Meet the Metaorganism

CLIENT

CRC 1182 Origin and Function of Meta Organisms

RESEARCH FIELD

Evolutionary Biology, Medicine

TYPE

Web

YEAR

2022

LINK

→ metaorganism.app

DESCRIPTION

With the digital learning app ‚Meet The Metaorganism‘, the Science Communication Lab and the researchers of the CRC 1182 have developed an interactive application that aims to set new standards in the digital knowledge transfer about microbiome research.

Designers, educators and researchers have worked together in a transdisciplinary way to transform carefully edited texts and infographic visualizations into a multi-sensory learning experience.

Interactive and animated schemes facilitate the understanding of individual topics and become imprinted in the visual memory.

CREDITS

Support in Scientific Content Development: Agnes Piecyk
Educational Advice: Carolin Enzingmüller, Ilka Parchmann
Scientific Advice: Thomas Bosch, Peter Deines, Katja Dierking, Hinrich Schulenburg

Excerpts from the press release:

For the general public, the significance of the highly complex interactions within a metaorganism remains difficult to comprehend and abstract. The members of the CRC 1182 therefore strive to communicate their field of research as comprehensibly as possible. The aim of the current project is to anchor metaorganism research in biological and medical education at school and university with the help of new design as well as teaching concepts - where it is still insufficiently taken into account.

"With the constant deepening and networking of knowledge in the science system, there is a growing demand for new strategies and formats of knowledge transfer," says Professor Thomas Bosch, spokesperson of the CRC 1182. "Our Collaborative Research Center is breaking new ground in this regard, allowing the general public and especially students and pupils to participate in our current interdisciplinary research at various levels. The most recent and unique example of this is the new learning application Meet the Metaorganism," Bosch continues.

"The central aspect of the new format is the careful visualisation of scientific content, which was developed in close exchange with researchers from the CRC 1182. "The representations of our Meet the Metaorganism app have the special potential to reduce complexity, make abstract connections and phenomena visible and convey the core messages of metaorganism research in a pointed and appealing way," emphasises Tom Duscher, co-owner of the SciCom Lab and Professor of Interactive Media at the Muthesius University of Fine Arts and Design Kiel. "To achieve this, we have researchers working directly with the design team to create an optimal synergy of visual design and scientific accuracy," continues Duscher, who heads one of the outreach projects in the CRC 1182."