An assignment-based curriculum Scientific Writing in Chemistry was developed to instruct students on best practices in writing a scientific paper and to educate students about the scientific publication process and peer review. Each implementation at the University of Missouri (MU) employs a new curriculum, which is based on a common framework of assignments but all assignments are original and written for a new overarching theme. The themes are selected to address timely science topics that are pertinent to macroethical discussions in society. The course Scientific Writing in Chemistry also addresses an essential need for science students across the globe. Since 2010, we have therefore offered variants of the MU course Scientific Writing in Chemistry at several universities in China. Specifically, this course was taught at the University of Chinese Academy of Science, Beijing, at Northwest University, Xi’an, at Xiamen University, Xiamen, and at Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi’an. The semester-long MU 3h-course with three meetings per week and with low enrollment was adapted to shorter block courses with much higher enrollments. The drastic differences in scale and mode of delivery posed numerous non-trivial challenges. Several adaptations have been applied to overcome the challenges, including the course structure and the cultural and language barrier. Due to the shorter duration of the courses in China, students usually studied sample assignments written by MU students, but the implementations at Xiamen University and at Northwestern Polytechnical University also included sessions with active writing practice. Teaching assistants (TA) played important roles to facilitate the interactions between the students and the instructors in the courses in China and were recruited in several ways: TAs were Chinese students who were enrolled in the course in China and/or they were American and/or Chinese students from MU (who had taken the writing course at MU). As a result of the TA support, the Chinese students were more engaged in the classroom and more able to overcome any language and cultural differences.

Global adaptation of a scientific writing course: From Missouri to China

255th National Meeting (2018)

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.