Classes start back next week, and I am ecstatic to serve as the teaching assistant for Marine Geographic Information Systems (GIS). Not only is this class one of the special few that teach real-world skills to undergraduates (GIS is a widely-used mapping software), I will test the effectiveness of my brand new science communication intervention in the classroom. The motivation behind it all? To teach students how to communicate effectively, a transferable skill that will serve them well no matter where their future paths lead.
Intervention Goals and Learning Objectives:
Upon completion of this intervention, students will have reliably demonstrated the ability to write in an effective and compelling manner.
Given a prompt, students will be able to:
- independently identify their writing purpose and motivation,
- choose effective words and phrases to fulfill their purpose,
- and compose an engaging and convincing narrative.
The Schedule:
Today, I write to introduce the intervention. Every week for the rest of the Autumn quarter, I will post about the communication topic we are discussing in class.
Date |
Topic |
|
| Week 1 | 9/26 | Overview and Motivation |
| Week 2 | 10/3 | Sentence Structure |
| Week 3 | 10/10 | Purpose and Paragraph Structure |
| Week 4 | 10/17 | Word Choice |
| Week 5 | 10/24 | Jargon |
| Week 6 | 10/31 | Demonstration |
| Week 7 | 11/7 | Audience and Framing |
| Week 8 | 11/14 | Review |
What a great initiative! I’m interested to see how you incorporate all of these topics into the coursework and how students engage with them throughout the class, especially as a class that allows them to think about real world applications so easily. Goodluck!
LikeLike
Thanks! Every week, I’ll post about the topic and add a bit about how the students responded. I hope to eventually evaluate the effectiveness of this intervention and publish it in a peer-reviewed journal.
LikeLike
[…] students with communications skills to help them succeed in their early careers. I successfully implemented the intervention last academic quarter, and I am now moving on to evaluating the project with a blind review. After […]
LikeLike