Integrating Science Communication Into a Large STEM Classroom

The communication of scientific findings through writing is an important skill for undergraduate science majors to develop as they move through their respective degree programs. Seeing the importance of science communication skill development, we brought a science communication blog written by graduate students on the same campus to the attention of a large undergraduate organic chemistry lecture in collaboration with their professor. These undergraduate students were then given an assignment in which they would write their own blogs, go through a process of peer review, and then have the opportunity for their blog to be published on a website for high school students. The undergraduate students were able to consider the role that science communication will play in their future careers and practice the basics in a low-stakes, brief assignment. Overall, the learning goals we set for the assignment were met with a positive impact on the students. While there were several small challenges associated with the first implementation of this assignment, we were pleased to learn of the high level of value that students placed on this assignment.