Students will be able to prepare and present, orally and in writing, to scientists in other disciplines and audiences outside the sciences.
During my time at Longwood I have had the chance to write in different science disciplines as well as write for a more general audience. Some of the courses I had the chance to do this with are: Biology 288: Sophomore Seminar, Interdisciplinary Science 361: Protecting Life on Earth, and Biology 488: Senior Capstone.
In my Biology 288 course I was tasked with writing a general audience paper on a current issue. My topic was on Wildfires and their effects on aquatic ecosystems. Throughout this process I had to learn how to write in a way that a general audience could understand the issue I was talking about. I had to conduct literature searches to find the information I needed to support my issue. From this literature, I could write about my issue but I had to be able to turn the scientific literature into an understandable writing that a general audience could understand. I learned a lot from this first assignment and it really helped me further on in my undergraduate career.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1wSLtOR8-WkQVMr7-5SD8jxvpoLF3R62o/view?usp=sharing
In my Interdisciplinary science course, I was tasked with writing a general audience paper based on an appropriate peer-reviewed scientific journal article. The article I chose to write about was Extinction risks: Living on an island isn’t as safe as it seems. From this assignment, I learned again how to write about a scientific issue in a way that was understandable to the general audience or those who aren’t scientists.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1TvfoU7Cygf1NXz35pkgz-dnkI9IaQeqY/view?usp=sharing
In my Biology 488 course every student was assigned to make a baseline presentation on any issue pertaining to Covid-19. I chose to write about how covid-19 causes smell loss. Now with this presentation I had to make it so that a general audience could understand what I was presenting. From this assignment I learned how to give an oral presentation on another scientific issue from a scientific article and turn it into something that could be understood by everyone.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/13Q9MP9nRZhxgVt4qEDyWV3IWjjx_5K6S/view?usp=sharing
From these few assignments I have learned how to prepare and present, orally and in writing, to scientists in other disciplines and audiences outside the sciences. I can use these techniques and examples to help me in the future whether it be in graduate courses or in a career.