What is digital storytelling in the sciences?
“YouTube & Test Tubes” was a student-led event September 25, 2010 that explored the intersection of digital storytelling and the sciences. This event was part of the UNC Science Expo, a campus-wide science event that was one of the capstone events of the state-wide North Carolina Science Festival.
Communicating about science has always been challenging. How can multimedia be used to convey the story behind the experiment? Undergraduate and graduate members of the Carolina Digital Story Lab present several examples of science-based digital stories and discuss the process of making them. Each student’s piece is followed by interactive discussion with the audience.
Meet our Student Panelists
Cilia: Nature’s Exquisite Nanomachines! – Callie Holderman
Callie Holderman passionately pursues her interests in computer graphics, education, and video production through research with the Nanoscale Research Group (NSRG) and the Center for Computer Integrated Systems for Microscopy and Manipulation (CISMM) at The University of North Carolina. Currently, she is a junior at the University of Florida, where she is pursing her BS degree in Computer Engineering in the Digital Arts and Science Program. For the past two years, she has filmed and volunteered at the SIGGRAPH Conference for Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques, while learning about the latest breakthroughs in digital media. Check out her previous work and the rest of the CISMM research at www.YouTube.com/TheCISMM. “Cilia: Nature’s Exquisite Nanomachines!” was coproduced by Dr. Russell Taylor of Computer Science and Dr. Richard Superfine of Physics.
A New Struggle – Diana Iglesias
Diana Iglesias is a 4th year UNC-Chapel Hill student from Miami, FL in the Multimedia Sequence Major of the School of Journalism and Mass Communication. With experience in arts marketing, Diana became interested in multimedia storytelling through the interactive web design and videography classes in her concentration. Her piece for the UNC Science Expo event was a product of her Multimedia Narratives course and her love for South Africa after studying abroad in Cape Town. As the basis for the piece, she interviewed Dr. Audrey Pettifor of the Gillings School of Global Public Health at UNC-Chapel Hill on her HIV/AIDS prevention research in South Africa.
A New Struggle from Diana Iglesias on Vimeo.
Cannibal Crystals: Melting and Crystallization Experiments on the Ammonium Thiocyanate-Cobalt Chloride System – Ryan Mills
Ryan Mills is a Ph.D. student in the Department of Geological Sciences at UNC. He studies the emplacement, differentiation and eruption of magma using chemistry, geochronology and experimental petrology. His field areas include the Sierra Nevada, California and the Rocky Mountains, Colorado and New Mexico. In addition to fieldwork in beautiful places, Ryan performs experiments on a magma analog system that melts and crystallizes at “room” temperatures. Amazingly cool and interesting results have been observed in this system under a variety of thermal conditions. Because it is rather difficult to observe a magma crystallizing inside the earth, images and animations of the results from these experiments can be used to help explain magmatic crystallization processes to geology classes.
Choosing Surgery after a Genetic Test – Anne Frances Johnson
Anne Frances Johnson has a background in biology and a passion for communicating about science. She is currently pursuing a master’s in medical and science journalism at Carolina, where she experiments with video, audio, multimedia, web, and text to make science engaging and exciting for broad audiences. Previously, she spent four years working at the National Academy of Sciences and nourished her love of the natural world through work and volunteer experiences at a marine reserve in New Zealand, a sea turtle conservation project in Costa Rica, and small farms in the United States and abroad. Check her out at www.annefjohnson.com. Her piece was co-produced by Anne Johnson and UNC Journalism & Mass Communication master’s student Carol Kelly.
Making Waves – Heather Barnes
The Carolina Digital Story Lab is proud to present the debut of Making Waves, a short documentary on the Math and Marine Science Departments’ wave generator in Chapman Hall produced by Heather Barnes. Heather is in the doctoral program in information & library science at UNC. She has studied documentary methods (writing, video, and audio) at the Salt Institute and Duke’s Center for Documentary Studies. Mom to a sweet and energetic toddler, she lives in Carrboro and plans to do so for quite some time.
Event Details
Saturday, September 25th, 2010
11:30 am – 12:30 pm
Please contact Lab Director Mike Nutt if you are interested in learning more about our event. We welcome your feedback in the comment field below.
The video on Cancer Research sounds very interesting. I am in learning mode on this topic. It is good to know UNC has ongoing research.