Author(s):
Scientific communication to non-scientific audience has taken on an urgent renewed interest and importance, in light of the recent COVID pandemic as well as other global challenges including climate change. At our institution, we recognized that while our students ‘understood’ the science, they often struggled to effectively share the science knowledge non-scientific communities. We therefore set upon an approach that would intentionally integrate effective scientific communication in STEM based and non-STEM based courses across our campus. The objective was to improve scientific education, pedagogy and communication outcomes while simultaneously bolstering scientific knowledge in the wider community. Xavier University of Louisiana, a primarily undergraduate STEM focused institution, is ideally positioned for pedagogical interventions that encourage student training in science communication to the public. Efforts on this project involved four activities that were faculty and student centered. (1) Yearly faculty workshops on pedagogical methods of training students in science communication to the public. (2) Awarding faculty mini-grants to develop and implement course modules focused on science communication to non-scientific audience and conduct student in-class deliberations on socio-science issues related to the implemented module. (3) Training students as moderate facilitators for deliberations on challenging socio-science issues. (4) Involve undergraduate students in projects of current social importance requiring communicating science information to the public. The lightning talk will describe the project activities and show case the results indicating the impact of the activities.
Coauthors
Florastina Payton-Stewart (flpayton@xula.edu) and Richard Peters (rpeters1@xula.edu)
