Science Communication Project: Articulating Teaching, Research and Outreach

Abstract

Successfully integrating science outreach into undergraduate courses may present a considerable challenge for educators. Science communication, when produced by students, merges teaching, research, and outreach, fostering concepts of learning and engagement with socially relevant aspects of science. With that in mind, the Science Communication Project invited undergraduates from an Environmental Chemistry course to create science communication videos addressing Green Chemistry solutions to environmental issues in the chemical industry. The objective of this study was to evaluate the extent to which the project’s learning objectives were achieved. The students’ 16 productions were assessed using a five-criteria rubric designed to evaluate the learning objectives. The results indicate that the learning objectives─researching literature, explaining scientific concepts, and discussing science, technology, society, and environment relations─were satisfactorily achieved. These findings highlight how the Science Communication Project enriched Environmental Chemistry learning, fostering a deeper understanding of chemical concepts by connecting them to real-life situations through an STSE perspective.