GWC Tutor Publishes Article in Frontiers for Young Minds

September 24, 2019
A screenshot of the Frontiers for Young Minds article with the article title text in green. A picture under the title shows a forest scene with a female scientist with brown skin, black hair, yellow shirt, and black pants attaching a trail camera to a tree trunk. In the opposite corner a gray rhino stands in front of a light green bush looking inquisitively at the scientist. The article abstract shows in white text on a green background under the picture.
The Mysterious Case of the Disappearing Javan Rhino: Using Clues From Rhino's Everyday Habits and Hobbies to Figure out How to Help Them Recover

What do you think when you hear the term “science communication?” Maybe you think of a science news column in the newspaper, a science-themed blog, or Neil deGrasse Tyson’s Twitter account. Or, maybe you think of jargon-packed science journals and presentations at scientific conferences. But what about science communication toward kids? 

Graduate Writing Center (GWC) Tutor and URI SciWrite Fellow Erin Harrington recently published an article “The Mysterious Case of the Disappearing Javan Rhino: Using Clues From Rhinos’ Everyday Habits and Hobbies to Figure Out How to Help Them Recover” in Frontiers for Young Minds. Erin and her coauthor, Dr. Brian Daniel Gerber, published this excellent example of science communication September 19, 2019. 

Frontiers for Young Minds is an open access scientific journal that “provides a collection of freely available scientific articles by distinguished scientists that are shaped for younger audiences by the input of their own young peers.” The journal was recognized by the American Library Association in 2014 as one of their top 50 “Great Websites for Kids.”

Erin’s article details the current status of Javan rhinos in their last remaining habitat worldwide and explains how “scientist-detectives” used camera traps to get an accurate population count of the Javan rhinos. Here’s an example Erin includes in the article of some of the project’s camera footage:

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wmo2OwKjZkk&feature=youtu.be)

Erin goes further than just explaining the research; she provides discussion of what the scientists discovered, and what the scientists’ findings mean for the conservation of these critically endangered rhinos. Best of all, she has tailored the article for a young reader while maintaining the complexity and mystery of scientific research on Javan rhinos. 

Erin Harrington is a PhD student studying Biological and Environmental Sciences at URI. She has a master’s degree in English as well as a master’s degree in Wildlife Science, and is using her interdisciplinary background to assist in multiple projects related to science writing and communication at URI. She was the Graduate Research Assistant for the NSF-funded program SciWrite@URI. Erin has roughly six years of experience as a writing tutor for graduate students in both the sciences and humanities.

Being a writing tutor means knowing the importance of having others help you with your writing. During the drafting process for her Frontiers article, Erin reviewed parts of the article with another tutor, Ashton Foley-Schramm, at the GWC. 

Here at the GWC, we are so proud of Erin for publishing this article! Congratulations, Erin! 

Do you need help working on an article you hope to publish? Book your appointment at the GWC at http://mywco.com/URIGradWC. 

Citation:

Harrington E and Gerber B (2019) The Mysterious Case of the Disappearing Javan Rhino: Using Clues From Rhinos’ Everyday Habits and Hobbies to Figure Out How to Help Them Recover. Front. Young Minds. 7:121. doi: 10.3389/frym.2019.00121 

 

 

 

(Blog post by Carolyn Decker, GWC Co-Coordinator, September 24, 2019)