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Ritchie TS, Rossiter DL, Opris HB, Akpan IE, Oliphant S, McCartney M. How do STEM graduate students perceive science communication? Understanding science communication perceptions of future scientists. PLoS One 2022; 17:e0274840. [PMID: 36191004 PMCID: PMC9529114 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0274840] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/09/2022] [Accepted: 09/06/2022] [Indexed: 11/05/2022] Open
Abstract
Increasingly, communicating science to the public is recognized as the responsibility of professional scientists; however, these skills are not always included in graduate training. In addition, most research on science communication training during graduate school, which is limited, has been program evaluation or literature reviews and does not report on or seek to understand graduate student perspectives. This research study provides a comprehensive analysis of graduate-level science communication training from the perspective of STEM graduate students. Using a mixed-methods approach, this study aimed to investigate where graduate students are receiving science communication training (if at all), what this training looks like from the student’s point of view, and, for graduate students that are engaging in science communication, what do these experiences look like. This study also explores how graduate students define science communication. Taken together, these results will give graduate students a voice in the development of science communication trainings and will remove barriers and increase equity in science communication training.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tessy S. Ritchie
- Department of Chemistry & Life Science, United States Military Academy, West Point, NY, United States of America
| | - Dione L. Rossiter
- Science at Cal, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, United States of America
| | - Hannah Bruce Opris
- STEM Transformation Institute, Florida International University, Miami, FL, United States of America
- Department of Biological Sciences, Florida International University, Miami, FL, United States of America
| | - Idarabasi Evangel Akpan
- STEM Transformation Institute, Florida International University, Miami, FL, United States of America
- Department of Biological Sciences, Florida International University, Miami, FL, United States of America
| | - Simone Oliphant
- STEM Transformation Institute, Florida International University, Miami, FL, United States of America
- Department of Biological Sciences, Florida International University, Miami, FL, United States of America
| | - Melissa McCartney
- STEM Transformation Institute, Florida International University, Miami, FL, United States of America
- Department of Biological Sciences, Florida International University, Miami, FL, United States of America
- * E-mail:
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