, we are seeing increased interest within the marine science community and big improvements in technical quality of videos. A major focus in the 2011 meeting and near future meetings is to make the scientist-filmmaker more aware of the problems in getting and keeping the attention of the "public" that is not necessarily predisposed to be interested in the science. A driving force for these workshops is the recognition that even though a vast majority of knowledgeable scientists are convinced that there is a serious problem with global climate change that is largely due to human activities, a large portion of the "public" simply does not believe that there is a serious problem or that it is feasible to do anything about it. The environmental problems extend beyond climate change to other issues where pollution and over-exploitation of marine resources are causing severe problems that require response by the public in general and by elected officials who respond to the public whim. The goal of the workshops is not to advocate any specific activity for environmental remediation, but to train the scientific community in ways to more effectively communicate scientific results.
