Yesterday I was handed a section of the Toronto Star by my father. He said, “Read this article and explain to me why you haven’t got an official publication yet.” Gingerly, I took the paper and read the article entitled “Kid’s report beedazzles U.K. science journal” (Oddly the online article differs in title from the print version, but I assure you the content is the same).
It turns out that a group of 25 students aged 8 – 10 years old from Blackawton, England had a report they wrote on bees published in the international science journal Biology Letters.
Okay, okay, so I’m simplifying things a little. The kids were aided by a neuroscientist from University College London who came up with the idea, guided the research, transcribed the children’s words into text “which was done with smaller groups of children at the school’s local village pub” (Lotto, 2010), and probably pulled some strings to get the article peer reviewed (that would be peer reviewed by adults scientist, not by 8 – 10 year olds). However, the kids came up with their own hypothesis, designed, and conducted the experiments mostly themselves and so credit is indeed due.
I am happy to say that Dalhousie University Libraries subscribes to Biology Letters. This link will provide access the full report, Blackawton Bees.
Of course this is a context quite different from that which surrounds students of SIM seeking publication of our own research and writing. Still, I decided to share this for several reasons. Firstly, to remind those of us headed for public and academic service of children’s capacity to reason at a level on par with adults (thus possibly giving us adults credence to reason on the level of children in return!). Secondly, this evidence will hopefully provide further impetus for those of us who have yet to get an essay published to do so. If an eight year old has thoughts worth publishing in scholarly journals we’d better believe we do as well! And finally, because a feel good, diversion story is always nice around the holiday season.
All the best,
Matt Cole
(Lotto, R.B. (2010)