Fighting the boredom, part 1: ”Let’s show the world how amazing science is!”

”Badly communicated science is boring and a big component of doing science is motivation. We can’t expect to motivate people without good communication skills!” says Leonidas Georgiou, PhD student at Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology.  Here he shares some thoughts and some links in a four part blog article.

I was interested in science since before primary school. However, year after year, I have been taught science in a very boring manner. This left me very frustrated and made me wonder: ”If I love science and yet find the teaching boring, how is everyone else dealing with it?”

The biggest problem with school classes was the delivery of the lesson. Most teachers were passive and very few helped us see the bigger picture or spark a sense of wonder. This continued throughout university as well. Many lecturers were just reading slides packed with information in a monotonic voice while standing like statues behind their computer screen.

How can a teacher expect the students to learn like this?

No wonder most people skip class or sleep during it. Ironically the teachers complain when that happens. The truth is that teachers should inspire the youth, not bore them and expect them to keep listening.

There are many things we can all do to become better communicators as long as we are aware of the problem some of which are scribed on this blog. I am looking forward to a future constructed by better scientific communicators and inspired young scientists. Let’s show the world how amazing science is!

Leonidas Georgiou, Bachelor of Science (BSc) in Neuroscience, is a PhD student at Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology, Japan. He was a Amgen Scholars participant in 2012.  

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The forthcoming blog posts

Part 2: How to deliver an interesting presentation
Part 3: Great communicators of science
Part 4: Some recommended YouTube science channels

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About Leonidas Georgiou

Leonidas Georgiou is a PhD student at Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology.

• Fighting the boredom, part 3: “Become a better scientific communicator by experiencing it.” - March 7, 2014
• Fighting the boredom, part 2: ”It’s up to you to make it interesting!” - December 17, 2013
• Fighting the boredom, part 1: ”Let’s show the world how amazing science is!” - November 5, 2013