Building a Partnership with a Campus Communication Center

Although abundant evidence in STEM education literature emphasizes the incorporation of both primary literature analysis and communication of science into the undergraduate classroom, biology educators are rarely given the necessary support to teach students how to present scientific data from primary literature. Consequently, students often receive limited training in this valuable skill. We report on a collaboration between a biosciences instructor and communication center director who together designed a workshop to teach undergraduate students in a laboratory course to present material from primary literature sources. The workshop taught content selection, slide design, and oral delivery skills using authentic, content-based materials and student models. Following the introduction of this workshop into the course, student performance on the presentations, including their apparent understanding of scientific concepts, improved noticeably. Establishing partnerships such as this one can improve the efforts of biology educators to teach effective science communication to our students.