MU Students Produce Video to Promote Science

The group worked on the video as part of a nationwide contest called “Stand Up for Science!” sponsored by the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology. The society is soliciting entries that creatively promote federally-funded research and its role in improving the health, quality of life or economy in local communities.

 Led by junior biochemistry major Sumaiya Chaudhry, the students who produced the video represented departments and majors from across the university, including journalism, the sciences, art, music and theater.

 Like the Bruno Mars video, the students’ version features dancing monkeys and a catchy tune. Chaudhry said that the group of 20 or so undergraduate students did all the work on the video. She directed and filmed, wrote the lyrics, did the post-production work and even played ukulele in the song. Other members of the team produced the music, sang, acted and helped with lighting.

 Chaudhry says she had wanted to do a parody video about science for a while and the contest seemed like a good opportunity to get people together and excited about the project.

 “This whole process has been very gratifying to see students over various disciplines contributing to this project in a productive and creative way,” she said. “It has been very challenging to get this project going, but it was totally worth it. I hope to see more interdisciplinary projects at the university because collectively we can create something bigger, better, and, hopefully, more enjoyable.”

 Another member of the group, junior advertising major Tyler Rice, who appears as a monkey in the video, said the students have done posters to promote their contest entry and will also be using Twitter and other social media avenues to help get the word out.

 “Currently, our goal is to increase views of the video,” said Rice. “There will be a public voting period in December, but we plan to deal with that closer to the voting period. Right now we just want to get the video out there and generate as many views as we can.”