Progress 01/01/24 to 12/31/24
Outputs
Target Audience:In this period of the project, we have two main target audiences: faculty and graduate students within agricultural, food, and environmental science disciplines at U.S.-based institutions. Changes/Problems:
Nothing Reported
What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Several training and professional development opportunities have been provided by this project during the current reporting period: This project allowed us to participate in training and have collaborative discussions atNational Agriculutral Communications Symposium (NACS) in Atlanta, Georgia in February of 2024. The team presented data gathered in connection with this project at the Association for Communication Excellence (ACE) conference in Salt Lake City, Utah in June of 2024. As noted above, this researchwon an Outstanding Research Paper Award. The team presented a poster at the Southeastern Coastal Center for Agricultural Health and Safety (SCCAHS) State of Science meeting in March 2024 in Gainesville, Florida, which facilitates research-to-practice conversations and opportunites for collaboration-building across sciences. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest? McLeod-Morin, Ashley, Peterson, Hikaru, Baker, Lauri, Steede, Garrett, Hundemer, Sadie, Swenson, Rebecca, and McKay, Troy. (2024, June). Show Us Your Skills: Exploring the Science Communication Landscape in Graduate Education. Presented at the Association for Communication Excellence (ACE) conference. Salt Lake City, Utah. Hundemer, S., Ramadan, S., Baker, L., McKay, T., McLeod-Morin, A., Peterson, H., Steede, G. M., and Swenson, R. (2024, March).Enhance Your Graduate Curriculum With Free Science Communication Modules.Poster Presented at theSoutheastern Coastal Center for Agricultural Health and Safety (SCCAHS) State of Science meetingin Gainesville, Florida, We shared information about this project at the National Agricultural Communications Symposium (NACS) in Atlanta, Georgia in February of 2024. We also created and distributed a flier about the project and curriculum modules. Details about the curriculum modules and project were shared with individual faculty members, who might be interested in integratingour modules into their courses or piloting specific segments of content. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? For the next reporting period, we will continue piloting the curriculum modules at partner institutions. We plan to have all of the curriculum modules piloted by Spring of 2025. The team will work on integrating the modules into two permanent, new course offerings for graduate students at the Univeristy of MInnesota, which will expand access to science communication training across multiple science disciplines. We will continue to evaluate the success of the project and impact of our modules.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Agricultural and environmental literacy among public audiences is necessary to strengthen science engagement and informed decision making. Yet, training is required if we want scientists to translate their work and be able to engage in public dialogue. It is not easy to effectively translate complex scientific concepts for multiple audiences and broad channels. This project helps land-grant institutions incorporate more science communication training into graduate curricula. Our team worked to support this broad goal with the following accomplishments: Our team analyzed data, which was collected during our last reporting period, that revealed the level of importance that agricultural science graduate students place on science communication skills for career success, graduate students' perceived ability to perform individual science communication skills, and agricultural science graduate students participating in science communication skill development opportunities. After analyzing the data, our team drafted a conference paper, which was presented at the Association for Communication Excellence (ACE) conference in Salt Lake City in June of 2024. The research paper won the ACE Outstanding Research Paper award at the conference. Our team completed development of the final 10 of 18 proposed curriculum modules. (The first 8 modules were completed during our last reporting period). The following modules were created, reviewed, and shared with faculty for piloting during this reporting period: Issues-based Science Communication, Audience Analysis, Communication Evaluation, Data Analysis, Data Visualization, New Media, Media Skills, Visual Design, Audio Storytelling, and Photography and Video Production. Our team, with our faculty partners and colleagues, have piloted the curriculum modules at the following institutions: University of Minnesota, University of Florida, Oklahoma State, Ohio State, and University of Tennessee-Knoxville.
Publications
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2024
Citation:
1. McLeod-Morin, Ashley, Peterson, Hikaru, Baker, Lauri, Steede, Garrett, Hundemer, Sadie, Swenson, Rebecca, and McKay, Troy. (2024, June). Show Us Your Skills: Exploring the Science Communication Landscape in Graduate Education. Presented at the Association for Communication Excellence (ACE) conference. Salt Lake City, Utah. (Presentation and Paper Received Outstanding Research Award)
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2024
Citation:
McLeod-Morin, Ashley, Peterson, Hikaru, Baker, Lauri, Steede, Garrett, Hundemer, Sadie, Swenson, Rebecca, and McKay, Troy. Exploring the Science Communication Landscape in Graduate Education. Under review in the Journal of Applied Communications.
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Progress 01/01/23 to 12/31/23
Outputs
Target Audience:In the first period of this project, our primary target audience includesgraduate students who are inagricultural, food, and environmental sciences programs at the University of Minnesota and at the University of Florida. We also havereached out to faculty who have indicated interest in piloting our modulesin their courses. Changes/Problems:
Nothing Reported
What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?This project has supported several professional development opportunities: Our team shared information about this project at the annual North American Colleges and Teachers of Agriculture (NACTA) conference and participated in workshops and seminars that strengthened our expertise incurriculum development and teaching. Our team participated in professional developmentsite visits to exchange science communication curriculum ideas with different universities. During these visits, we shared information about this project and learned about best practices at other universities forsupporting graduate student development in this area.The universities visited include: University of California-Davis University of Leiden (Leiden, Netherlands) Utrecht University (Utrecht, Netherlands) Erasmus University (Rotterdam, Netherlands) The University of the West of England University of Bristol Our team participated in workshops and a symposium on science communication training as part of the Public Communication of Science and Technology (PCST) conference in Venice, Italy. This activity connected an international audience of science communication academics and practitioners to share ideas and best practices for advancing science communication competencies andtraining. We discussed this project during the symposium and gathered insights on how other instiutions and funding agenciesapproach science communication training, which will strengthen our work on this project. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest? Fischer, L. M., Roberts-Hill, L.,Steede, G. M.,Miller, J., & Harlan, K. (2023).Creating collaborative multistate partnerships.Panelist on the monthly webinar for the Society of Agricultural Communications Scholars. November 27. Virtual. [Information about this project was shared with agricultural communication faculty at multiple institutions during a webinar for the Society of Agricultural Communications Scholars (SACS) that focused on collaboration and multi-state partnerships.] Baker, L. M., Swenson, R. D., Hundemer, S., Kent, K., McKay, T. D., McLeod-Morin, A., Peterson, H. H., Steede, G. M. (2023). Growing Graduate Studies in Science Communication with Shareable Modules. Oral Presentation, North American Colleges and Teachers of Agriculture (NACTA). Las Cruces, NM. [Information about this project was shared with faculty members at two-year and four-year colleges who teach agriculture-related topics at the post-secondary level]. Information about our project modules and updates onproject status were sent toindividual faculty members who might be early adopters of our modules andinterested in integratingthem into their courses. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? During the next reporting period, our team will focus on finishing a draft of the remaining modules (10 of 18). The modules that will be completed during the next reporting period include Issues-based Science Communication, Audience Analysis, Communication Evaluation, Web Analytics & Data Analysis, Data Visualization, New Media, Media Skills, Visual Design, Audio Storytelling, and Photography & Video Skills. We will share all modules with faculty members who have agreed to pilot them in their courses. New courses in science communication will be proposed at the University of Minnesota, whichwill use the modules to structure lessons, course activities, and assigments.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
We need scientific experts to share credible information that can expand general knowledge and serve as the base fordecisions made by voters, policymakers, funders, and the general public. Unfortunately, science communication training is rarely a key part of most graduate programs in the agricultural, food, and environmental sciences. Our project is designed to help graduate students learn how to translate their work for a variety of audiences and confidently approach science communication practice. To help reachthis goal, our team completed the following major activities: Our team developeda new survey instrument and collected data from graduate students at the University of Minnesota and the University of Florida on the science communication skills they desired, their self-assessment of their current science communication skills, and perceptions of valuable professional development opportunities. The data collected wasused to direct curricula development and planning for project outreach. We completed development of 8 of the 18 proposed modules. The following modules are completed, reviewed, and ready to be piloted by faculty members: Introduction to Science Communication, Communication Theory for Science Communicators, Concepts of Strategic Science Communication, Ethics in Science Communication, Research for Science Communication, Methods in Science Communication Research, Written Communication, and Oral Communication.
Publications
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