TikTok is a golden opportunity for science popularisation: scientists can promote their knowledge in a simple yet attractive video format. But to reach this objective and effectively share content on this platform, one needs to understand the inner workings of this social media. We reveal our tips and tricks to successfully create popular science content on TikTok!

TikTok and sciences: win over young audiences

TikTok provides the opportunity to reach a wide audience, especially young people aged 15 to 24 years old. This social network is even the preferred search engine of this age group. As videos become viral more quickly on TikTok than on other social networks, shared content can quickly reach a large number of people. It is therefore a major media to draw the attention of young people, raise their interest in science and inspire vocations.

Short videos to engage your audience

TikTok is an onomatopoeia for the sound of clocks as seconds go by. As its name suggests, TikTok hosts short videos which generally do not exceed one minute. Several video formats are available, such as « live streaming », which allows authors to answer comments by writing or posting. Thanks to its features, communication on TikTok is both interactive and dynamic. It comes as no surprise that TikTok has millions of users across over 150 countries!

Science popularisation: the best type of contents

Using TikTok is easy! No need to be a professional editor with sophisticated hardware. The app offers a free video editing tool for Iphones and Android. But you still need to choose the most appropriate type of content for TikTok.

A well-known technique for science popularisation consists in being concrete. Show experiments with visually attractive results. Give simple and short explanations. This content appeals equally to followers and curious passersby.

Share the latest scientific news in your field: stories, important discoveries, awards, etc. Promoting the news of your laboratory is also a great way to share your research.

Moreover, your TikTok videos can be used to give advice to your community. A video which explains how to use a telescope or a pH meter is much more attractive than a user’s guide. Your content can be adapted for different types of audiences, from middle school students to researchers, using science popularisation techniques.

Examples of successful TikTok accounts

Though it is still little used by researchers or higher education institutions, TikTok has quite a few popularisers who draw attention to scientific topics. Taking inspiration from their communication strategy and their content is a good way to prepare your own action plan.

The reasons behind their success? Short and entertaining videos which make Science fascinating and easy to understand for everyone. Some are specialized in a given theme while others cover a variety of topics: medicine, physics, space, biology and more.

The account chemteacherphil, by chemistry professor Phillip Cook, is a hit with nearly 4 million followers. His demonstrative videos present fun and sensational chemistry experiments.

@chemteacherphil

We would also like to mention Samantha Cristoforetti, the European Space Agency astronaut. With her TikTok account astrosamantha, she shares her life on board the International Space Station with immersive videos.

@astrosamantha

One should move with the times. Even beloved American stars of science popularisation « Bill Nye the Science Guy » and Neil deGrasse Tyson have made the move to TikTok. Thanks to their reputation they already have millions of followers on TikTok and they can continue making science outreach videos for younger generations.

Tips to develop your community

Just like the « Booktok » community for literature lovers, or « Foodietok » for gourmets, the new flux «STEM » gathers videos on scientific and technological topics. It is an excellent way to find English users who make popular science videos.

Furthermore, interacting with members who have a lot of followers will help you to gain more visibility on TikTok. You can leave comments on their videos, but also create Duet or Stitch videos. The Duet feature allows users to post their own video side-by-side with that of another creator. Meanwhile, the Stitch feature makes it possible to select a video sample from another account to record a new video in response to the initial video clip.

All these features are an excellent way to grow your own community of followers on TikTok. You can get creative! Take advantage of this technology, post regularly, and most of all, have fun! It’s contagious.

To popularise is to make complex ideas simple. It is a difficult exercise, because it requires taking a step back from your expertise. Assessing the level of knowledge of your audience is not always easy either. In science popularisation, some speakers call this the “curse of knowledge”. Basically, this means that a person who knows a subject well will find it difficult to explain themselves to a lay person. A speaker or writer overestimates how familiar the audience will be with the topic at hand, misjudging their ability to understand. But, how far should we go in terms of simplification?

In our experience, particularly through our training courses in popularisation, we learnt the following: communicators rarely over-simplify. In fact, they generally don’t even realise how far away their level of expertise is from that of their public. In oral communication, the result can be seen by the tired – even sleeping – faces of the audience. In written form, reports and other documents that are too technical will end up in the waste paper bin.

Since all of us write to be read and speak to be heard, our team brought together proven techniques under the name « the 6C’s of science popularization »: Clarity, Connection, Context, Concreteness, Color and Conversation. Follow our guide !

1. Focus on clarity and define the words you use

Clarity is a prerequisite for any undertaking in science popularisation. Therefore, when speaking to an audience which isn’t as familiar as we are on a given subject, it is important to watch out for jargon. These are words very commonly used between experts in the same field, but unknown or misunderstood by non-specialists.

To make these words intelligible, our advice is to use the funnel technique. Start by using simple and general words and progressively make your way to complicated and specialized vocabulary. For example, to define basalt, volcanologist Jacques-Marie Bardintzeff’s suggestion is to proceed step-by-step. Begin by a generic definition easily understood by everyone: « it is a black volcanic rock ». Then, progressively turn to more complex explanations, describe how basalt is formed or its composition. Imagine that you are speaking with a person that does not share the same native language as you. Focus on simple words and sentences, and explanations that are easy to grasp.

Furthermore, when you become involved in science popularisation, beware of acronyms. If you can avoid using them, do not hesitate to replace them with common words which will be easier to understand by your audience. If not, define them. To avoid confusion, explain the meaning of each of the letters in an acronym. Indeed, many acronyms can have different meanings depending on the field in which they are used. For example, in biology, PCR is the contraction of « Polymerase Chain Reaction », a technique used to amplify DNA sequences. But this acronym can also refer to the Plan Control Room in a factory, or a Performance and Cost Report in the field of management.

Finally, we are often tempted to list several elements to organize and clarify our speech. But an audience can only remember a list of two or three elements, nothing beyond four. When you have many aspects to discuss, divide your speech in three or four parts which include subparts. This structure will be clearer for your audience. It will make it easier for your public to memorise key points.

2. Create a connection with your audience

Our emotions play a very big part in our decisions and reactions. It is interesting to use them in science popularisation to create a connection with the audience. You can, for example, try to surprise your audience, make people laugh, astonish or even scare them. When you want them to reach a decision and take action in a field linked to health or safety, fear is strongly recommended. For example, you can communicate on the consequences of a possible accident, in the event of non-compliance of the regulations. On a more cheerful note, entertaining and amusing your audience is always an excellent way to bond with people.

To create a connection, you can also share your own emotions. Tell your audience what drives you in your work, or what you find enjoyable. Enthusiasm, much like laughter, is infectious. And do not hesitate to share personal anecdotes. For example, tell the challenges you faced or the accomplishments you are proud of, or other highlights in your life. All these stories will make you more humane and spark the interest of your audience. But beware not to make your presentation revolve around you! In the words of Seneca, “anything done to excess is a vice”.

3. Place your work in its context

The context of your work needs to be clarified when you carry out science popularisation activities. You need to shed light on the scientific, social, economic or even cultural issues in your field. Let us take a health-related example. A researcher has produced a prosthetic limb with integrated electronic sensors. The innovation allows a patient to collect data about the condition of the prosthetic on their own, from home. The scientist, to help us better understand the importance of their innovation, would benefit from telling us how many patients could be helped each year and the financial savings that a design like this would make to the social security budget.

Your audience won’t always be aware of the proximity between their own problems and your scientific research. So perhaps you could explain several applications that affect their daily life: right now, in the near future or 10 years down the line. Imagine that you must give a speech to popularise data backup in front of an audience of business executives. You can start your speech by asking, “Who among you saw their company impacted by the fire of the OVH data center in March 2021?”. Considering that more than 3.5 million web sites were affected by this disaster, members of your audience are likely to raise their hand. Give them time to do so, then continue: “Among those of you who were impacted by this fire, who saved their data somewhere else, in addition to using OVH servers?” Once again, give them a moment to express themselves. Your point is made: they now feel concerned by your subject. They are ready to listen to you attentively.

4. Be concrete

When you popularize, avoid abstract speech as much as you can. To stay concrete, bring samples, models or perform demonstrations. It is useful to hand over samples to the public if your audience is not too big. However, when you speak in front of several dozens of persons, you need to avoid this type of tool: when the sample arrives at the 5th or 6th row in the room, you have already moved on to another aspect of your subject. You can also draw on the 5 senses of your audience, by giving objects for them to see, to hear, to taste or to feel. They will remember your explanations better.

Another way you can be concrete is to illustrate your speech with examples: “composite materials increase the performance of athletes. Skiers, for example, see their sliding speed increase by 4% each year.” Moreover, when you mention figures, it is interesting to link them to notions that appeal to your audience. In science popularisation, cubic meters are often converted to the number of Olympic-size swimming pools. In the same way, small objects are often compared to the diameter of a strand of hair. For example, “6 times light speed” is easier to understand than “1798754748 m/s”. Or for instance: “Nanotechnology is defined according to spatial scale, meaning the nanometer or the billionth of a meter. It is very small. A sheet of paper is 100 000 nanometers thick.”

Based on this principle, do not hesitate to create your own original comparisons. You know that trees absorb CO2 in the atmosphere thanks to photosynthesis. To communicate the importance of this phenomenon, here is an example of the comparison used by the Office National des Forêts (French National Forest Office): a tree can absorb 5 tons of CO2, or the equivalent of 5 round trips between Paris and New-York. By using these comparisons, your audience can form an image in their mind and grasp what you are saying.

5. Add color to your speech

In science popularisation, it is important to rely on images, literally and figuratively. In the literal sense, images are not limited to photos. There are many ways to show what you work on: graphs, videos, schematics…

In order to be understood at first sight, graphs need to be simplified. A bar graph for example, must only include 5 to 6 data maximum. For photographs and videos, over the course of your work, try to remember to take high-quality pictures (resolution, lighting) or to film the important steps. Schematics, on their hand, are used to show what is not visible to the naked eye, because the element is too small, too big or inaccessible: the center of the Earth or the epidermis, for example.

In the figurative sense, relying on images consists in using analogies, metaphors, phrases that will allow your audience to picture what you are saying, and thus to add color to your speech. An analogy is a resemblance between two or more different concepts. It makes it possible to describe a more complex term to help understanding. It is the case, for example, in this quote by Otto Frisch: “If an atom was blown up to the size of a bus, the nucleus would be the same size as the dot on this i”. A metaphor, on the other hand, consists in using a concrete term to express an abstract notion by analogic substitution, without introducing a formal comparison. For example, “Space is a unique laboratory to study extreme phenomena”. Finally, a phrase is a concise expression, which summarises an ensemble of meanings in an attractive way. “The catholic religion is being replaced by the cathodic religion”.

6. Make conversation

Even though they are no experts, your audience loves to participate, give their opinion. Hence the importance, when you engage in science popularisation, of making conversation, taking the time for question and answer sessions. During a presentation or a workshop with a small group of people, you can give the floor to everyone. For a larger audience, or when you are doing a videoconference, you can use polls. This way, you can collect everyone’s opinion in no time.

In fact, by promoting these types of exchanges, you will realize that you have much to learn from your audience, its questions or reactions. Science popularisation is as enriching for the person listening as it is for the person speaking! Thinking about your research in a different light, pulling it together to explain it better allows you to take a step back. And with this new outlook, you might even explore new paths…

Now, it’s time for you to try. Clarity, Connection, Context, Concreteness, Color and Conversation…Seize the 6C’s of science popularisation created by Agent Majeur and apply them to your own field of expertise. They will give you new ideas to improve the understanding of your speech, whatever your audience.

You can find the 6C’s of science popularisation compiled in 6 videos on our YouTube channel.

The main difference between children and adults is their attention span and level of concentration. The available concentration time for the same task increases with age. For example, a kindergarten level pupil will struggle if you speak for more than 10 minutes, whilst a late primary school aged child can easily listen to you for 45. To maintain their attention for longer you must vary activities regularly, particularly between phases of doing and listening, taking age of your audience into account.

The advantage of working with children is that, contrary to adults, their level of interest can easily be worked out. If they are interested in your presentation, they will show their enthusiasm: they will ask questions, comment on what they have understood, and make links between what you have said and their own experiences. On the other hand, if you have lost their attention you will quickly notice: they will become chatty, restless, struggle to stay still and look off into space. In these cases, you can conclude that you are either talking for too long or using vocabulary that is too complicated for them.

Also specific to children is their limited vocabulary. So, it’s important to start any kids science workshop by defining terms that you are going to say, using words that your public can easily understand. It’s useful to start with something that children already know about a concept and expand upon or modify it by giving a good definition. You can then ask them to give you examples to verify that they have understood well.

Of course, if you realise half way through your presentation that the level of science isn’t quite right (too complicated or, even, too simple) and that you are getting lost in your own explanation, you can always alter it midway. The kids won’t hold it against you!

What questions should you be asking yourself for a kids science workshop?

To prepare for a kids science workshop, you first need to ask yourself: what are the objectives that I want to achieve in my session? Do they need to understand a concept? Change their behaviour? Do I want to inspire them to follow a certain career path? Or a particular subject? Let’s take the example of Thomas Pesquet’s presentations from space. The goal was as much about exposing the work of astronauts on the international space station to as many people as possible, as it was about making people consider more precise issues. That was the particular objective of the question and answer session from space, which was organised with French school children during the 2017 World Water Day.

Next, it is important to know the age and school level of your public as that will define their physical and intellectual capabilities. For example, talking to 8-year-olds in France about percentages isn’t suitable as they won’t yet have learned about what they are. Practical activities are strongly recommended for children to “integrate” what you are transmitting to them. In this case, think about their limits: size, dexterity and strength. Make sure you bring appropriate materials that they can easily use.

Once you have clarified your objectives and identified the limitations of your public, you can then think about the best ways to get each of your points across. Many different methods can help you to succeed. To teach children about recycling, why not propose a game with different bins that they can use? How are animals classified? Give them something achievable and teach them how to do it themselves.

How much time you have will help you to size up your workshop, between talking, practical exercises and scientific presentations. Bear in mind that, the younger your public, the more time each activity will take: explanation, demonstration, understanding and doing.

What are the mistakes to avoid?

The worst mistake you can make when you find yourself face to face with children, is to treat them as if they are ignorant or imbeciles. Not only will they notice straight away but on top of that, to get back at you, they may put a lot of energy into making the rest of your workshop a horrible experience.

Children are the adults of the future. They have the capacity to think and interpret. The significance of their interactions can sometimes be surprising. Let them have space and time to express themselves during your science workshop, because that will help you to better calibrate your speech and without a doubt enrich your content. But be cautious not to lose control over your presentation. Children are sometimes egocentric and if you leave them too much space they can tend to monopolise the discussion by talking about themselves and their experiences. Set some ground rules from the beginning explaining how the workshop will be run, who you are and the role you will play.

When an adult discusses a subject that they hold close to their heart, they tend to want to be very detailed and talk in-depth about it until there is no tomorrow. But this isn’t the right thing to do with children. It is better to keep the content to a minimum but of style that they can retain, comprehend and use rather than feeding them a huge amount of information that they don’t know what to do with. If a subject that you have only touched upon interests them then they will ask you questions to find out more.

Try not to go too quickly. Passing from one concept to another assumes certain pre-requisites that children don’t necessarily have. If you’re worried that you won’t have enough content for the allotted time, construct your workshop in defining the minimum message that you hope to transmit. And prepare one or two supplementary activities that you can add in at the end if you have some time left.

Finally, if you only get one thing out of giving a science discovery workshop for children: enjoy it! If you’re passionate and enthusiastic about your subject you will surely have no problem taking your young pubic on a journey with you.

Agent Majeur : What kind of presentations do give for young people?

Julien Bobroff: We have been speaking in high schools and preparatory classes for the “grandes écoles” since 2005. As researchers, we come to talk about a physics subject in connection with current research and show small experiments on the spot.

What is the purpose of these presentations?

Our objectives have changed on the way. At the beginning, we were looking to ‘recruit’ young people into laboratories, at a time of their lives when they wonder a lot about their future and career choices. But today, we are much more humble. We only come to fill our young audiences with enthusiasm about modern physics and talk about what the job of a researcher ultimately is.

Have you defined a standard model for your presentations?

Yes, we have enhanced the model over time. Our speeches last two hours without any break. Once the context and the subject are set, we quickly tackle the most fundamental and mysterious questions: what are the universe and matter made of… Our presentations are punctuated with experiments that stun and raise questions. We prioritise creating a dialogue with the audience about the experiments and our pitch. And to finish it, we talk about the more human aspects of our profession: the researcher, publishing, laboratory tools…

What kind of experiments do you show?

We have a series of unique and amazing experiments for each topic. We sometimes make ‘small’ experiments and film them live with a camera. Being live, adds a dimension that projecting ready-made videos cannot reach. Sometimes we also rework the staging or the experimental device if the experiments are not that spectacular.

What are the particular features of your audience?

Some people say that high school and university students are channel-hoppers, unable to remain focused on the same subject for too long, and to whom you can only speak about very simple, very concrete and tangible things, rather than fundamental topics. My experience and insights are completely opposite. As with any other audience, they are a novices but they can get interested in anything.

How do you grab the attention of your audience?

You must arouse their curiosity with experiments, find the right angle of attack and especially, do not enter a master-student relationship. We are not here to impose science but to question young people about their issues and challenges. On the other hand, they are very sensitive to visual format, which involves alleviating slides, refining media supports, selecting visuals properly and avoid using too many. Presenters must be well prepared before the presentations, including the pitch. When a new presenter joins the team, we have them rehearse for several months before sending them to a class.

What makes a presentation successful?

To assess the success of a presentation, you have to know what is at stake… Nevertheless, the level of attention from the audience, the number of questions asked and the answers to the polls we hand out at the end are good indicators of the quality of our performance. And when we are asked to do it again the next year, this means we’ve been rather good!

What is your secret to the success of your presentations?

If you prepare well, there is no reason it should fail. Maybe what matters after all is to favour interaction with young people and to remain authentic. If they feel the speech is manufactured, that it is an artificial communication exercise, they will automatically reject it. During your preparation, it also seems important to me to get support from colleagues, from friends that agree to be a test audience, or by public engagement in science professionals, especially when developing original supporting material.

Alice Mizrahi: First we recieved from a half-day training course as a large group, in an amphitheater. Later, we were trained in groups of 5 PhD students.

Benjamin Vest: This exercise requires a lot of personal work. I started by identifying the scientific concepts that seemed the most interesting and original in my thesis. From there, I wrote my pitch down to the last comma. I then reworked on each turn of phrase orally in order to make the whole speech more spontaneous, fluid and natural.

Aliénor Togonal: Personally, I looked on the Internet at similar exercises that had been done before, such as the videos of the ‘Three Minute Thesis’ 2013 final in Québec.

What were the selection criteria?

Charles Cernay: Both the form and the content of our presentations.

BV: The first criterion was the candidate’s implication: their energy and capacity to transfer their passion to the audience. The second one was about the notion of science outreach, the capacity to deliver sufficiently rich and yet understandable science content. At the end we were evaluated on non-verbal communication criteria such as stage presence, diction and gesture.

AM: I think that, despite these official criteria, what was really valued was creating a special feeling the capacity to catch the audience’s attention.

AT: By the way, the audience and the jury particularly appreciated the candidates who managed to make them laugh.

What difficulties did you face?

CC: Summarising a thesis in 3 minutes is very challenging. The first difficulty is to choose your message. To do this I had to step back and make some choices.

BV: It is not that easy to balance objectives of science outreach and quality of scientific content. But if you want to convey a message, you must reduce it somewhow.

What is important to say when presenting your research subject?

AM: You must explain to the audience why your subject is interesting, why researchers are working on it full time and what they do on a daily basis. All of this remains rather puzzling to the general public.

CC: Indeed, we must explain the why and the how of a thesis, and show the interaction between both questions.

AT: But we need to watch out not to get lost in the details, especially for this kind of exercise.

BV: In a word, there is no need to make the audience feel like you must study for 5, 6 or 7 years to get there!

What do you recommend for the structure of the presentation?

AT: You should smile from the beginning to the end, be active, seek contact with the audience, and be engaging.

CC: Play on your moves, have moments of silence, create a kind a bit of drama – a bit like in a theatre.

AM: And try not to show your stress. The most important, and the most difficult, is to seem natural and spontaneous even though you know everything by heart.

What advice would you give to someone who would want to present their thesis in 3 minutes?

BV: Generally, I have noticed that the energy you put into it is of paramount importance.

AM: My advice: practise as much as possible, to become more natural and fluid. And do it in front of many different people, because everybody has advice to share and new ideas to suggest.

AT: For my part, I would say: have fun doing it, and take advantage of this opportunity to expose your research to an attentive audience.

CC: One piece of advice: have fun!

Thanks to Benjamin Vest (Ecole Polytechnique), Alice Mizrahi (UPSud), Aliénor Togonal (Ecole Polytechnique) and Charles Cernay (AgroParisTech).