Munich Science Communication Lab’s Workshop

Our fourth excursion outside the classroom was to one of LMU’s own buildings. It was a visit to Munich Science Communication Lab (MSCL), a research organization dedicated to raising public awareness on planetary health. 

At MSCL, there was a huge emphasis on evaluating the impact of research projects. During the workshop, there was a mock activity where we were given a group task to assess the effectiveness of a given communication project. With limited time and resources, we had to strategize which tests and evaluation methods we will choose to perform to estimate the project’s success. The examples included cheaper and easier procedures such as cost estimation and process analysis to more expensive and time-consuming ones such as focus groups and acceptance analysis. 

Our group’s communication project was a film screening of an environmental documentary to an audience of 5-10 year olds. We chose focus groups as one of our evaluation methods as we thought it would allow for in-depth discussions. However, the representative from MSCL advised us that it might be difficult to gain deep insight from such a young audience. From this I learned we must consider the people we perform evaluation on, as some methods are just not compatible with certain audiences. 

MSCL plays a significant role in educating the public about climate awareness in Germany. Our representative shared with us one example, which is the Heat Protection Escape Room installed in Deutsches Museum. Here, kids can learn about safety during hot weather through a fun interactive exercise. This way, MSCL goes beyond academic research by directly engaging with the public and providing them with hands-on experience to learn about planetary health. 

Our representative shared with us another important insight: Researchers should actively listen to the participants, rather than only focusing on the quantitative data. This is particularly true for a humanities discipline such as communication science, as research results do not always come in numerically measurable data. Such awareness of research principles is what makes MSCL a valuable institution in Germany’s media sphere.