Teaching science students lay communication: Insights and resources from an interdisciplinary approach led by communication and journalism graduate students
Session Type
Presentation
Room
Physics and Astronomy, room 106
Start Date
17-7-2025 11:00 AM
End Date
17-7-2025 11:30 AM
Keywords
Science communication, lay audience, media and journalism, Interdisciplinary collaboration, communication workshop
Primary Threads
Education Technologies and Innovative Resources
Abstract
In today’s digital media landscape, science misinformation has become widespread. Combined with the challenges of communicating scientific research, public trust in science is becoming increasingly more fragile. Postsecondary institutions are crucial in addressing this issue by teaching lay communication and public engagement skills. However, current teaching approaches rely heavily on scientists, with little input from communications experts or the general public.
Our project involved an innovative collaboration between science and communications faculties. Specifically, we sought to (1) design and implement a lay communication workshop and assignment for an undergraduate science class led by Communications and Journalism graduate students, and (2) investigate the effectiveness of the collaboration by surveying participants’ perceptions and experiences.
Communications and Journalism Graduate students developed and hosted a workshop for 3rd-year undergraduate Medical Science students. After the workshop, the science students completed an assignment where they produced a science communication piece in a format of their choosing. Both student groups were surveyed before the workshop and after the assignment to investigate their perceptions of science communication and their experiences with the project. The study was approved by Western University's REB (ID:126210).
In this session, we will share survey data, highlighting student insights before and after completing the project. We will also share our experiences in facilitating this interdisciplinary collaboration, highlighting information and resources that can make the teaching of lay communication skills more feasible and scalable in different programs and classroom settings. Participants are encouraged to bring their electronic devices to access the resources during the session.
Elements of Engagement
Session attendees will be invited to share their favorite piece(s) of lay communication from their scientific specialties to highlight the diversity of approaches used to communicate to lay audiences.
Session attendees will be provided with digital (PDF) or printed copies of the workshop outline, rubric, and assignment instructions used during the project, which will hopefully spark discussion during the session and in the question period.
Session attendees will be invited to reflect on the types of communication expertise and lay perspectives that are already available within their institutions (e.g., faculty communication offices, community engaged learning initiatives, student clubs & organizations) and brainstorm ways to develop long-term interdisciplinary teaching collaborations that are engaging and mutually beneficial to all parties involved.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Teaching science students lay communication: Insights and resources from an interdisciplinary approach led by communication and journalism graduate students
Physics and Astronomy, room 106
In today’s digital media landscape, science misinformation has become widespread. Combined with the challenges of communicating scientific research, public trust in science is becoming increasingly more fragile. Postsecondary institutions are crucial in addressing this issue by teaching lay communication and public engagement skills. However, current teaching approaches rely heavily on scientists, with little input from communications experts or the general public.
Our project involved an innovative collaboration between science and communications faculties. Specifically, we sought to (1) design and implement a lay communication workshop and assignment for an undergraduate science class led by Communications and Journalism graduate students, and (2) investigate the effectiveness of the collaboration by surveying participants’ perceptions and experiences.
Communications and Journalism Graduate students developed and hosted a workshop for 3rd-year undergraduate Medical Science students. After the workshop, the science students completed an assignment where they produced a science communication piece in a format of their choosing. Both student groups were surveyed before the workshop and after the assignment to investigate their perceptions of science communication and their experiences with the project. The study was approved by Western University's REB (ID:126210).
In this session, we will share survey data, highlighting student insights before and after completing the project. We will also share our experiences in facilitating this interdisciplinary collaboration, highlighting information and resources that can make the teaching of lay communication skills more feasible and scalable in different programs and classroom settings. Participants are encouraged to bring their electronic devices to access the resources during the session.