Cerebro Sin Filtro - a science dissemination and educational project

• In Event: Pedagogies & possibilities: Evidence from literacy studies across contexts and spaces

Proposal

Education changes lives. Access to education is a predictor of life trajectory, being a catalyst for a positive change, equipping people to achieve a fuller development in life and society (UNESCO, 2023). One protest throughout the world is the voice of young people claiming to learn, participate and advocate about subjects that are relevant for them, without the stigmas and moral judgment of older generations (UNICEF, 2019). Not addressing these topics in formal education is a breeding ground for myths and wrong information, and also frustration and demotivation (Chaparro Buitrago & Pimentel, 2023). Particularly during adolescence, a period of time that is full of physical, psychological and emotional changes and self and other discovery, there are lots of themes that are still treated as taboo.

Cerebro Sin Filtro (CSF - Unfiltered Brain) is a science dissemination and educational project that seeks to address this problem by giving evidence based information to adolescents in an attractive way, using clear and accessible language and a popular communication format among the target audience, so that they can gain knowledge on different topics that are interesting to them - such as sex, depression, gender, drugs and addictions - through the lens of neuroscience.

CSF was elaborated through a participative process. It was established that the project would use digital media to deliver the information, in particular a webseries about a teenage science v-blogger. This format was chosen because it is a highly effective communication strategy for the target audience, since 80% of adolescents in our country state that they trust social networks more than any other media to get information (UDP, 2019). In addition, 90% of teenagers use the Internet every day, dedicating 37% of their browsing time to the consumption of movies and programs over the Internet (Adimark, 2017). Another important aspect is that YouTube is an easy, wide reaching and cheap format to spread content, so the impact can be greater (Algonquine College, 2021). Finally, it has been shown that one of the most effective ways to deliver information and knowledge to youth that can impact their behavior is through self-delivered messages to their peers (Andrews et al., 2020). After establishing this, focus groups with adolescents (Williams & Katz, 2001) of different regions in the country were carried out to collect information about: i) Popular v-bloggers and YouTube consumption; ii) Perception of science and scientists; iii) Preferences about neuroscience topics that could be addressed in the series. At last, questions of adolescents to the neuroscience topics to be presented in the series were collected through an online survey. Following this research, the scientific knowledge that answered the questions that had been made by the adolescents was prepared by a team of neuroscientists. This information was then translated by a scriptwriter into an engaging and dynamic script. The scripts were written such that the v-blogger would go to meet actual scientists and medical doctors that are experts in the different fields to get the answer to the questions. Special care was taken to ensure gender parity of the participating scientists, with the aim of making women in science visible and also to inspire girls to pursue a career in science, where they are known to be underrepresented (Bordón et al., 2020). It was also decided that the main character, the adolescent v-blogger, would be a girl. For the casting of this role, invitations were spread in science and acting university faculties. Half of the finalists were science students and the other half were acting students. The winner was an acting student who stood out for her joviality and performance in front of the cameras. She played a key role in giving life to the main character and in the success of the webseries. Up to now, CSF has two seasons, with a total of 14 chapters. The series was produced with competitive public funds for scientific dissemination. CSF has about 72,3K views on YouTube, more than 10K followers on social networks and a monthly reach of 259,000 people on its Instagram profile. The series is actually being broadcasted on national television. It also won the award for best educational series in the Chile Digital Fest. But most importantly, CSF has been evaluated positively by adolescents. Satisfaction surveys that were conducted after the series launches showed that at least 80% of the 139 responders were satisfied to very satisfied with how the subject was presented (89%), with the clarity of the contents (88%), with the staging of the video (80%), and with this format to learn something new (84%). And most relevantly, 90% of the responders said that they would recommend the series to a friend.

This exciting experience led to the opportunity of engaging CSF in a literature project. Mental health literacy is defined as the knowledge and beliefs about mental disorders which aid their recognition, risk factors and causes, management or prevention and first aid skills to support others affected by mental health problems (Sampaio et al., 2022). After the pandemic a mental health crisis emerged (UNICEF, 2021) and depression has been identified by adolescents as one of the most worrying mental health issues among their peers in Chile (de la Niñez, 2022). To face this challenge, this book, which derives from the depression chapter of the webseries, presents a girl that deals with her best friend's relapse into depression. She writes about this experience including scientific information on this topic in her life journal, creating a story full of knowledge and feelings. The book will go on sale in September 2023 from Editorial ZigZag, one of the oldest and most respected editorials of Chile (MemoriaChilena, 2023).

In conclusion, CSF is an innovative educational tool that aims to empower and raise awareness about wellbeing and mental health neuroscience topics among adolescents, filling a gap in terms of the resources that exist to address and open a space for dialogue on these issues with the target audience.

@CerebroSinFiltro channel in Youtube - https://www.youtube.com/@CerebroSinFiltro
Trailer of CSF with english subtitles: https://youtu.be/iIomU0O3HjU

Authors

• Leonie Kausel, Universidad Diego Portales

• María Florencia Alamos, Fundación Kiri