Science Communication Training for Graduate Exercise Physiology Students

Abstract

Physiologists have a responsibility to inform the public about how new discoveries and challenges will impact the health of society. However, most physiologists do not have formal training in science communication. The purpose of this study was to implement a science communication training pilot program for graduate students. Students (n = 23) were introduced to science communication training that emphasized key skill development (writing, public speaking, leadership, project management, teaching) as part of their advanced exercise physiology course. Subsequently, students carried out service-learning projects that tasked them with presenting evidence-based health information to public audiences (e.g., community members, clinicians, K-12 students, journalists, policy makers). In a subset of students (n = 8), a survey was administered to assess students’ perceptions of the value of science communication and their ability to communicate to different audiences. Service-learning projects that students completed included blog posts, infographics, podcast series, visits with K-12 schools, and public townhall presentations. Most students (≥75%) agreed that completing the science communication training helped them develop confidence speaking to a range of audiences. After completing the science communication training, students were more interested in learning about how to better communicate science concepts to the public compared to before the training (88% vs. 25%). Collectively, these preliminary results suggest that science communication training helped graduate exercise physiology students recognize the gap between science and society, develop confidence speaking to a range of audiences, and communicate more effectively. These results support findings from other disciplines such as biology and medicine. Implementation of science communication training is paramount, and the approach described here could be useful for physiology students, educators, and departments. American Physiological Society - Teaching Career Enhancement Award. This is the full abstract presented at the American Physiology Summit 2024 meeting and is only available in HTML format. There are no additional versions or additional content available for this abstract. Physiology was not involved in the peer review process.