Sustainable Fisheries and Aquaculture Comedy Sketch “The Sustainable

Splash”
To maximise communication effectiveness, this comedy sketch is aimed at a specific
demographic, KS2 students. Its purpose is to introduce the concept of sustainable
fisheries and aquaculture, communicate benefits and connect with students through
humour in and out of the classroom.
Humour is used to provoke emotion. Emotion triggers noradrenaline release in the
brain improving information retention (Southwick et al., 2002). “Learning while being
entertained” (Lloyd et al., 2012), is an effective method of science communication to
children.
Lloyd et al., (2012) state relatable characters are important for science
communication. Characters are similar to those in entertainment programmes aimed
at the same demographic. Achievable actions students can take to communicate and
mitigate environmental impacts of destructive fishing and aquaculture methods and
reduce ocean plastics are demonstrated. The audience is directly addressed with
tips to improve sustainability.
Humour is mild and varied. Strong emotional responses distract from educational
content (Fisch, 2004). Students in upper KS2 prefer incongruity (wordplay) humour
which may go unnoticed by younger students. Slapstick humour is equally enjoyed
by younger and older students (Pathmanathan, 2014), both were combined within
this piece through puns (incongruity) and dance (slapstick). Slapstick comedy
demonstrated by this piece is nonviolent and avoids ridicule to fit with the positive
message and to avoid children imitating bad behaviour (Fisch 2004).
Humour is not at the detriment of accuracy to avoid misconceptions (Pathmanathan,
2014). Positive messages outweigh negatives to inspire. Absence of negative,
complex numerical data allows easy viewing, improving entertainment value and
engagement.
References
Fisch, S.M. (2004) Children's Learning From Educational Television Sesame Street
and Beyond. 1st Edition. New York: Routledge. ISBN 9781410610553.
Lloyd, R., Neilson, R., King, S., Dyball, M. (2012) 'Review of Informal Science
Learning', Science beyond the classroom. Available at:
https://www.sciencecentres.org.uk/documents/320/review-of-informal-science-
learning-summary-nov12.pdf
Pathmanathan, S. (2014) 'Learning Science Through Humor in Children's Media',
International Studies in Humor, Volume 3, Issue 1, pp. 94-107. ISSN 2052-3475.
Southwick, S.M., Davis, M., Horner, B., Cahill, L., Morgan, C.A., Gold, P.E., Bremner,
J.D., Charney, D.C. (2002) 'Relationship of Enhanced Norepinephrine Activity During
Memory Consolidation to Enhanced Long-Term Memory in Humans', American
Journal of Psychiatry, Volume 159, Issue 8, pp. 1420-1422. Available at:
https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.ajp.159.8.1420