Beautiful guides. The value of explainers in science communication

Based on two sessions devoted to the role of explainers at the 2005 ECSITE conference, a special focus has been published on the International Journal of Science Communication "Jcom".

The focus was coordinated by Paola Rodari and Maria Xanthoudaki. It includes contributions by Brigitte Zana (Palais de la découverte, Paris, France), Colin Johnson (Techniquest, Cardiff, UK), Marjatta Väkeväinen (Heureka, Vantaa, Finland), Miha Kos (Hisa Experimentov, Ljubljana, Slovenia), Antonio Gomes da Costa (Pavilhão do conhecimento, Lisbon, Portugal).

Training for dialogue
The following letter was published on the October-November issue of the ECSITE NEWSLETTER.

Nine senior explainers from At-Bristol (UK), Hisa Eksperimentov (Slovenia) and Immaginario Scientifico Science Centre (Italy) gathered in Trieste in September for an intense and engaging week. They were participating in the Dotik project (www.sissa.it/dotik), the European Training for Young Scientists and Museum Explainers funded by the EC – Science and Society, coordinated by SISSA (Trieste, Italy) and involving the three science centers as partners.

Enjoying the support of ECSITE, the Dotik project will develop and test methodologies for training explainers (animators, demonstrators, pilots, mediators, guides...) to effectively promote science/society dialogue. In 2006 the Dotik summer school, will train 50 explainers from European science centers (applications will be open soon) to act as strategic, two-way interfaces between science museums and their public.

The first part of Dotik involved exchange “cross visits” of 9 explainers in the three partners’ science centers. This was initially intended as a preparatory activity, to involve explainers in the definition of the contents for the experimental Dotik summer school 2005. We soon realized that the value of these exchanges far exceeded the Dotik objectives when: one part-time explainer in Bristol actually decided to make science communication her career, explainers in Hisa Eksperimentov spontaneously organized training sessions to report on tricks and methodologies learned in At-Bristol, and at Immaginario Scientifico new engagement activities were already planned for next year, based on the experiences of their “traveling explainers”.

This unexpected, huge impact (obtained in just a 2 day visit!) highlights a key issue: explainers in science centers are largely ignorant of what their colleagues do in other European countries. Very often, they haven’t the chance of visiting another science centre. The potential to increase both the quality of explainer activities and their motivation through contacts and exchanges is amazingly high. A series of elements on how to make such experiences valuable emerged in Dotik work (it is obviously not enough to just pay for an explainer trip...): so could a serious, well organized exchange programmed for explainers are a strategic objective for future ECSITE activities?

Matteo Merzagora et al.
Member SISSA-Master in Science Communication (ITALY).