“You have to be more creative with your words”: How UNB’s Scientific Journal Club is Reinventing Scientific Discussion

(‘Universes’, by Incé Husain)

Hoping to lift the formal speech and setting associated with discussing science, UNB’s Scientific Journal Club (SciClub) invites undergrads, grads, and faculty to come together, give talks, and converse about science in a casual, curiosity-driven way. 

Currently at 15 members, each monthly SciClub meeting is hosted by a different member who presents a scientific topic of their choice to a backdrop of cookies, coffee, and snacks. Thus far, the topics have spanned neural networks, circadian rhythms, and environmental sustainability. The club also hosts social events, like movie nights.

Amer El-Samman, president of SciClub, says that the inspiration for the club was to satisfy curiosities outside academically-pursued science fields and build scientific communication skills. He explains that casual speech in science can be conducive to more creative presentation styles that make scientific content more accessible to diverse audiences. 

“We try to break the barrier where science comes from a very formal background,” says El-Samman. “The whole point of this club is to realize that when you want to explain stuff to a general audience that’s very diverse… you have to become more creative with your words, you can’t use the scientific terminology you’re used to in your own field. This is a very hard process, but it’s very essential. You may be an expert, but you have to know how to say the right words and how to portray that to an audience that’s varied and wide… There are many ways of looking at a topic.”

El-Samman also considers exposure to diverse scientific topics as crucial for gaining fresh perspectives in research. In this way, SciClub hopes to nurture active collaboration between members. 

“It’s always interesting when you see how people approach a problem from different fields. You start to think how much of your thinking is missing,” says El-Samman. “What we’d like to do at SciClub is have people present their own research in a nice way for a diverse audience and (have) the audience look at that research from a different perspective and help them through their problems. ” 

Mostafa Javaheri Moghadam, vice president of SciClub, adds that SciClub gives students the opportunity to share their ideas on science and leading research, a spotlight that is usually reserved for faculty. 

“We think this club is needed in each university because it’s providing this opportunity for students to talk about … any topic in the context of science,” says Moghadam, “(Students in university) present their ideas and thoughts, but usually they are limited by the departments, or the faculty members are leading the research. Everyone is deeply engaged in (SciClub) presentations, everyone is free to ask questions.”

The atmosphere of SciClub is committedly friendly and ‘not too serious’, with much spontaneity and minimal shyness in asking questions and voicing ideas. Pre-meeting activities involve trivia games and ice-breakers, and the different speakers that take the podium each month bring unique presentation styles and ambiences to the meetings. 

The undergrad to faculty membership allows members to experience presentation skills at different education levels firsthand, an organic quality that is easily lost in rigid classroom settings. For example, undergrads in SciClub may learn about grad school skills by listening to talks by grads, and grads may build fresher perspectives into their disciplines by handling undergrad questions that are basic and commonly overlooked at higher levels of study. Faculty, meanwhile, can offer more advanced talks of an established, professional calibre. 

Amir Ayati, social media and promotions executive, shares that SciClub had initially been planned as a grad society set to feature advanced level talks that might not suit undergrads. Membership had been opened to all levels just to gauge general interest in the club, but after seeing the undergrad response, the club chose to incorporate all students. Ayati considers the mix of education levels to function smoothly because of genuine student interest. 

“(SciClub is) not a class,” says Ayati. “In a club, people join because they want to and they’re interested. If people are interested, it’s not a problem to have (many education levels) together.”

The SciClub founders consider the interdisciplinary nature of the club to nurture creativity with ideas in a way that typical university education trajectories do not. 

Ayati shares that academic university programs are structurally narrow, with exposure to different disciplines typically waning as level of study increases. 

“In your masters and PhD, you only focus on your project. The program only wants you to focus on that one thing,” says Ayati. “The program at university is not going to force you to (seek out other subjects). It’s your responsibility to look around just to be open-minded.” 

Moghadam considers our technological world to be steadily erasing barriers between disciplines, with scientific methods increasingly incorporating computer science, physics, and math skills. 

“I think having such divisions of ‘chemistry’, ‘biology’, ‘physics’ is finished. In the future there will be no borders between the sciences,” says Moghadam. “If you want to invent a new idea you need to have these skills from different sciences. You cannot only work in a single science.” 

El-Samman also considers interdisciplinary study to be borderless, suggesting that even arts disciplines can fuel scientific thought and application. He believes that the arts can integrate diverse scientific ideas into a ‘big picture’ that completes understanding of the discipline, a viewpoint that is absent from traditional classrooms. 

“We encourage arts students to (join SciClub) ,” says El-Samman. “They ask the questions that scientists don’t know how to ask. I think the arts students would be looking towards the ‘why’ and how things would benefit society, whereas scientists tend to get technical very quickly. That is a very important perspective (not found in classrooms).” 

SciClub is currently composed mostly of chemistry students, with some biology and neuroscience majors. In future, SciClub hopes to recruit math and physics students as well as more faculty members. The club is also interested in expanding their outreach beyond UNB to high schools and the general Fredericton community.

“We’re constantly looking for new ideas,” says Ayati. “Whatever we can do to grow.” ♦

*This article was updated on July 9th to include new content that was communicated by El-Samman via text post interview.