Because we are a gang!

The first rally of enlighteners, organized by the Evolution Foundation, was held in Moscow on November 18-19. More than 400 scientists, organizers of scientific reports, scientific journalists and bloggers discussed whether science can be made popular in Russia, or is it a preaching “for the circulation”; Whether enlighteners are able to unite and for what, what problems are inside and outside the community are relevant, what kind of enlightenment formats work and what else needs to be studied.

You have become a noticeable phenomenon in Russian cultural life, ”Dmitry Zimin, founder of the dynasty Foundation, turned to the participants during the opening of the Guest of the Foundation. The director of the Evolution Foundation (the co -founder of which is the ANO “Trinity Option that issues our newspaper) Pyotr Talents supplemented:“ We would like the “evolution” to become a platform that defends common interests and unites us. The main idea of ​​the rally is to determine the goals and objectives of the educational movement ... "

The moderators of the discussion about the problems and tasks of the educational community were Alexander Pankin and Mikhail Nikitin. The community is concerned primarily by the destruction of the institution of reputations and the emergence of pseudo -experts, low quality state decisions, public prejudices (especially in the field of medicine), aggressive advertising of “funmicins” and clericalization of education. Decided:

• study pseudoscience as a public phenomenon;
• build a horizontal network of interaction between educational projects in order to consolidate the opinion of the scientific community on important issues of state and public life, which has a scientific component;
• use a variety of formats, including completely popular; build chains of formats from simple to complex; Enlighten school teachers, supply methodological literature and maintain a scientific examination;
• Use non -traditional sites and media resources: teacher forums, gaming communities, etc.

So that the tasks do not remain a dry list, the community should first become such in the full sense of the word - to unite and establish cooperation mechanisms. About how scientists and popularizers to become a “gang” was reasoned by Alexander Dubynin (Eureka! Fest): “Any community is several micro -communities inside that follow their leaders. They are autonomous, but connected. So we have no leader. We are all a desire to enlighten the people, yes, this is a utopian mission, but it is like a guiding star. Movement needs enthusiasts, coordinators who will find the strength to pull all this. Can we become a full -fledged community? For me, this is still an open question. ”

Annet Klinkert from the European Association of the organizers of popular science events (EUSEA) told how the European community lives: “We often remind each other that the popularization of science is not when scientists form stupid people. This is a dialogue between scientists and society. Not only the involvement of people, but also - scientists. We, the organizers of scientific events, love to meet and come up with new formats, look for new audiences and new scientists. ”

Mikhail Gelfand, bioinformatics and a public fighter with prejudices, concerns the “conversion factor”: “How much does the efforts that the community of popularizers and scientists spend on scientific and popular activity, are converted either in changes in the mass consciousness, or in state decisions? Is it not so that all this is wonderful and interesting and requires tremendous efforts, and we communicate with the same people who go to our lectures, because they like them and they almost turn into our personal friends, and that’s it? And there is no further anywhere ... ”How to evaluate the effectiveness, what are the criteria? The word experts.

Boris Dolgin, scientific editor “Polit.ru”: “It is necessary to conduct polls only depending on specific tasks, budget, in some direction (vaccination, GMO). Or track biographical dynamics in polls of students, young scientists (why and how they came to science). ”

Asya Kazantseva, scientific journalist: “I personally evaluate the effectiveness of popularization by the amount of my work. And I'm waiting for me to get less. The market has grown a lot, and there are not enough lecturers. ”

Alexander Ershov, chief editor N+1: “We need focus groups, not just polls. Socials -asking is expensive. I don’t know who is on the teeth. ”

Anna Urmantseva, the “brainstorming” of the TV Center TV channel: “You get too deep. If “wounds” people translate from English “run”, then you don’t need focus groups, you can just go to the subway. ”

Yuri Voinilov, sociologist, Circon research group, HSE: “We have been monitoring the innovative behavior of the population of the population of Russia about 25 years about 25 years. It would seem that everything is fine - 67% of Russians consider the science useful. But other data obtained from answers to more subtle questions indicate the opposite - about 30% find it difficult to answer, and the same amount is considered science unsuitable in everyday life, too complicated for understanding and therefore unnecessary. And if we compare Russia with 30 other countries, then we are in the penultimate place for participation in scientific discourse! Even Mexico is ahead of us by 15 points. ”

Video of Natalia Demina about the rally of enlighteners

In parallel on the first day, a conference was held for the organizers of scientific, educational and career guidance measures, which was the RVC co-organizer. The organizers' colleagues have indicated a list of questions that everyone who wants to organize the event should answer.

- Topic and concept:

• Is this topic interesting to the audience? To whom? Why?
• Is this topic interesting to companies? To whom? Why? What do you want from them? What can you give them?

- cycles (if long projects);

- scalability (geography);

- Feedback - understanding of the audience:

• What is known about visitors? Age? Interests?
• What companies are interested in the audience?
• Where does the audience come from?
• How to evaluate the reaction of the audience?

Here are some recommendations of invited experts-potential external partners of popular science events.

Ilya Kurmyshev, Director for promoting the innovative activities of the RVC: “When assessing the possibility of RVK work with a popular science and career guidance, the scalability/replicability of the format, the stability of the model (that is, the ability of the team in the future to independently ensure its financing), the availability of auditorial focus (and not the work with all interested " ), the possibility participants ".

Ekaterina Dementieva, “ Poster”: “Contact the media with a clear proposal. Think about the format of the text: for example, listing ( “ five facts about ... ” ) or a scientific commentary on popular phenomena (computer games, films). ”

Maria Uvarova, di Telegraph: “Choose topics that can be expanded into several events. Attract a media speaker or moderator. ”

Andrei Voronin, NITU “MISIS”: “Do not write official letters to the university with a proposal to cooperate: it does not work. Find in his structure a person who is ready to conduct popular science work, and solve issues about joint events at the level of personal communications. ”

Maria Kibkalo, Intel: “Several criteria are important to corporations: the theme of the event, style, audience, access to interesting experts and new projects. Prepare Pitch: what kind of support you need and why exactly from this company. ”

Annette Klinkert, the Association of European Scientific events: “It all starts with non -working, innovations are not driven by individual people, but by cooperation. End cooperation with international communities! ”

On November 19, the discussion “Infrastructure organizations: to whom and why they can be useful” was held - popularizers learned how to get support of funds and development institutions.

Ksenia Tuzova, coordinator of projects of the Evolution Foundation: “First of all, we support book publishing - together with publishers and on our own. We conduct the so -called double lectures in the regions. We are open to your ideas, are ready to help, come, train and hold together. We support the issue of the memorandums of the RAS Commission to Combat the Pseudomed Affairs. We send scientific literature to teachers throughout the country, at the moment - in biology. Beginning young (and not only) popularizers are trained at the school of lecturers, now there is a second set. For the organizers, we have a base of lecturers and moderators that graduates of our school can get into. And, of course, this set, which we plan to make annual. ”

Ilya Kurmyshev: “Priority of the Popularization Program - work with communities: investors, technological entrepreneurs, make -ups, communities of young scientists. Events allowing these communities to grow, involve new participants, to develop an external step -fight, in the focus of the attention of the RVC. For teams organizing measures that are often becoming integrators of communities, support system has been operating for three years. We are ready to help organizationally, expertly, we conduct educational seminars for commanding commanders. ”

Evgenia Mikhina, Information Centers on Atomic Energy: “Do not immediately ask for a huge budget: crush a project for tasks in order to receive financial assistance for at least one of them. Look for a goal and benefit common to the organization. ”

Konstantin Petrov, the Trajectory Foundation: “Look for competitions on your subject: sending applications to“ fan ”to different funds is pointless. Many funds have their own projects, try to offer a format that can integrate into them. ”

Sergey Ivashko, “ Expir”: “Thoroughly study the competitive documentation; If necessary, find a specialist. Look who won in past competitions. ”

Sergey Filippov, Fund for infrastructure and educational programs: “We support formats that popularize engineering among students and give them a clear idea of ​​a possible career trajectory.”

The organizers created Telegram chat during the event and a group on Facebook as a place where involved will be able to discuss issues related to enlightenment where novice organizers of scientific events, young lecturers or journalists will come to ask more experienced colleagues. There were a rally materials, the first sad, but bright and convincing reason for cooperation (a flash of measles in Yekaterinburg) and the first request to share experience. Join the Club of Enlighteners on Facebook. Because we are a gang!