A little over two weeks ago was the Nit Europea de la Recerca (European Researcher’s Night) in Tarragona. It was part of a massive initiative that involved events in over 300 cities across Europe. The theme centered on International Year of the Periodic Table. Several of my IPHES colleagues and I (Institut Català de Paleoecologia Humana i Evolució Social, IPHES) participated in the event alongside numerous researchers from the Universitat Rovira i Virgili (URV), Catalan Institute of Classical Archaeology (Institut Català d’Arqueologia Clàssica, ICAC), the Pere Virgili Institute of Health Research (Institut d'Investigació Sanitària Pere Virgili, IISPV), and Institute of Chemical Research of Catalonia (Institut Català d'Investigació Química, ICIQ) provided exciting and unique scientific outreach activities for the children and families. The event was free and took place in front of the central market (Plaça Corsini) in Tarragona. Tables and booths were set up for all the research groups and the children started pouring in around 4:30. Our contribution was Detectives Dentales: Lo que dicen los dientes fósiles sobre nuestros antepasados (Dental Detectives: What fossil teeth say about our ancestors). Like the rest of the researchers, we had a booth with tables set up, hands-on activities for the kids, and a giant poster describing our research. Hundreds of children came to our table to learn about human evolution, primates, hominins, and bioarchaeology over the course of the night. Thanks to the support and help of my incredible colleagues (Marina Lozano, Raquel Hernando, Efstathia Robakis, Miquel Guardiola Fígols, and Marta Fontanals Torroja), and the organizers of the event, everything went incredibly smoothly. ComCiència URV (@cienciaURV) also provided some great pictures of the event: Admittedly, I was terrified of doing this event. My Castellano is terrible, and my Catalan is non-existent, which is a constant source of stress and embarrassment for me. While my colleagues made sure there were no horrible mistakes in the materials we used (poster, fact sheets, etc.), there was still the issue of needing to speak Castellano for about 5 hours. Thankfully, I had incredible help with the event from my colleagues. And then there were the parents and the children… Simply put, they were incredible! I spoke in Castellano (as best I could) for most of the event, but many parents would extrapolate what I was communicating to their children or translate it into Catalan. In fact, there was a lot of translation. Examples I can immediately recall included translating my Castellano to Chinese and Italian. Other children that were not originally from Spain, were more comfortable with English than Castellano, so I obliged. Some of these children even translated what I said (in English) to their mother tongue for their younger siblings – examples included German, Italian, and Chinese. Some children would just look at me puzzled when I spoke, then took a look at my name tag (misspelled “John Williams” for the night, but still very much not a Spanish name), which prompted them to ask, “Can you say something in English?” I wasn’t prepared for this, but it was quite funny, and gave some children a chance to practice English. Another common end to an interaction was a “thank-you” in English from parents as they moved on to another table – a kind of wink and nod that they appreciated the effort. All in all, was surprised at how well everything went despite my initial anxieties concerning language barriers. Some reflections on this type of public outreach event I wanted to share a few reflections on what worked well for this type of outreach event, since many of my colleagues are involved in these sorts of activities. I envisioned setting this event up much like the “fossil laboratory” events that I used to set up for Introduction to Human Evolution / Biological Anthropology courses when I was a graduate student – albeit, this was for a much younger audience! The target age group was around 5-12 year olds but we definitely had some younger children too. And to be honest, many of the parents showed an interest in the materials on par with, and sometimes exceeding, that of their children! So here’s what worked and didn’t: An enormous poster: We had a giant poster with lots of examples, or “clues”, that biological anthropologists use to understand and interpret primate and hominin dental morphology, diet, growth and development, behavior, pathology, etc. By “giant”, I mean 200 x 80 cm… About three times larger than any conference poster I’ve ever made… It was a monster. Keep in mind that Powerpoint will not make posters this big, so a half-size (100 x 40 cm) poster was made. I had to constantly remind myself to zoom in 200% to get an accurate sense of whether or not each image would be blurry or if the text was too small. In the end, the poster turned out really well and will be used for future science communication events at IPHES since it was printed on durable vinyl. Primate and hominin casts (“No these are not the original fossils”): We set up a variety of casts from the URV/IPHES teaching collections to illustrate various aspects of primate functional morphology and hominin cranial and dental evolution. What I didn’t know would turn out to be so useful were the laminated sheets that accompanied each cast or groups of casts. For example, sheets for living primates included bright and colorful images of living primates eating and some basic descriptions of how their teeth help break down certain types of food. The hominin casts that we used included examples of Australopithecines, Paranthropus, Homo erectus, archaic Homo – a Neandertal and the Sima de los Huesos Skull 5 (“Miguelón”), and a recent modern human. Every cast also had an information sheet with a few facts about the fossil and reconstructions to help the kids visualize what these hominins may have looked like in life (The Smithsonian Institution, as always, was a great resource for this). The kids really liked the Gigantopithecus blacki mandible, but this was partly due to the comic relief provided by the body size comparisons in the information sheet we provided. The laminated sheets were not taped down, which also helped a lot. We were often completely surrounded by kids and unable to move around the tables with ease. Instead, being able to reach and grab the facts sheets and casts from across the table proved very helpful. Food breakdown: To help demonstrate some of the ways that teeth breakdown food, we had some props on the table to help with explanations. We used dried figs as our fruit example since they are a much less messy alternative to fresh fruit. We paired the fruit with a mortar and pestle to discuss bunodont molars. We had plenty of leaves on the table, and we discussed shearing crests by miming the cutting action of scissors with our fingers. Originally, I was going to have real scissors to cut leaves but quickly realized how dangerous that might be as children started swarming the table! We also had walnuts (hard food), a nutcracker, and chufa (tough, high fiber food) on display. The chufa was one of my personal favorites and it was easily identified by parents (and some kids) as an ingredient for horchata. Aside from being delicious, chufa is a hypothetical C4 plant food of Paranthropus bosei – original article here). My colleague, Dr. Erin Kane, uses similar strategies in her course on the “Evolution of the Human Diet” which inspired me to go ahead with this idea at Researcher’s Night. She used a variety of other tools and foods for her demonstrations - like a staple remover to demonstrate how some teeth are well-suited for piercing the exoskeletons of insects - which are great for classroom settings. Like the scissors, we couldn't incorporate all the examples that Dr. Kane uses, but I can't wait to expand this activity the next time I get to teach this section in my own course. Dr. Kane also explores oral processing of food in her class with a variety of snacks – another thing I can’t wait to adapt for outreach events and teaching in the future. My colleagues, Raquel Hernando and Efstathia Robakis, teaching children about non-human primates and early hominins. If you look closely you will find a child playing with the loop. Other odds n’ ends: I molded the teeth of each fossil cast that we had on display and made dental casts in advance of the event out of a cheap and durable polyurethane resin. These casts were a lot easier for smaller children to handle. I also put a few 10x magnifying loops on the table and a handful of small plastic calipers. I never would have thought they’d be so popular, but many children measured everything they could – from the teeth and jaws on the table to the smile of a friend. The loops were even more popular and worked perfectly for examining the extra dental casts I made. One young scientist, I’m guessing she was 4 years old, came back to the table at least 3 times over the course of the evening just to use the calipers and loops! I rarely left my home without a loop when I was that young, and it is nice to see that these cheap little devices still fascinate children in an age of touchscreens.
What I would do differently: One of my big regrets centered around not having souvenirs for the children. This was largely due to a lack of time on my part and it’s something I definitely want to be better prepared for in the future. The original idea was to create a large sample of hemi-mandibles or hemi-maxillas out of dental stone. A variety of non-human primate and hominin teeth would be made, and each cast would come in a small bag with a fact card describing morphology, diet, etc. It’s not much, but I remember loving these sorts of things as a kid, and I would have liked to have had them ready for the kids at Researcher's Night. Alas, several hundred dental casts required quite a lot more time than I had to spare prior to Researcher’s Night. More loops. I ordered a 10 pack of loops but only one unit arrived, and I only had one other I was willing to risk damage to. The kids really liked them, so next time I will be better prepared with a dozen or so cheap loops spread across the tables. I’m sure I’ll continue to think of other things I’d wish to change but I think I’ll save that for the aftermath of the next public outreach event I take part in. All in all, this was one of the most unique and rewarding events during my postdoctoral experience in Tarragona. Again, this is in large part to the incredible help provided by my colleagues and the enthusiasm of the children and families that attended Researcher's Night. Many thanks to all!
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John C. Willman
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