Kaur Angel W
Neuroscience Program, Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry, UNC Asheville, Asheville, NC 28804.
J Undergrad Neurosci Educ. 2022 Jun 1;20(2):A120-A145. doi: 10.59390/FKXM3006. eCollection 2022 Winter.
Effective science communication has been identified as one of the core competencies of neuroscience education as articulated at the 2017 FUN Workshop. Yet most undergraduate students do not receive explicit instruction on how to effectively communicate science to a diversity of audiences. Instead, communication assignments typically help students become proficient at sharing scientific information with other scientists through research articles, poster presentations or oral presentations. This presents a missed opportunity to instruct students on the complexities of communicating to the general public, the importance of which has come into sharp focus during the COVID-19 pandemic. Translating research findings so they can be understood by a non-specialist audience requires practice and deep learning and can act as a powerful teaching tool to help students build science literacy skills. Here I share the blueprint to a broadly-oriented science communication assignment built to address the core competencies of neuroscience education. The assignment acts as the final project for a 400-level neuropharmacology course at a small public liberal arts university. Students work in small groups to identify a topic of interest and research, script, and record an audio podcast geared towards a general audience. The assignment is scaffolded to allow students to work towards the final submission in small steps and to receive feedback from the instructor and their peers. These feedback steps pair with opportunities to revise their work to further develop students' communication skills. Initial feedback from students suggests the assignment promoted deeper learning and higher engagement with course content.
有效的科学传播已被确定为2017年趣味研讨会上阐述的神经科学教育的核心能力之一。然而，大多数本科生并没有接受关于如何有效地向不同受众传播科学的明确指导。相反，交流作业通常帮助学生通过研究文章、海报展示或口头报告，熟练地与其他科学家分享科学信息。这就错失了一个向学生传授与公众交流的复杂性的机会，而在新冠疫情期间，这一交流的重要性已成为人们关注的焦点。将研究成果转化为非专业受众能够理解的内容，需要实践和深度学习，并且可以成为帮助学生培养科学素养技能的有力教学工具。在此，我分享一份面向广泛受众的科学传播作业蓝图，该作业旨在解决神经科学教育的核心能力问题。这项作业是一所小型公立文理学院400级神经药理学课程的期末项目。学生们以小组形式开展工作，确定一个感兴趣的主题并进行研究、编写脚本，然后录制面向普通受众的音频播客。该作业进行了分层设计，让学生能够分小步朝着最终提交成果努力，并从教师和同伴那里获得反馈。这些反馈步骤伴随着修改作品的机会，以进一步培养学生的交流技能。学生的初步反馈表明，这项作业促进了更深入的学习以及对课程内容更高的参与度。
