Interweaving Kids in Science—the Young Referees' Approach

Frontiers for Young Minds (FYM) engages kids worldwide to become involved as “young referees” in the publication of scientific papers aimed at their peers. It enables these kids, and the tens of millions of young readers of FYM, which appeared first in English, now in Hebrew and Arabic, and in Mandarin Chinese, French, and soon in Hindi, to understand the scientific method, enjoy science, and become part of the way science is taught. In turn, young referees help scientists make their research accessible to the community at large. This “science for kids, edited by kids” acquaints young learners and their families with the dramatic changes that modern science brings about, so that they become knowledgeable partners in the discussion on the sociological, economic, and ethical implications of these fast-paced science-driven changes.

“My grandchildren finally understood, they say, what their grandfather was doing for a living—having fun is one message” wrote Bert Sakmann, a Nobel laureate in physiology and medicine in 1991, after his article was published in the FYM Nobel collection (see below). This is indeed a delightful insight into what Frontiers for Young Minds strives to achieve. That kids and their families will understand the beauty and joy of science, will be thrilled by, and understand, the scientific process, and become critical thinkers, choosing data-driven facts rather than fiction. That kids and their families will be ready for the dramatic scientific breakthroughs that we are presently experiencing and be able to discuss cleverly and openly their far-reaching implications.

The recent history of modern science spanning for some 600 years or so, has changed the world in a most influential way. This is particularly evident in recent years, with the steep growth of scientific knowledge, shared globally via the Internet, coupled with a sequence of breakthroughs in machine learning, gene editing, brain–machine interface, brain organoids, and artificial wombs, to mention only a few. These will impact, and already do impact, the “human condition” in dramatic ways that engender important ethical, economic, and sociological implications requiring open discussions among all of us, and law and policy makers in particular. Burning planetary challenges requiring innovative scientific solutions have also surfaced in recent years—climate change, aging, and epidemics to name a few. We believe, beyond doing our research, a key role of scientists is to acquaint the general public with the dramatic changes that modern science brings about and with the challenges it faces. In doing so, we scientists should also discuss the limitation of science, as it does not aspire to tackle all aspects of the human condition. How do we achieve these important goals, and do it in a widespread and easy-to-access manner?

These challenges are the foundation of FYM, which operates under Frontiers, a leading publisher of peer-reviewed scientific articles across the spectrum of research. A key part of the Frontiers agenda is freely open scientific access. This is evident in their support of the nonprofit engagement program FYM, whose key mission is to introduce scientific papers to 8- to 15-year-old kids in an accessible and global (multilingual) manner.

The idea is straightforward: scientists write a paper for kids, either on their recent results or on a “core concept” in their field in some 1500 words. The paper is accompanied by a few explanatory figures and several key references. A short paragraph is also dedicated to describe the authors in a friendly way—for instance, their interest in science and their hobbies. The paper is then sent by the FYM office (headquartered in Lausanne, Switzerland, with global team members from the United Kingdom to Israel and Beijing) and then to young referees 8–15 years old—individual kids or whole classes—working in 65 countries worldwide. They read the paper and provide their point-by-point report working with a mentor who is typically a PhD holder or student or a Post-Doctoral Fellow who takes them through the scientific process of hypothesis, experimentation, analysis, and finally publications. The scientists submitting their paper revise the paper accordingly—to better explain unclear points and concepts as the kid referees have requested. This makes the paper more kid friendly. Indeed, in this way, an average paper published in FYM is viewed by >29,000 readers (many more than the average number that our regular scientific papers enjoy).

Let us give you an instructive example of a paper written and submitted to FYM by one of us (I.S.). I wrote a paper entitled “Brain Projects Think Big” with a colleague; it focused on the Blue Brain/Human Brain Projects. Among other things, the paper discusses mathematical simulations of various brain processes, from neurons to large networks. This paper was sent to Abby, an anonymous 11-year-old kid (only the first names of referees appear along with a sketch image and a short description of him/her or of a whole class who refereed the paper). Abby “rejected” my paper twice. First, she said that I did not explain well enough what it meant to “model/simulate a biological phenomenon”—how can equations describe activity of nerve cells and of neuronal networks? This is an excellent question—I worked hard to respond to it. Then she came back with yet another “rejection,” asking why in the first place one should simulate the brain in the computer, as it is already there as a physical entity ready for experimentation. Another wonderful question—I worked hard to respond to it too. The paper was then accepted and is now viewed by kids worldwide. Abby helped me not only in writing this paper and making it accessible to her peers but her questions always resonate in me when I give public talks about brain simulations. I realized that these two questions by Abby are key also for the general public to understand computational modeling and that I needed to provide good examples on what modeling is and why modeling the brain (or any other complex system) helps in understanding it.

FYM to date has published >1150 papers in English in subfields including Neuroscience (our first FYM section) and also Psychology, Mathematics and Economics, Astronomy and Physics, Chemistry and Materials, Biodiversity, Earth Sciences, Human Health, and, just launched, Engineering and Technology—now covering all fields of STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics). There are also >600 papers in Hebrew and >200 in Arabic. We just inagurated our first papers in Mandarin Chinese, and later in 2023 the French version of the journal will go live, with Hindi to come. Note that all the papers appear first in English and then in the other languages. This will introduce science to some 25% of kids worldwide, and counting.

A recent project worth mentioning is the “FYM Nobel Collection,” whereby Nobel laureates were interviewed by a scientific writer about their work, and the resultant paper underwent a kid review process similar to that in all other papers. The Nobel laureates then revise and approve the paper, which is eventually published in a special FYM collection (see Volume 1 at https://kids.frontiersin.org/collections/21781/the-nobel-collection-volume-1 and Volume 2 at https://kids.frontiersin.org/collections/49554/the-nobel-collection-volume-2). Notably, these two Nobel collections received >146 million media responses and close to 1 million article views and downloads, a clear message that science interests kids if presented attractively.

Noteworthy is that FYM recently inaugurated in Tel Aviv the first Nobel volume in Hebrew, with the participation of Aaron Ciechanover and some 500 kids in the audience, all listening attentively (for 45 min) to his description of the Ubiquitin system. At the end of this meeting, Ciechanover signed his FYM paper individually for the kids, a memorable moment for all involved (see short video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JicvaVBQTi0). Nobel laureate May-Britt Moser, an FYM author, nicely summarized our mission with her view: “Children are curious with passion for questions and light in their eyes….I hope the papers in this journal may help nurture and reinforce children's passion and curiosity for science—what a gift to humanity that would be!”

We plan to further expand FYM to additional languages so that all kids worldwide will learn from and enjoy a kid-controlled scientific journal. We have initiated and are expanding several other events around FYM, including an open review (broadcasted) by kids in the presence of the scientists and the development of Teachers' Guides based on FYM articles so that teachers will have state-of-the-art teaching material on various key subjects. We are using additional media including podcasts and TikTok to introduce FYMs' articles. These activities always need more support, and so we call on your participation in this endeavor. We can testify that it is a highly enjoyable process and, we believe, a particularly timely and important one at these times, where science faces extreme challenges as it brings about unprecedented new knowledge and changes to our world.