Abstract
In this case study, undergraduate students presented physics concepts to patrons at a planetarium. This created an early opportunity for these pre-professionals to practice the process skill of oral communication to a lay audience. The case study resulted from working with students participating in a grant called the da Vinci project. It reports on a situated experience pre-engineering and calculus-based physics students had working with their professor to create a brochure and present a physics concept to patrons visiting a public planetarium. Working closely with their professor, students were able to use this required professional skill in a real world (situated) context. This opportunity helped bridge the gap between these pre-professionals’ experiences in training and in their careers in STEM fields. Thirty students attending a two-year college in the Southwestern US self-selected to participate in the project. Each student participant built a kit-based model of a machine, designed an informational flyer aligned to state K-12 physical science standards, and presented informally to the public visiting a planetarium. Data were collected from the students via written reflections before and after the presentation and from email correspondence with their professor. Qualitative analyses of these reflections assessed the students’ progress toward a finished presentation. Results suggest that obstacles to public speaking fluency come from the fear of making mistakes or giving out misinformation. Opportunities to engage in informal public speaking helped overcome these obstacles. Students demonstrated increased confidence in their ability to share their knowledge with the public after undergoing guided informal speaking practice. The opportunity for students to practice public speaking during their undergraduate training can increase confidence and better prepare them for a career.
Highlights
Situated learning is an instructional theory based on the work of John Dewey [1] and Lev Vygotsky [2], who claimed that students learn in an environment where they are able to put learned theory into practice by solving problems in a real-world setting [3,4]
Student participants assembled a small model based on one of da Vinci’s proposed machine codas, worked with their professor to write a one-page interpretive flyer to explain a physics concept demonstrated by the model, and explained this concept to patrons at a planetarium using the model and a piece of lab equipment borrowed from the college physics laboratory
This paper reports on a single instrumental case study where the experience of students was investigated as they interacted with the project task and their mentors
Summary
Situated learning is an instructional theory based on the work of John Dewey [1] and Lev Vygotsky [2], who claimed that students learn in an environment where they are able to put learned theory into practice by solving problems in a real-world setting [3,4]. The Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET) claims that professional skills, such as speaking to lay audiences, are needed because scientists and engineers need more than just scientific skills to be prepared for a career These practitioners need professional process “soft” skills such as clear oral and written communication abilities because their jobs require working with teams and groups who may not have the technical preparation of engineers [3,7,8,9]. In addition to being able to communicate effectively, they provide a bridge to public science literacy [10] These professionals are often called upon to comment on current issues in science and engineering or make presentations to lay audiences, providing information during open houses and citizen information meetings. Fluency in the professional process skill of communication is an asset, since the audiences with whom engineers engage are varied, with non-technical audiences composing 18% of the total engaged group [11]
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