STEM fields can seem oft-disconcerting;
Verse forms can be structure-asserting…
Rhymed stories, presented,
And jargon, contended–
A wall to a bridge thus converting.
The fourth post of this planned five-post series builds on a non-Twitter poem that I wrote for the presentation in question. The poem, in turn, builds on an insightful quote from the American Association for the Advancement of Science, about the challenges of science communication. “Chemistry coordination,” in the post’s title, inverts the name of a specific field of study (coordination chemistry) to evoke the idea of collaborative aims, via the intersection of chemistry content and light-verse forms.
“STEM fields can seem oft-disconcerting; /
Verse forms can be structure-asserting…”
The first portion of this 2022 talk presented the structures of limericks and double dactyls, as well as their use in my creative writing about science. The second shifted to a discussion of potential uses in science communication: the way that the “structure-asserting” nature of a verse can help an interested learner navigate an “oft-disconcerting” scientific discipline.
Science communication (often abbreviated SciComm) is a complex academic field of its own, so I am aware that my discussion here, as a scientist interested in language and communication, is rudimentary at best. However, two themes that I have seen consistently reiterated in both academic and social media settings for SciComm include the importance of story/narrative in communicating science and the challenges that jargon can pose, points that both align strongly with insights and realizations from my own educational path.
One particularly powerful quote is available via the American Association for the Advancement of Science, from Joe Heimlich: “Jargon can be, in my mind, a tool, a weapon, a wall, and/or a bridge. Jargon is important shorthand within a field, but that language can be used to keep others out, or to shut others down.”
“Rhymed stories, presented, /
And jargon, contended– /
A wall to a bridge thus converting.”
The science poems I write have two main goals: to concisely share a scientist’s biography or to deliberately simplify jargon.
For a sample biographical poem, my hope is that these can be read by either a chemistry learner or a chemistry expert, and that while each audience might take away different points, both types of points would be useful. Revisiting the poem posted in honor of Alice Augusta Ball, for instance, anyone could read this poem and learn Professor Ball’s name, as well as note the importance of her research to the field of medicine. A chemist would likely be able to further discern details about her work and the specific insight that she brought to her research question. (Both sets of conclusions are expanded in the pertinent essay about that poem.)
With a sample “jargon-contending” poem, my goal is to alleviate the challenging vocabulary a bit by engaging with those terms simply as words: using rhymes, reliable verse structure, and predictable metric feet. The poem and post about valence-shell electron-pair repulsion (VSEPR) theory, for examples of this type, both aim to first communicate the big picture: this theory efficiently predicts molecular shapes based on the fact that electron pairs repel one another. The poem does so with some everyday language, relative to textbook presentations; my aim is that the intentionally humorous tone of light verse can minimize concerns arising from the lack of precision.
The last line of the poem sums up my goal with these efforts, alluding to the AAAS quote: I hope these poems can convert scientific language from “a wall to a bridge,” allowing the vocabulary and stories to provide a creative way into chemistry material, rather than a barrier to learning.
Chemphasis 