Fantastic acoustics: A magazine describing the importance and the scope of acoustics research in Québec

Abstract

It's often difficult for the general public and young people to grasp the importance of acoustics in everyday life and its many branches and fields of application. However, it's equally complex for people working or studying acoustics to communicate to this audience while avoiding the same focus on detail as scientific publications. Science communication skills are seldom taught, and multi-disciplinary approaches are little used. This paper describes the work carried out as part of the ‘Fantastique acoustique—Fantastics acoustics' project, which aims to raise awareness of the acoustics-related research at four Québec universities and train students in science communication. Eight student teams were partnered with cartoonists to produce 3-page comic strips and an associated corpus (including references and videos). The steps involved in producing the magazine are described, as are some of the final works. In particular, a survey including the students and the artists identifies the main positive points and the most significant challenges of such a partnership.