SciQuel

Accurate and unbiased science education. Created by scientists. Illustrated by artists. Reviewed by educators. Tailored for YOU.

Our solution is a collection of articles, podcasts, and videos on scientific concepts and topics, hosted on an innovative and novel self-developed web platform.

By having scientists write about science, we can discuss science deeply and meaningfully. Artists who make complementary illustrations will help convey points clearly and memorably. Finally, educators and journalists who edit and review our work will allow us to always create with the non-technical nature of our audience in mind.

The web platform will incorporate features such as user accounts, quizzes, bookmarking, and commenting to build a supportive learning community.

Quizzes at the beginning and end of each content piece will challenge the reader to think through what they already know. Equally - if not more - importantly, the quizzes will allow learners to realize they can learn science, and will increase their self-confidence, with the result that learners will feel comfortable talking about science (spawning something analogous to people's enthusiasm for talking about sports, politics, or cooking).

Bookmarking will allow readers to save useful articles, as well as snippets of text and sentences they find helpful. Finally, having both end-of-article and in-line comments (where a specific portion of the text or a specific pixel of an image is visibly referred to) will allow productive discussions.

Over the past decade, government funding for research and development (R&D) has invariably exceeded $120 billion annually, financially supporting over half of all R&D at universities. However, the general public is not well-informed of the scientific discoveries resulting from their weighty investment (both the basic and the revolutionary). The negative implications of this gap are obvious.

The Pew Research Center, based on a survey, classifies 32% of Americans as having "medium" scientific knowledge, and 29% of Americans as having "low" science knowledge. That's 200 million Americans who do not have a solid science background. There's a racial disparity here too: 48% of whites have a "high" science knowledge level, compared to only 23% of Hispanics and just 9% of African Americans.

An example consequence of this low scientific literacy is vaccine hesitancy, which is especially relevant in the age of COVID-19. There's a well-known racial disparity in COVID-19 vaccine uptake, though this has lessened for Black people over the past year. Still, compared to 77.5% of whites, only an estimated 52.6% of Native Americans are fully vaccinated.

This is a costly problem that extends beyond the public health realm and far beyond the United States. In Italy, around 2015, an invasive bacteria that kills olive trees was detected. Instead of turning to science for help, misinformation ran rampant and local citizens accused scientists of causing the disease, with Nature publishing headlines like "Italian scientists under investigation after olive-tree deaths." Years later, the problem has worsened significantly and the pest has spread to other countries, costing the economy an estimated $20 billion euros (BBC: "Deadly olive tree disease across Europe 'could cost billions'").

The negative consequences of the divide between scientific knowledge and the society that funds it are innumerable - they harm without regard for national borders, scientific fields, or time periods - and this is a problem that must be solved.

Our initial target population is underserved communities in the Boston area, particularly middle and high school students, though adults can benefit too. Though Boston K-12 education includes "STEM projects & experiences," first-hand experience from meeting with high school students has taught us that this in-class exposure is insufficient: Experiments in their lab-based classes often fail, for unknown reasons as students are not taught to think and discuss further, and many underlying mechanisms are not explained, such as why DNA migrates towards the positively-charged cathode in electrophoresis. For a scientist used to laboratory protocols and keeping meticulous records, this was horrifying to learn. Disadvantaged populations who need it most often don't have the resources to pursue independent science education.

Our solution will meet students where they are. They can read about topics of interest, from a far wider breadth of disciplines than school can ever cover (from the Hawaiian bobtail squid to Hycean worlds). They can challenge their assumptions when answering quiz questions. They can ask their own questions, and answer others' (which contributes to learning as well).

We understand jargon can be a daunting barrier, and so we write a clickable "pop-up" definition and an in context usage for scientific terms, without having to exclude technical language entirely (which would impact how deep a discussion we can get). We understand some are visual learners, so place an emphasis on topical illustrations, without mimicking the style of sometimes-hard-to-approach textbook figures.

Our entire experience is designed to maximize the approachability of the scientific content we present. By being a free resource and truly open access, we also maximize our accessibility.

I volunteer with an organization (HMS MEDscience) that works to increase science exposure for underserved high school students in Boston. I also volunteer with Health Professions Recruitment & Exposure Program (HPREP) at Harvard Medical School, which is a science education program that also provides mentorship to underrepresented populations.

We have surveyed students about how they learn about science, and what they find deficient in that current ecosystem (with over 125 interviews so far). We have also designed a prototype for the platform we're currently developing, and have gathered feedback from potential users throughout the design process. The ability to bookmark phrases and paragraphs, instead of just articles, was a suggestion from a student we interviewed. For articles specifically, a significant number of students brought up their dislike of the mismatch between science headlines in the news, and the actual content of those articles. We will be paying careful attention to avoid this and other problems that have come up in our research with potential users.

We have built a high-fidelity Figma prototype for our platform.

The core technology we rely on is a web-based platform. While this may seem simple, the web is an efficient way to reach billions of people. [Insert metaphor about reinventing the wheel :) ] We are repurposing an existing technology to do more good, for the greatest number of people possible.

Our website will host scientific content we create and will incorporate features such as quizzes, bookmarking, and commenting. While none of those features are unique in and of itself, together, they allow learners to effectively communicate with scientists teaching the topics that they study.

We have not launched our solution yet. We expect to directly and meaningfully serve 10,000 people next year. Over this year, we will launch our platform and gradually partner with school districts. The Boston Public School district alone educates over 54,000 students. With that in mind, we expect 10,000 students to be a reasonable and achievable goal.

Through school partnerships, and by offering our content for free, we can serve the people who need it most. (Students may not have the time or resources to interact with content outside of school, and free content will remove the all-too-common financial barrier to knowledge.)

Goal 1: We hope to directly increase the frequency of science as a conversation topic, and indirectly increase scientific literacy.

As a teaching assistant in college, I was often told that you truly understand something when you are able to explain it to someone else. And I experienced that. I was reluctant to bring up subjects I didn't fully understand, but couldn't contain myself when I felt confident about something. By introducing our quiz questions before and after each article, students can recognize the dramatic improvement in their understanding of a topic. This will increase their confidence and the frequency they will discuss that science topic with others.

Goal 2: We hope to increase baseline scientific knowledge.

Before getting the flu vaccine (including at Harvard Medical School no less), I have always been asked if I understood a particular CDC fact-sheet. In bold, "Influenza vaccine does not cause flu." (emphasis the CDC's) This is "duh" for someone who studies immunology but might be a significant cause of worry for someone who hasn't had the opportunity to study the sciences. By explaining key common scientific mechanisms - the scientific "how's" and "why's" - we will increase the baseline level of knowledge that people have.

Goal 3: We hope to increase the accessibility of science, across all disciplines.

With the current academic publishing system, new research discoveries are often locked behind a significant paywall (an average of $33.41 per paper, more if you want to deeply understand a topic).

Impact indicators for:

Goal 1: Quiz metrics (e.g., percent accuracy) are an indirect indicator. Surveys for students, asking questions like how often they brought up science in conversations in the past week, month, and year, are a more direct indicator.

Goal 2: We can survey parents of students before and after the students start using our platform, asking a randomized list of basic science questions, to assess the "transmission" of scientific literacy and changes in the parents' understanding of science after their children engage in our learning process.

Goal 3: The number of research groups who have published a "companion piece" for one of their recent research articles with us. (The companion piece would be written for a general audience, which assumes the reader doesn't have a science background, in sharp contrast to the very dense nature of scientific research papers.)

Other indicators, which may be less meaningful, include the number of page views or site visits, the number of social media shares and other measures of social media engagement (likes, follows, retweets), and the number of repeat visitors.

Our major barrier is financial. Currently, we are entirely composed of volunteers. This has slowed our progress in developing our initial prototype, as it was difficult to recruit engineers who believe in the real societal benefit of this project and were willing to work without monetary compensation. We expect our lack of funding will also limit the rate at which we can publish articles and other materials, because we cannot have educators and journalists work on reviewing our content full-time. (For scientists, there's often a greater incentive to discuss their research. They don't want their life's work to remain buried and unknown, and the National Science Foundation, a major grant-making agency, weighs "Broader Impacts" when making funding decisions.)

Thankfully, our current team has the necessary scientific and technical expertise.

I have experience as a teacher, having worked with students from a middle school to a community college to a university level, and as a scientist, having research experience in both engineering and immunology. This experience has inspired the "clickable scientific terms." While new words can be foreign (think "transcription"), we don't assume someone can't learn them, and we recognize they are an essential part of science. Numerous other members of our team have similar and additional relevant experience as well.

Our team includes members from diverse ethnic backgrounds, including native Spanish and Chinese speakers who can translate our content into other common languages. Nearly 10% of non-English speakers in Massachusetts speak Spanish, making quality Spanish content a recognized key priority for our team. Also very importantly, one of our team members has taught in Boston public schools for twenty years.

Without the suggestions of our team, or the tremendously helpful interviews of the people we hope to serve, we would not have thought to include important features like 1) bookmarking scientific terms, 2) switching to a dark theme, and 3) emailing updates on topics that learners choose to follow. Even the small things can make a big difference, and our diverse backgrounds and experiences allow us to notice those small things.

SciQuel was accepted into the Harvard Innovation Labs (iLab) venture program in fall 2021. Through this relationship, SciQuel has gained critical advice, as well as insight and mentoring, on building a team, business planning, and startup growth strategies from industry advisors, iLab staff, and interactive programming.

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Unfortunately, women and girls are underrepresented in STEM fields. According to UNESCO, "only 35% of STEM students in higher education globally are women (https://en.unesco.org/stemed)." We recognize and believe that it is crucial for women and girls to learn about science, technology, engineering, and math, as well as choose a career in such a field. As such, we strive to provide an equal opportunity for women and girls to learn about science and what it's like to enter STEM fields. We will make a strong effort to reach out to women and girls.