Students will be able to prepare and present, orally and in writing, to audiences outside the sciences.
Becoming a well-rounded scientist at Longwood, the importance of being able to present scientific results to a general audience was shown to us time and time again. Starting in my freshman year, we were already practicing how to write for a non-scientific audience. The main courses that stand out to me where I was tasked with explaining scientific topics to non-scientists were in Sophomore Seminar, Vertebrate Physiology, and Biology of Cancer.
At Longwood, all sophomore biology students are required to take the Sophomore Seminar course in which the main goal is to improve students’ scientific writing, reading, and critical thinking skills. During this course we were instructed to complete a general audience paper on the topic of our choosing. For my general audience paper, I discussed the question of if video games were increasing aggression in children. Throughout this paper I was able to explain both sides to the argument and describe that there is no general accepted consensus on this issue. This general audience paper can be found below.
BIOL 288 – General Audience Paper
Throughout my Vertebrate Physiology class we were assigned several different assignments that were called “Inside JEB’s” that were inspired from the general audience summary articles included on the JEB’s website. For each of these assignments, we had to choose one article on JEB and write a general audience summary for the article. One of the articles I chose was on if songbirds are able to identify the songs of relatives versus stranger birds. This general audience summary can be found below.
Another course that has strongly emphasized the importance of explained concepts to a general audience has been my biology of cancer. Throughout that course, we were assigned several summary projects in which we had to explain a key concept of cancer biology to a non-scientific audience. For one of these assignments, we had to explain what tumor suppressors are and why they are important towards cancer progression. This assignment also allowed us to have creative freedom as far as the format in which we shared the information, so I decided to create a presentation and video for my submission. This summary project can be found below.
Throughout my time at Longwood, I have continued to learn how important explaining complex topics, both written and orally, to non-scientists. I have seen myself grow in this concept over the years and I can already see the advantages to these skills as I talk to family members and peers about my courses and interests.