2c) The Pedagogical Science in Science Communication – Applications of a BIO202 Undergraduate Scientific Journal

When it comes to scientific communication, I am most passionate about pedagogy and how teaching can be altered to better reach students. In other words, the way in which our studies are taught can be better tailored towards our learning capabilities, allowing for clearer understanding of course content. More effectively comprehending material is imperative to the success of students alike, and I am interested in devising a fresh pedagogical approach to allow for this success to be sparked at the University of Toronto.

In classes, such as BI0202, which are tailored towards the potential training of novice scientists and professionals, it is imperative that the study design is optimized so that the future remains bright and innovative. Research is therefore aided by the facilitation of proper teaching facilitated by post-secondary programs. Optimizing learning will therefore optimize research, contributing to the development of science and other related fields.

Junior scientists often learn to communicate their research during coursework. They become socialized into their disciplines as they adjudicate the teachings from their courses into future applications (Lea, 2004; Street et al., 2015). The problem is that, in university, there is little opportunity to fully expand your learning through active learning and external assignments that help to apply your knowledge. Completing specialized assignments, alike this one, is important to aid in the facilitation of knowledge acquisition among undergraduates, but it leaves students to collaborate within their own disciplinary bubble. Classroom projects rarely get adapted for a context beyond that space, which means that they do not learn how to translate their work for wider audiences, a key component in research.

A combination of specialization and lack of formal and external training and projects (Brownell et al., 2013) has contributed to the problem. Bankston and McDowell (2018) highlighted that this lack is at the core of challenges when students bring their knowledge into the working world, where knowledge is not effectively applied to real-word contexts. The solution, for many sources (e.g., Brownell et al., 2013; Norris et al., 2019), is increased communication training in scientific programs to resolve the “deficit” (Bubela et al., 2009) in scientific communication pedagogy. The idea is that emphasizing communication skills in the scientific classroom will better prepare junior scientists to engage with wider audiences.

For this reason, I find great importance in allowing students the ability to branch out of their disciplinary bubble and seek opportunities to interact with different avenues with their newfound knowledge.

An assignment to devise an essay on a related BIO202 topic could mean greater understanding of the topic for later students. Posting essays and reviews of BIO202 topics done by previous students in the class will allow for a greater transmission of thought and knowledge. Acting as a BIO202 scientific journal, active learning done by previous students, and continued by current students, will allow for active learning to be instilled within BIO202’s teaching paradigms. I find great value in undergraduate scientific journals as they help to highlight the learning by other students, while increasing your comprehension of the course content. In essence, the pedagogical initiative enables students to become what Caprio (2014) called “change agents” through their scholarship and dissemination.

Essay topics can be derived from any chapter, giving BIO202 students an expanse of research avenues to pursue and continue their learning and comprehension with. Narrowing specifically to “6.2 – Types of Locomotion”, a potential research topic could be regarding swimming locomotion in extinct animals, such as the Hesperornithiformes (as mentioned in the video at the end of the chapter). This furthers understanding since students are able to learn more about the limitations of locomotion by focusing their research on a specific subsection of locomotion that will benefit current and future students in BIO202. Active learning through innovative thoughts and analyses has been a proven method to facilitate comprehension, and I wholeheartedly believe that the addition of this assignment will assist students looking to apply their learning through an undergraduate journal, a method of disseminating their knowledge in an academic environment. Furthermore, publishing through undergraduate journals enhances their prospects as future graduate students, meaning the benefits surrounding the addition of a journal dedicated to BIO202 is twofold. This assignment will follow the teaching paradigm of Learning, Studying, and then Application of content, as demonstrated in my figure below.

Visual Aid Below

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1IOxnWPzPtVEtp0vwED-wlFuCr4Np4aF54Oi8i06Z4P4/edit?usp=sharing

Reforming scientific curricula to emphasize communication is useful, but it is important to also consider what happens beyond formal classroom curricula. Asking how scientists learn communication skills is a good start, but it is equally important to ask how they apply these skills to an authentic, non-expert audience while they complete their education.

References

Bankston, A., & McDowell, G.S. (2018). Changing the culture of science communicatin training of junior scientists. Journal of Microbiology & Biology Education, 19(1), 1-6. https://doi.org/10.1128/jmbe.v19i1.1413

Brownell, S.E., Price, J.V., & Steinman, L. (2013). Science communication to the general public: Why we need to teach undergraduate and graduate students this skill as part of their formal scientific training. The Journal of Undergraduate Neuroscience Education, 12(1), E6-E10.

Bubela, T., Nisbet, M., Borchelt, R., Brunger, F., Critchley, C., Einsiedel, E., Geller, G., Gupta, A., Hampel, J., Hyde-Lay, R., Jandciu, E., Jones, S.A., Kolopack, P., Lane, S., Lougheed, T., Nerlich, B., Ogbogu, U., O’Riordan, K., Oulette, C…Caulfield, T. (2009). Science communication reconsidered. Nature Biotechnology, 27, 514-518.

Caprio, M.J. (2014). Student publishing: Future scholars as change agents. OCLC Systems & Services, 30(3), 144-157. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/OCLC-01-2014-0003

Lea, M. (2004). Academic literacies: A pedagogy for course design. Studies in Higher<br /> Education, 29(6), 739–756.

Norris, S.L., Murphrey, T.P., & Legette, H.R. (2019). Do they believe they can communicate? Assessing college students’ perceived ability to communicate about agricultural sciences. Journal of Agricultural Education, 60(4), 53-70. https://doi.org/10.5032/jae.2019.04053

Street, B., Lea, M. R., & Lillis, T. (2015). Revisiting the question of transformation in academic<br /> literacies: The ethnographic imperative. In T. Lillis, K. Harrington, M. R. Lea, & S. Mitchell (Eds.), Working with academic literacies: Case studies towards transformative practice (pp. 383-391). Fort Collins, CO: WAC Clearinghouse.