Using a Stepped Framework of Student-led Laboratories to Help Teach Science Communication in Physiology

Abstract

Instilling science communication skills within an undergraduate physiology education is paramount to success within the sciences. Failure to be successful in communicating science can lead to a variety of difficulties at both the professional level and while communicating effectively to a broader audience. Unfortunately, these misgivings that derive from science communication issues can have wide-sweeping, real-world consequences ranging from misrepresentation or misinterpretation of scientific findings, to misunderstanding regarding the scientific process to outright scientific misinformation. How to communicate science is an important skill that must be gained through a combination of practice and teaching. Introducing students to the basics of science communication within a single course through laboratory assignments can be used as a method of teaching varied communication methods. We have developed a framework, that has been used in several different physiology courses, to teach the basics of science communication alongside instruction surrounding the scientific method and basic laboratory techniques. Specifically, we have used a stepped approach to laboratory experiments that are driven by student interest and coupled this with three styles of science communication – a poster, a talk, and a paper. This stepped framework begins with a guided lab that allows students to test their own hypothesis with limitations and ends with a largely freeform, student-led experiment at the end of the semester. Students felt they were more engaged with the curricular material and had better learning outcomes compared to previous methods of instruction. This basic framework could provide a mechanism for instructing laboratory techniques, “real-world” science and science communication methods while keeping students engaged and excited about the coursework. This is the full abstract presented at the American Physiology Summit 2023 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.