BSC 3932 - Scientific Communication

College of Natural Sciences

Credit(s): 2
Contact Hours: 32
Effective Term Spring 2023 (615)

Requisites

Prerequisite ENC 1101 with a minimum grade of C and
((Prerequisite BSC 2010 with a minimum grade of C and
(Prerequisite BSC 2010L with a minimum grade of C or
Prerequisite BSC 2010CH with a minimum grade of C)
) or
(Prerequisite BSC 2011 with a minimum grade of C and
Prerequisite BSC 2011L with a minimum grade of C))

Course Description

This course is designed to teach biology students the different forms of scientific communication including, but not limited to, technical writing, publication, grant proposal, oral communication and reading scientific literature. Assessments will emphasize practice vs. theory.

Learning Outcomes and Objectives

  1. The student will evaluate effective scientific communication by:
    1. identifying various communication formats and strategies and their potential uses.
    2. comparing marketing strategies used in formal science communication with those used for informal science communication.
    3. creating original work using varied technical styles, including styles for the scientific and general audiences.
    4. comparing structure and organization of communication styles across disciplines.
    5. identifying key information used in all communication styles, regardless of disciplines.
  2. The student will compare and analyze the format and content of peer- reviewed scientific research journals with those in secondary sources like news articles by:
    1. investigating the publication and data guidelines for scientific publications and secondary sources.
    2. identifying the effective placement of content in formal and publicly available items.
    3. articulating the ethical concerns behind plagiarism and academic dishonesty in effective communication.
    4. paraphrasing and correctly referencing sources including, but not limited to, journal articles, reference texts, internet databases and academic texts using Council of Science Editors (CSE) notation.
    5. applying the impact of word choice and style by creating original works.
  3. The student will discern the difference between research papers, review articles/term papers and grant proposals by:
    1. evaluating primary and secondary published literature.
    2. performing peer to peer evaluation on student-generated works.
    3. researching the availability of public and private funding sources in the sciences.
    4. proposing a mini-grant idea and submitting this idea in the appropriate technical format.
  4. The student will communicate science to their peers visually and orally by:
    1. building and delivering an oral presentation as a means to communicate scientific topics of interest.
    2. developing a scientific communication strategy or plan that flows from primary research to the general public using emerging technologies.
    3. applying general marketing principles to communication of key principles to the public.

Criteria Performance Standard

Upon successful completion of the course, the student will, with a minimum of 70% accuracy, demonstrate mastery of each of the above stated objectives through classroom measures developed by individual course instructors.

History of Changes

C&I Approval: 05/16/2014, BOT Approval: 10/21/2014, Effective Term: Spring 2015 (495). C&I Approval: 07/26/2018, BOT Approval: 09/18/2018, Effective Term: Spring 2019 (555).
C&I Approval: , BOT Approval: , Effective Term: Spring 2023 (615)

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