{"id":4916,"date":"2018-11-01T00:00:59","date_gmt":"2018-11-01T00:00:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.palaeontologyonline.com\/?p=4916"},"modified":"2018-11-01T23:31:59","modified_gmt":"2018-11-01T23:31:59","slug":"education-and-outreach-cosplay-for-science-initiative-and-the-natural-history-museum-of-pokemon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.palaeontologyonline.com\/?p=4916","title":{"rendered":"Education and Outreach: Cosplay for Science Initiative and the Natural History Museum of Pok\u00e9mon"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Gabriel Santos<\/a>1<\/sup><\/p>\n

In the world of education, we often hear complaints that people know more about celebrities and fictional characters than about science. Taking a moment to scroll through Twitter or Instagram, it can be easy to agree with such complaints. It can be a constant struggle for educators to find a way to make abstract concepts from science more interesting than ideas from fiction, like the Force or giant robots. But what if there were a way to use people\u2019s fascination with pop culture as a tool for education? What if there were a way to use pop culture to make science relatable and accessible? What if there were a way to use pop culture to make scientists and educators more approachable? That is where the Cosplay for Science Initiative comes in.<\/p>\n

The Cosplay for Science Initiative is a science-communication project that uses cosplay, the practice of dressing up as a character, to help break down barriers between audiences and scientists, and make science education more accessible. For example, dressing up as Dr. Ellie Sattler from Jurassic Park<\/em> to talk about the science behind the franchise\u2019s fictionalized dinosaurs. The Initiative was founded in August of 2017 by four nerdy friends who also happen to be paleontologists: me, Gabriel Santos of the Raymond M. Alf Musuem of Paleontology, Brittney Stoneburg of the Western Science Center, Michelle Barboza-Ramirez of the Femmes of STEM podcast and UF alumna, and Isaac Magallanes, a graduate student at the University of Florida. Each of us have research interests in science communication and education and wanted to develop ways to make science education more accessible.<\/p>\n

Separately, we had all used pop culture in the past as a teaching tool; I had cosplayed as Professor Oak for a Pok\u00e9mon Paleontology event at the Raymond M. Alf Museum, Brittney and her museum had attended pop-culture events to talk about fossils, and Michelle and Isaac had talked about science facts behind pop culture in their Instagram accounts. It wasn\u2019t until Brittney and I attended Nerdbot-Con together to talk about the science of Jurassic Park cosplaying as Jurassic Park characters that the Cosplay for Science Initiative was born (Fig. 1). After seeing how easily interested attendees were in our fossil booth and how easily the attendees engaged with the paleontologists at the booth, Brittney and I realized how great of a tool cosplay could be for making science relatable and scientists approachable. Since then, the Initiative has attended four conventions, multiple events at other institutions, developed a steady following online, and has even appeared in a couple pop culture articles (here<\/a> and here<\/a>, and see below) to talk about science education and pop-culture.<\/p>\n

\"Figure
Figure 1 \u2014 Myself as the Pokemon Professor Oak and Brittney Stoneburg as Professor Juniper at the 2018 Los Angeles Comic Con.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Initiative as it is now has added three official members: Kellen Kartub, a chemistry PhD candidate at UC Irvine (Fig. 2), Dr. Matt Hudgens-Haney, a neuroscientist, and Ginny Liz, a PhD candidate in Physics and Education. We are beginning to look at establishing local chapters in other parts of the world. As nerds, scientists and educators, our goal is to reach out to communities to foster science appreciation through the use of nerd and pop culture. The initiative strives to make science a part of audiences’ everyday lives and interests, to encourage approachability and trust in scientists as educators, and to create a community that acknowledges the importance of science and appreciates it as we do, all while having fun with it.<\/p>\n

\"Figure
Figure 2 \u2014 PhD candidate and Cosplay for Science member, Kellen Kartub, cosplaying as Gym Leader Jasmine, a Pokemon Trainer that specializes in steel-type Pokemon. She gave a demo on the properties of magnetism, which is something steel-type and electric-type Pokemon use.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Most recently, the initiative attended Los Angeles Comic Con by bringing a pop-up natural history museum to the convention exhibition floor (Figs. 3\u20136). Now, fossils and natural history specimens must seem like an odd thing to take to a comic-book convention surrounded by thousands of apparently more interesting pieces of pop culture. The fossils and specimens would seem as if they could hardly compete with the rows of superhero statues, anime art and cartoon collectibles for the attention of the amassing fans. But by adding a fun pop-culture twist to the pop-up museum, say by calling it the Natural History Museum of Pok\u00e9mon and cosplaying as Pok\u00e9mon Professors, we can make the odd fossils and scary scientists something familiar and attractive to the comic-con audience. With this, the initiative allows audiences the opportunity to discover how science inspires science fiction: in this case, how real fossils and specimens inspired the world of Pok\u00e9mon. The familiarity and popularity of Pok\u00e9mon hook the audience and grab their interest; it then becomes easier to introduce scientific concepts, such as deep time and extinction.<\/p>\n

\"Figure
Figure 3 \u2014 Here is the setup for the Cosplay for Science Pop-Up Museum that was sponsored by the Alf Museum and the Western Science Center. The museum shows fossil specimens next to their fictional Pok\u00e9mon counterpart.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Figure
Figure 4 \u2014 Paleozoic Pok\u00e9mon exhibit as seen during the 2018 Los Angeles Comic Con.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Figure
Figure 5 \u2014 Comparing a real world Archaeopteryx to the Pok\u00e9mon counterpart, Archen.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Figure
Figure 6 \u2014 In the world of Pok\u00e9mon, there are even Pok\u00e9mon inspired by dinosaurs, like this Cranidos, inspired by pachycephalosaurs, and Tyrunt, inspired by Tyrannosaurus rex.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Here are a few close-up examples (Figs. 7, 9, 11, 12), and some fossil counterparts (Figs. 8, 10, 13), in which the Cosplay for Science Initiative linked Pok\u00e9mon with palaeontology, natural history and science education (artwork by Valeria Pellicer):<\/p>\n

\"Figure
Figure 7 \u2014 Exhibit panel 1: Ancient Pok\u00e9mon.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Figure
Figure 8 \u2014 Actinocrinites (RAM 3513). Crinoids, like this specimen, helped to inspire the ancient grass\/rock type Pok\u00e9mon, Lileep and Cradily.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Figure
Figure 9 \u2014 Exhibit Panel 2: Paleozoic Pok\u00e9mon.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Figure
Figure 10 \u2014 An ammonoid shell like this (RAM22805) is what inspired the helix fossil in the world of Pok\u00e9mon. Reviving the helix fossil in the game brought back the ancient Pok\u00e9mon, Omanyte and Omastar.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Figure
Figure 11 \u2014 Exhibit Panel 3: The Ancient Dragons.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Figure
Figure 12 \u2014 Exhibit Panel 4: The First Feathers.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Figure
Figure 13 \u2014 This cast of the Eichstatt Archaeopteryx specimen (RAM 7096) was used in the pop-up museum to show the real world origins of the ancient flying-type Pok\u00e9mon Archen and Archaeops. These Pok\u00e9mon were the first bird Pok\u00e9mon with feathers, similar to how Archaeopteryx helped to reveal the connection between dinosaurs and birds.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In the panels shown above, the Cosplay for Science Initiative showed audiences how a fictional world they love is inspired by the world in which we live \u2014 and that sometimes, the real world is just as interesting as fantasy worlds. Through this, the initiative hopes that audiences will develop an appreciation for the science hidden in their everyday lives, and a passion to learn more about the things they love.<\/p>\n

RAM specimens housed at the Raymond M. Alf Museum of Paleontology in Claremont, CA.<\/p>\n

WSC specimens housed at the Western Science Center in Hemet, CA.<\/p>\n

Suggestions for further reading:<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Mohns, Mariel. \u201cCosplay for Science: Meet the Team.\u201d The Sartorial Geek Oct. 2018: 38-44. Print.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/anchor.fm\/scicommjc (Episode 2)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Gabriel Santos1 In the world of education, we often hear complaints that people know more about celebrities and fictional characters than about science. Taking a moment to scroll through Twitter or Instagram, it can be easy to agree with such complaints. It can be a constant struggle for educators to find a way to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":4922,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[52],"tags":[98],"class_list":["post-4916","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-education-and-outreach","tag-gabriel-p-santos"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.palaeontologyonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4916","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.palaeontologyonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.palaeontologyonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.palaeontologyonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.palaeontologyonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4916"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.palaeontologyonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4916\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4941,"href":"https:\/\/www.palaeontologyonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4916\/revisions\/4941"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.palaeontologyonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4922"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.palaeontologyonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4916"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.palaeontologyonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4916"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.palaeontologyonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4916"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}