Play Like A Scientist

Özet, Erasmus+ Project Results platformunda yayımlanan İngilizce metindir.

Amaç

Research conducted in Turkey (Büyüköztürk & Köklü, 1999) and later in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (Akgün & Güntaş, 2018) have shown that graduate students are not competent in research. It is a long and difficult journey to conduct research, collect and classify data, and carry out these processes within the framework of ethical rules. On the other hand, the ease of access to information through the Internet and the significant decrease in the attention span of individuals make it even more difficult to adapt to this research process. In addition, social media leads to an addiction in the way gamble causes. Refreshing the content by pulling down (swiping) the screen, which has become a classic in social media – such as pulling the lever down on slot devices in casinos – is one of the addictive behavior patterns (The Guardian related article: https://l24.im/yBR4Fg ). Moreover, another addiction-related pattern is the feeling more important and appreciated by getting likes quickly, getting comments from people, and the virtual state of social acceptance/inclusion or exclusion through following and unfollowing. On these platforms, "the fastest way to success" model is processed. In the past, students' role models were hardworking and successful people in science and other areas; however, this situation changes its direction by targeting people who are famous, make a lot of money and show their presence on social media.
The stereotyping effect of social media distances young people from science and puts them in a more sexist and racist mentality. In a study conducted among primary school students; it was seen that the scientist model in the minds of primary school students is based on a narrow and discriminative basis, such as “white males mixing chemical substances in a laboratory.” In the study, the children were divided into 2 groups, and while no change was observed in the children who were taught normal science lessons, the other group whom science lessons were enriched by the inclusion of scientists' lives tended to include some new concepts, such as "women, different ethnic groups, science in nature, problem solving" in their “scientist” schemas.
Based on these studies, our project aimed to encourage young people to be involved in science or at least improve their “scientist” schemas through breaking down the prejudices. To be able to achieve our goal, our way was to be involved in art as well: theatre. In this way, we aimed to enable participants to gain both artistic and scientific achievements. In the mobility we carried out, we aimed to develop self-confidence and empathy of young people while providing them with an environment where they can raise their awareness about science by learning more about science and research, collecting information on scientists’ lives and works and interactively presenting what they collected, using the novel methods they learnt, and performing arts. Besides, we aimed to develop the self-confidence of young people in theatre and to enable them to be more active and courageous in both artistic and scientific fields. The main purpose of the project, which is also within the scope of Erasmus+ goals, is to provide an environment where young people can develop or increase self-confidence at the stage through theatrical ways, and therefore they can be more active and courageous in artistic and scientific fields. In other words, our goal was to empower young people to understand the complex and fascinating aspects of science and art and to take steps towards reaching sufficient technical knowledge and experience in both scientific and artistic fields. Moreover, we aimed to facilitate them to integrate art and science in creative ways, which would allow them to acquire the ability to be more unique in a personal way both in involving scientific or artistic processes by themselves.

In order to set these achieved goals on measurable foundations, we divided them into items as follows;
1) To inform students about both historical and todays’ scientists who can be taken as role models.
2) To shed light on the process behind an invention/discovery/research by emphasizing the effort and unfortunately how scientists’ names can be neglected in today’s technological innovation world.
3) By drawing attention to the personality traits of the scientists in question and the magazine (!) aspects of their lives, to enable participants to realize the human side of scientists and empathize with them.
4) To include art as theatre while underlining the importance of scientific knowledge and research and to display how to integrate them.
5) To enable the participants to work as a group by improving their communication skills due to the interactiveness of the theatre.
6) To provide participants with the ability to prepare and stage a play including detailed processes, such as script writing, role sharing, and script reading. After trainings, to support them to actively participate.

Uygulama

In the afternoon of the arrival day (Monday), an acquaintance lunch was held with the present participants. In the evening, with the arrival of the other participants, the participants exchanged partners and asked questions to each other in 'Quick Meet' game. As of the evening event, all events were held with full participation (35 people) and in groups.
On Tuesday, all participants went to the Düşkapanı Art Center and started the day with energizers/icebreaker games. In Facebook profile game, individuals briefly shared personal information, such as where they came from, their ages, their favorite books, and made each other's introductory presentations. Afterwards, M. Ali Uslu talked about the Turkish National Agency, Erasmus+ and our association, and the partner participants introduced their own formations. Later, participants determined the rules, rituals, group name and motto of the project. After the coffee break, in 'PLAS TREE' event, all the participants wrote their concerns, expectations and their expected contributions on post-its and attached to the tree. In 'Secret Friend' game, friends with whom they could give gifts to each other throughout the week were determined. In addition, a 'Challenge Box' was prepared to encourage them to follow the rules they set. PLAS dance and logo were determined, places to visit in Ankara, what to do in an emergency, and details of Youthpass gains were presented through group presentations. After lunch and later the energizers, the game "Whom I Know" was played, and in this game, participants in 4 groups listed all the celebrities they knew without any help from a source. Next, they were asked to list the scientists they knew, and they compared the lists they had prepared. They noticed that they often had historical scientists on their lists, who were fewer in number compared to celebrities. The game outputs were discussed and the reasons why contemporary scientists are not seen as role models and social media people are more on the front were discussed. Research methods and scientific cycle training were given by our instructor and the groups were asked to identify a problem and form a hypothesis for this problem. Young people created and presented a research model and discussed solutions. In the evening, games were played and welcome entertainment was held in the hotel meeting room.
On Wednesday, the day started with group dance and energizers in Düşkapanı. 5 different groups were created on the subject of “ Who/with whom/where/when/how/what they're doing?” and 20 appealing scenarios were created. Then, different groups made their presentations after researching about two scientists they chose. Then, basic stage training, gesture, mimic and voice training was given by Evren Ersan and a notarized translator provided simultaneous translation support throughout the study. All the participants participated in the small sketches and improvised. Thus, each participant experienced being on the stage. Slovakia and Romania took over the first cultural night.
On Thursday, after energizers, script writing training was given by our instructor in Düşkapanı. Later, in 3 groups, participants were trained and worked on role sharing and scenario readings of 3 different (science fiction, drama and monologue) short plays. Scenario types, adding creativity to a scenario were discussed, and the groups acted on the stage with their own interpretations of their scenarios. Later, participants started to write their own scenarios in 4 different groups. On Thursday evening, Italy and Poland organized a cultural night.
On Friday, firstly Anıtkabir was visited, Turkish history was introduced, a presentation was made on what Atatürk did for art and science, and museums were visited. Ankara Castle was visited, dinner was eaten together and later free time was given.
On Saturday, the day started with energizers in Düşkapanı. Before noon, the script writing continued and the decors were prepared. Youthpass event was organized by M. Ali Uslu and the participants received information about the certificate and prepared their own documents. The Turkish cultural event was held in Düşkapanı.
On Sunday, before noon, all teams completed their final preparations and then displayed their games. Feedbacks were received on how they felt about the project and their performance, and 'Feedback Pizza' 'Mood Chart' and 'Message Box' games were used for the final evaluation. Gala night was held in the evening. Our association president and coordinators made speeches at the gala night, and after the screening of a short film about the project process, the 'Secret Friend's were announced and gifts were given. Everyone who wished wrote notes to each other, group dances and goodbyes were held. Briefly, what will be done during the dissemination phase was discussed and the gala night was completed by shooting evaluation videos.
Final evaluations were made on Monday morning and departures took place.

Sonuçlar

As one of the results of our project, participants gained more self-confidence through theatre. Their possible prejudices against doing science were reduced and they developed theatrical and artistic skills. At the end of the project, young people have developed an awareness that they can also do scientific research and that doing science has both difficult and beautiful aspects. They learned more about current scientists and their contributions to recent areas. As emphasized by instructors, participants have realized and internalized that in general, we are not actually aware of the modern-day scientists behind the current technological developments and scientific academia in comparison to historical scientists. They learned the scientific research methods and the scientific circle in detail. They also learned to produce solutions and hypotheses to daily life problems with the practice activities carried out immediately after this training. Besides, they experienced expressing their feelings and thoughts on the stage via acting, and they developed a fundamental competence in advanced communication skills and body language in the artistic field. As the main result, they gained the ability to integrate these two fields (art and science) and to consider states and events both from scientific and artistic points of view. Moreover, they learned about Youthpass achievements and the contributions & support of the European Union and Turkish National Agency to young people and their projects. They also gained the awareness of using the budget they have in a balanced way, time management with project activities, and protecting the environment. They met different individuals and made friends from different countries, became acquainted with new cultures, and experienced introducing their own cultures through the culture nights. This cultural acquisition provided them with skills both in terms of socialization and familiar with new languages ​​and lifestyles. On the cultural tour day of Ankara, they had an opportunity to be familiar with Turkish history in detail and they also shared cultural exchanges based on the similarities in their own history.
As the participants mentioned both verbally and in the questionnaires, combining theater and science together has developed a new perspective for young people in both fields. they saw what difficulties they could face if they were a scientist and how they could cope with them. One of the biggest results of the project is that the young people are now good role models for the individuals around them and for the little ones and motivate them. First of all, while sharing their experiences with their school friends and acquaintances, starting with their families, they will carry the excitement of art, science, newly met skills, and new cultures to other individuals at first hand. The gain of the participants in the scientific field is much greater. Science has ceased to be an inaccessible, difficult and complex field for them, and has become one of the fields where they can achieve success if they wish. The participants, who moved away from the idea of commodifying and isolating the scientist, realized that science can actually be fun by exchanging ideas with individuals who have written a thesis a few times from our coordinators and learned in detail how to start science. One of the ideas most emphasized and won when the participants were leaving was that failure is not that scary, mistakes are processes that must be on the way to success, and only a person who produces nothing can be faultless. With this achievement, young people overcame their fear of making mistakes and being inadequate, and when they return, they stated that they want to do scientific work in the fields they are interested in. Here, the primary goal of the project coordinators is to bring the participants to science and to encourage the people around them to produce even if they do not do science themselves.

The outputs of our project are collected in a Google Drive folder (https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1f38R_krgDvhaotFobRyuZjr-VYKqB3d7?usp=share_link) and the links are collected in an Excel file (in Drive). As a result of our project, short videos were created and shared by participants and partners.