Service learning has been shown to be extremely advantageous in chemistry curriculums. Service learning offers students an opportunity for civic engagement, to improve their soft skills, and can often improve their laboratory skills. A plethora of articles have been published examining the various ways in which college courses can integrate service learning into their curriculum; however, only a limited amount of research has been conducted on how service learning can be used to improve students’ scientific communication skills. Herein we examine how service learning along with a targeted intervention can be used to improve students’ ability to communicate science.<br/>This service learning project consisted of college students conducting ‘kitchen safe’ demonstrations over Google Meets with elementary school students. In order to help students improve their presentations and more specifically, their communication skills, students were asked to record videos of themselves practicing the presentations. Utilizing a video self-evaluation technique, and an in-class intervention aimed at improving students’ communication skills, we were able to improve students' presentation skills. The student presentations were evaluated using a variety of analytics to provide quantitative metrics for students’ communication skills and the impact of the interventions.

Service learning as a platform for improving students' scientific communication skills

ACS Spring 2022

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