Daily science

Since 2009, the Seine-Saint-Denis County Council has been backing “la Culture et l’Art au Collège (CAC)”. This project is based to a large extent on the presence in class for several weeks (40 hours) of an artist or scientist whose mission is to engage the students in a process of research and creation.

Contributors: journalists

Objectives:
Instructed to draft scientific articles, the students have a dual responsibility. Like any journalist, they can define what does or doesn’t constitute “news”. But there is also what could be described as a specific difficulty: when dealing with highly complex research, how can journalists be sure they have fully understood the issue and thus correctly inform readers?

Workshops:
Science Correspondent
What is the specialist science press like, the paper or internet version, daily or monthly editions, etc.? The students and contributor analyse various examples. An exercise is then performed, led by the contributor using one of his/her articles, to highlight the qualities required for a scientific article. The class is given a major topic that it will study over the year: the students will write an account of how a major research laboratory is run (Institut Curie, Institut Poincaré, Institut de physique du globe, etc.).

Editorial Board
The class seeks out sources to sketch an initial portrait of the chosen site: its news, its teams, its past discoveries, its equipment and its future. Divided into groups, the students then collate the information, selecting what is most relevant, and they formulate questions. A daytrip to the laboratory (a tour of the equipment, meeting the research teams) concludes this preliminary survey. The class then draws up a list of possible angles and articles; the students form editorial boards, decide which members of the laboratory to contact for interviews, establish a schedule and conduct the interviews.

Daily
The students then develop their ideas in the form of articles. The teams present their projects to the contributor: validation of angles, discussion of proposals, choice of styles (in-depth articles, interviews, polemics). The various draft articles are discussed by the class and then re-written by the respective groups. For several weeks, as each project is finalised, it is broadcast/published in the school in the form of videos, audio reports, written articles and pictures. 

Graphic design: BIBLIS DUROUX