Integrating Scientific Communication into the Liberal Arts Science Classroom Using Multiple Learning Strategies

Abstract

Colleges throughout the United States typically expect their students to take at least one course in the sciences to fulfill liberal studies curriculum requirements. For nonscience majors, the choice of science class can include introductory chemistry, introductory biology, and astronomy, among others. Based upon interactions both in and out of the classroom, a good number of students in nonscience fields have reservations about taking one of these science courses. By including different types of student-driven mentored scientific communication projects such as poster sessions, fact sheets, and online methods into these courses, science educators can serve to increase student interest in the sciences, decrease final grade dependency on exam scores, mitigate some student concerns regarding their progress in the class, meet the curriculum requirements, assess the students using methods outside of the standard graded exam, and mirror what scientists use every day to learn about and communicate in their own disciplines. In addition, these projects and their associated grading rubrics are adaptable to courses that are taught in a variety of formats and levels (for example, online versus hybrid or primary/secondary versus postsecondary) and allow for a student focus on presenting scientific information in a concise format with minimal time required for instructor assessment.