New Perspectives in Science Education

Dissemination of scientific knowledge is a skill that is necessary for any undergraduate student within the sciences to acquire. Traditionally, if addressed, this is accomplished through the instruction of scientific presentation or writing. Though important, this type of education tends to encourage students to focus on peer-to-peer communication of scientific knowledge, subsequently abandoning the dissemination of knowledge to a non-scientific (lay) audience (public communication of science). This has presented itself within the traditional media, popular culture and education as a apprehension in regards to science and scientific knowledge within the general populace. Additionally, it has tagged scientists as harboring an aloof attitude and an inability to discuss scientific issues with a non-science literate public. To that end, we have created a method to aid in the development of the public communication of science within an Introduction to Anatomy and Physiology course. Specifically, students were given a task to examine a disease or physiology concept using non-traditional scientific dissemination of knowledge: an informal discussion with a non-scientific audience. In this experience, students, in groups, were asked to describe this phenomena in non-traditional scientific terms to an educated lay-audience while maintaining scientific accuracy. By fulfilling the requirements for this assignment, students were encouraged to examine their own ability to communicate the knowledge they had gained throughout their Anatomy and Physiology course to a non-scientific audience - gaining a skill that is sought in a variety of science related fields. Additionally, this experience was directly associated with an increase on performance on subsequent assessment in related topic areas.