Communicating science

COMMETSCI - Communicating science to young generations: Metaphors our children learn by is an interdisciplinary research project which is using cognitive linguistic, textbook analysis and communication approaches to examine the role that metaphor play in scientific education. Metaphors are efficient and attractive ways to explain abstract ideas in familiar terms, and they provide the basis for understanding core concepts from physics (e.g. light in terms of 'waves'), chemistry (e.g. links between molecules as chemical 'bonding') and biology (e.g. synaptic receptor as 'key-lock mechanism'). This project seeks to explore how science metaphors and analogies are understood and misunderstood by young learners and the implications that (mis-) understanding complex scientific ideas might have for students' preparedness to make sense of the world we live in and, ultimately, for their future engagement with and interest in science.

This project is funded by a grant of the Romanian Ministry of Education and Research, CNCS - UEFISCDI, project number PN-III-P1-1.1-TE-2019-1300, within PNCDI III.