Live From Boone Lake: Interdisciplinary Problem-Based Learning Meets Public Science Writing

Effective science communication is an increasingly important, and often inadequately addressed, skill for scientists and nonscientists alike. As strong proponents of problem-based learning (PBL), we designed and taught an interdisciplinary, team–taught PBL course on Writing Science for the Public at a midsize northeastern state university. This approach led to emphasizing collaboration and experiential learning and resulted in media-rich student projects. Using a multiphased problem, the course first engaged students in basic concepts of limnology as students developed the conceptual understanding necessary to analyze actual water quality data. Students then interpreted trends in local water quality and presented their results, along with potential solutions to identified problems, to the residents of a local lake community. After meeting with community members, students created multimedia resources for addressing how residents might mitigate their impact on the lake, culminating in a public presentation of their videos, informational brochures, and billboards. Assessment results suggest that the inclusion of a real audience coupled with the PBL format motivated students to engage more deeply with both the science and the communicative aspects of the course. It also helped them to better understand the relationships among science, writing, and community.