Speaking about science: a student-led training program improves graduate students' skills in public communication

Clarkson, Melissa D.; Houghton, Juliana; Chen, William; Rohde, Jessica

doi:10.22323/2.17020205

Cited by 13 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 26 publications

(34 reference statements)

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“…These findings indicate that SciWrite students better met audience expectations, and therefore had a better awareness of their rhetorical situation. There are other programs and courses similar to SciWrite that have also focused their training on higher-order rather than lowerorder concerns in their curriculum (Smith et al, 2013;Heath et al, 2014;Kuehne et al, 2014;Clarkson et al, 2018). However, none of these programs placed an emphasis on learning outcomes designed specifically for helping students learn how to better understand the rhetorical situation of their writing projects.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Training Graduate Students in Multiple Genres of Public and Academic Science Writing: An Assessment Using an Adaptable, Interdisciplinary Rubric

Harrington

Lofgren

Druschke

et al. 2021

Front. Environ. Sci.

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There is an urgent need for scientists to improve their communication skills with the public, especially for those involved in applying science to solve conservation or human health problems. However, little research has assessed the effectiveness of science communication training for applied scientists. We responded to this gap by developing a new, interdisciplinary training model, “SciWrite,” based on three central tenets from scholarship in writing and rhetoric: 1) habitual writing, 2) multiple genres for multiple audiences, and 3) frequent review and created an interdisciplinary rubric based on these tenets to evaluate a variety of writing products across genres. We used this rubric to assess three different genres written by 12 SciWrite-trained graduate science students and 74 non-SciWrite-trained graduate science students at the same institution. We found that written work from SciWrite students scored higher than those from non-SciWrite students in all three genres, and most notably thesis/dissertation proposals were higher quality. The rubric results also suggest that the variation in writing quality was best explained by the ability of graduate students to grasp higher-order writing skills (e.g., thinking about audience needs and expectations, clearly describing research goals, and making an argument for the significance of their research). Future programs would benefit from adopting similar training activities and goals as well as assessment tools that take a rhetorically informed approach.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Training Graduate Students in Multiple Genres of Public and Academic Science Writing: An Assessment Using an Adaptable, Interdisciplinary Rubric

Harrington

Lofgren

Druschke

et al. 2021

Front. Environ. Sci.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…There is generally a lack of formal training for graduate students in science communication, with only a few universities offering communication training courses, and quantitative evaluation of these courses is rare [19,20,21]. A recent study of outreach activity by astronomers indicated that institutional support, including training, is an important factor in determining participation in outreach [22].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Interactive youth science workshops benefit student participants and graduate student mentors

et al. 2020

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Science communication and outreach are essential for training the next generation of scientists and raising public awareness for science. Providing effective science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) educational outreach to students in classrooms is challenging because of the need to form partnerships with teachers, the time commitment required for the presenting scientist, and the limited class time allotted for presentations. In our Present Your Ph.D. Thesis to a 12-Year Old outreach project, our novel solution to this problem is hosting a youth science workshop (YSW) on our university campus. The YSW is an interpersonal science communication and outreach experience in which graduate students from diverse scientific disciplines introduce middle and high school students to their cutting-edge research and mentor them to develop a white-board presentation to communicate the research to the workshop audience. Our assessment of the YSW indicated that participating young students expressed significantly more positive attitudes toward science and increased motivation to work in a STEM career after attending the workshop. Qualitative follow-up interviews with participating graduate students' show that even with minimal time commitment, an impactful science communication training experience can be achieved. The YSW is a low-cost, high-reward educational outreach event amenable to all disciplines of science. It enhances interest and support of basic science research while providing opportunities for graduate students to engage with the public, improve their science communication skills, and enhance public understanding of science. This YSW model can be easily implemented at other higher education institutions to globally enhance science outreach initiatives.

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“…Most research on science communication training during graduate school, which is limited, has been program evaluation or literature reviews [7][8][9][10][11]. Outside of workshop and/or conference reports, there is little evidence in the peer-reviewed literature on graduate students' perspective of science communication training, and there are few peer-reviewed, empirical studies on how graduate students define, perceive, or engage in science communication.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

How do STEM graduate students perceive science communication? Understanding science communication perceptions of future scientists

et al. 2022

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Increasingly, communicating science to the public is recognized as the responsibility of professional scientists; however, these skills are not always included in graduate training. In addition, most research on science communication training during graduate school, which is limited, has been program evaluation or literature reviews and does not report on or seek to understand graduate student perspectives. This research study provides a comprehensive analysis of graduate-level science communication training from the perspective of STEM graduate students. Using a mixed-methods approach, this study aimed to investigate where graduate students are receiving science communication training (if at all), what this training looks like from the student’s point of view, and, for graduate students that are engaging in science communication, what do these experiences look like. This study also explores how graduate students define science communication. Taken together, these results will give graduate students a voice in the development of science communication trainings and will remove barriers and increase equity in science communication training.

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Speaking about science: a student-led training program improves graduate students' skills in public communication

Cited by 13 publications

References 26 publications

Training Graduate Students in Multiple Genres of Public and Academic Science Writing: An Assessment Using an Adaptable, Interdisciplinary Rubric

Training Graduate Students in Multiple Genres of Public and Academic Science Writing: An Assessment Using an Adaptable, Interdisciplinary Rubric

Interactive youth science workshops benefit student participants and graduate student mentors

How do STEM graduate students perceive science communication? Understanding science communication perceptions of future scientists

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