- A new “CSIC Knowledge Pill” is launched today, an initiative of the CSIC Scientific Culture Unit in Galicia, and the IIM begins a new campaign for schoolchildren, #ACdM, joining #QuedaNaCasa and #ACienciaResponde.
Santiago de Compostela, 20 April 2020. CSIC in Galicia is promoting a series of initiatives, developed during confinement, to disseminate the R&D&I carried out by the institution through its official social-media channels.
“One of CSIC’s functions is to be present in society, mainly as a driver of research, development and innovation. However, at specific times such as the present one, we must also make an effort to promote general initiatives that bring knowledge to society. This is a priority in our daily work, but in this context it becomes even more important in order to help ease and distract from social and individual anxiety,” highlights Antonio de Ron Pedreira, CSIC institutional delegate in Galicia.
The “CSIC Knowledge Pills”
The Scientific Culture Unit (UCC) of the CSIC Institutional Delegation in Galicia promotes “CSIC Knowledge Pills”, whose objective is to bring simple, rigorous scientific content to the general public in a humorous way through short audiovisual pieces.
“The idea arose from the need, in the current context, to design a different resource to continue the UCC’s work through its own institutions and social networks, while helping society cope with these days of confinement. The philosophy of the pieces is to offer families a moment of entertainment and leisure, while giving visibility to some of CSIC’s research lines in Galicia and to the units that provide management and scientific-technical support,” explains Luisa Martínez Lorenzo, head of the UCC. Each piece is performed by comedian and actor Carlos Godoy (@Rony Flamingo), with whom the unit has collaborated for more than a decade.
The “CSIC Knowledge Pills” are broadcast on the UCC CSIC Galicia YouTube channel and shared on Facebook and Twitter.
So far, seven pills have been released since 30 March, on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, under titles such as: Urgent call to Rony Flamingo; The walls have ears; Tip-off; Flatmates; Dad, shall we build a dolmen?; I know lots of things!; That tile…; and Feeling overwhelmed at home.
The initiative is carried out by the CSIC UCC in Galicia, with scripts by Luisa Martínez in collaboration with Carlos Godoy. A new pill is launched today and more will follow on 22 and 25 April.
The #ACdM, #QuedaNaCasa and #ACienciaResponde campaigns
The Institute of Marine Research (IIM) is launching today a social-media campaign aimed at school audiences, running until July and based on the educational resource “The Science of the Mussel”, published in 2010 and coordinated by Luisa Martínez and Xosé Antón Álvarez (IIM) within the Divulgamar project. The campaign is structured around weekly challenges or #ACdM challenges, published on the The Science of the Mussel website.
#QuedaNaCasa, with its own website, offers marine-science resources for IIM followers: from educational materials for schoolchildren to books or documentaries for young and adult audiences. #ACienciaResponde offers scientific knowledge generated at the IIM to answer questions from the general public, with responses from scientific and technical staff.