Features
SPARK Leaps Into Web-Based
Research Videos
Twenty years on, Office of Research program still current for delivering research news written and produced by students
BY ANDREW VOWLES
This SPARK has jumped into the air. Web-based videos about Guelph research are fast becoming a key communications venture for members of the SPARK (Students Promoting Awareness of Research Knowledge) program, now marking its 20th year on campus.
Student communicators with the program began producing videos and airing them on www.farms.com this spring. Owen Roberts, director of research communications and SPARK founder, says online reporting — including a new video component for U of G’s Research magazine and video for special-interest projects — will soon make up about half of the SPARK output.
Last month, program members and supporters marked SPARK’s anniversary at a reception in the newsroom of the Office of Research. Roberts unveiled a new program logo and distributed annual awards from the Canadian Farm Writers’ Federation for radio and video news clips to student writers Arthur Churchyard and Natalie Osborne.
“Research communications has been a very important part of how we translate and communicate knowledge of our research,” says Prof. Steven Liss, associate vice-president (research services).
Since 1989, about 100 students have learned to write and report about campus research through SPARK. Their articles have appeared in Ontario agricultural publications, in newspapers and magazines — including the Globe and Mail — and in Research.
Two of those Globe and Mail articles — one on omega-3 fatty acids, the other on pigs — were written by Anne Douglas, who completed an English degree at Guelph in 1996.
“Before I met Owen, I thought writing was novels and poetry,” says Douglas, who attended the September reception. “He opened my eyes.”
She accumulated two binders’ worth of articles during her SPARK tenure. After graduation, she helped launch DogSport Magazine based in the United States. Since selling the publication, she has become a communications specialist with the Guelph Food Technology Centre and, along with Roberts, teaches turfgrass communications for a diploma program on campus.
Like Douglas, many other SPARK alumni have pursued careers in journalism and communications.
This semester, 14 SPARK students are writing stories, recording radio broadcasts and producing videos for online distribution. That number has increased from the eight or nine students per semester in recent years, says Hayley Millard, who became program co-ordinator last fall after completing a commerce degree at Guelph.
Most student participants arrive as second- or third-year undergraduates, but several graduate students have recently taken part, too.
This summer, SPARK produced three-minute research videos for the new “SPARK Air” venture, funded by the partnership between U of G and the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs. The videos focus on agricultural research mostly at U of G’s research stations, says Katelyn Peer, dubbed the SPARK Air lead.
“Video is becoming more and more the way people receive their information,” says Peer, who plans to study sports journalism after graduating in December.
“Being online has increased Guelph’s presence in electronic communications. Being able to show the research rather than tell it gives it that ‘wow’ factor. And having the researchers talking on camera raises their profile, too.”
Whether it’s through video or print, raising the profile of U of G research has been a major goal of SPARK right from the start. And the program has succeeded, says Prof. Brian McBride, Animal and Poultry Science.
“SPARK writers have really allowed my work to reach a broad audience,” he says. “They capture the science and have the unique capability to convey the research into a living story.”
Over at Equine Guelph, which regularly uses student-written pieces in its publications, senior manager Gayle Ecker also has words of praise for the program. “Adding SPARK writers to our staff has really helped us reach our audience,” she says.
A SPARK alumni appreciation event is planned for Nov. 14 in the Grad Lounge.
Visit www.uoguelph.ca/research/ communications/spark/index.shtml for more information about the program.