Building a Partnership with a Campus Communication Center

Area of Science:

• Biology Education
• Science Communication

Background:

• Undergraduate STEM education literature highlights the importance of primary literature analysis and science communication.
• Biology educators often lack the support to effectively teach students how to present scientific data from primary literature, leading to limited student training in this area.

Purpose of the Study:

• To design and implement a workshop aimed at teaching undergraduate biology students how to present material from primary literature sources.
• To improve students' skills in content selection, slide design, and oral delivery for scientific presentations.

Main Methods:

• A collaborative workshop was developed by a biosciences instructor and a communication center director.
• The workshop utilized authentic, content-based materials and student models to teach presentation skills.
• The workshop was integrated into an undergraduate laboratory course.

Main Results:

• Student performance on presentations, including their understanding of scientific concepts, showed noticeable improvement after the workshop.
• The intervention successfully addressed the gap in training for presenting scientific data from primary literature.

Conclusions:

• Collaborative partnerships between instructors and communication experts can effectively enhance biology educators' ability to teach science communication skills.
• Implementing targeted workshops improves students' capacity to analyze and present scientific information from primary literature.