Open Source Comes to Campus/Open Science/Development/Intro to Open Science
This is an activity development page for Open Science Comes to Campus
Topic: Intro to Open Science
Notes about activitiy
Goals
This will typically be the first activity of the day, and should present a birds-eye view of open science.
We want to give students a sense of the size, scope and diversity of open science without overwhelming them. We want them to be energized, to identify with the values and goals which drive open science, and to be able to imagine themselves participating in the community.
More specific goals include:
- Attendees should learn what the term "open science" means - or rather, they should learn about it's many meanings, and how they relate to each other.
- Attendees should learn about the values that drive open science and consider whether they identify with the values.
- Attendees should learn about the "major players" in the open science field.
- Attendees should be aware of open science activism happening locally (at their school, in their town, etc).
Related work
- P2PU Intro to Open Science course
- I like how P2PU activities involve generating knowledge/publicity for openness. Most of the activities seem to be "do research and write a blog post".
- Doesn't do an "open science" intro, but rather immediately breaks into modules for open access, open data, etc.
- I like this "How open is it?" guide: https://p2pu.org/he/courses/5/content/366/
Overall structure
Because this is such an important activity, we want to provide it in a number of formats. I propose three main formats:
- Short (presentation-only, no activities) - 10 minutes
- Long (presentation + activities) - 20-30 minutes
- Self-guided (presentation with embedded, user-facing activities) - 20-30 minutes
The self-guided version can be used by students who miss the beginning of the event, or by newcomers who can't attend the event.
We'll create the long version first, and then create short and self-guided versions from it.
Brainstorming
Attendees should learn what the term "open science" means - or rather, they should learn about it's many meanings, and how they relate to each other. Attendees should learn about the values that drive open science and consider whether they identify with the values.
Definitions/concepts to cover:
- Open Access
- Citizen Science
- Open Data / Open Methods / Open Source Software
- Reproducibility
Methods of presentation:
- Ask students what the term open science means to them? Ask them to suggest words they associate with open science?
- Give students different definitions of open science and ask them which ones they identify with most?
- Present problems that open science addresses, whether general or specific - perhaps in the form of videos, articles, etc.
- Mentors who strongly associate with one of the definitions can talk about why it's important to them, in more of a discussion format.
- There is always lecture.
Attendees should learn about the "major players" in the open science field.
List of organizations to cover:
Methods of presentation:
- Have students work through organizations in a structured way and join some of them (mailing lists, follow twitter profiles, etc)
- This might fit better in the "communications" activity
Attendees should be aware of open science activism happening locally (at their school, in their town, etc).
We'll need to create an organizer/mentor-facing guide where they can determine who the local players are and incorporate them into the presentation.
The activity itself
Long (Presentation + activities)
Slide Outline: (no slides yet)
- New Slide:
- Text: "What is open science?"
- Presenter notes: Ask "What does "open science" mean to you?" Write down key concepts and phrases in responses on whiteboard. If mentors are holding back, encourage them to add their opinions once students have stopped. If no one mentions any of the following concepts, mention them yourself:
- open access
- open source software
- open data
- citizen science
- participatory research
- quantified self
- science education and journalism
- New Slide:
- Text: "What is open science? Open science is a lot of things."
- Presenter notes: Talk about how open science means a lot of things and it's normal to feel overwhelmed or not sure how you can participate. There's no way we can cover everything in a single workshop, so our focus will be on giving students the tools they need to continue participating, and a chance to learn more about the topics that are most interesting to them right now.
- New Slide:
- Text: "Open Science Stories" (With a link to our Open Science Stories page)
- Presenter notes: This is an activity with the following steps:
- Ask students to go to the open science stories site and read through a story (or watch one of the videos).
- When they're done, answer the questions: What kind of openness was this person or group looking for? Were they able to get it? How would a lack of openness hurt their work?
- If other students are still working (this activity should take about 10 minutes) they can read/watch another.
- Students share their answers to questions as a group.
- New Slide:
- Text: None - instead, a collection of images and logos of open science projects
- Presenter notes: Ask students if they recognize any of the logos. When someone identifies one, ask what they do and how they relate to open science. For any that are not identified by the audience, describe yourself.
- Make sure to highlight/add any open science projects that have a strong base locally. If you'd like, you can create a forked version of the slides with the local logos included.
- New Slide:
- Text: "How can you contribute?"
- Presenter notes: Ask people in the room if they've contributed to open science in the past, and if so, how. Make a list on the whiteboard. Say that over the course of the day, you'll learn more ways to participate and that you'll keep adding more ways to the board as you learn.