{"id":476,"date":"2021-07-28T20:09:58","date_gmt":"2021-07-28T20:09:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ulib.csuohio.edu\/understanding-literacy-in-our-lives\/?post_type=chapter&p=476"},"modified":"2021-08-09T16:02:55","modified_gmt":"2021-08-09T16:02:55","slug":"3-8-communication-and-writing-in-stem-synthesis","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ulib.csuohio.edu\/understanding-literacy-in-our-lives\/chapter\/3-8-communication-and-writing-in-stem-synthesis\/","title":{"rendered":"3.8 Communication and writing in STEM (synthesis)"},"content":{"raw":"

February 2021<\/h3>\r\nThe skill\u00a0of\u00a0communication\u00a0is\u00a0severely undervalued when it comes to the subjects of STEM. STEM\u00a0is a group of subjects that include science, technology,\u00a0engineering,\u00a0and mathematics.\u00a0These subjects tend to advance society and shape the future for civilians.\u00a0Communication is not considered tremendously important when it comes to STEM\u00a0because of all the other skills that STEM students must learn and acquire. In most STEM fields, their jobs are primarily focused on the ability to\u00a0fix\u00a0issues and problem solve.\u00a0Proper communication is an extremely important skill that, if not taken seriously,\u00a0can prevent the advancements of STEM related research\u00a0and technological advancements from being shared correctly to the public.\r\n\r\nIn \u201cCommunication\u00a0in\u00a0STEM Education: A Non-Intrusive Method for Assessment & K20 Educator Feedback\u201d\u00a0Mike Borowczak attempts to tackle the misconception that STEM majors and STEM related jobs do not need the use of soft skill sets (Borowczak\u00a01). The major soft skill that Borowczak is attempting to target is the skill of communication. Borowczak explains that the benefits of effective communication are extremely important, and this skill is a pivotal ability of any successful STEM worker (Borowczak 1). As someone that is pursuing computer science and plans to continue with a software engineering graduate degree, I can agree with this stance from the author. In my previous education, not much stress was\u00a0placed on the ability to present information in front of a group of people. At times there were required\u00a0presentations, however not many of them were in STEM related courses. Now that I have attended two different universities, I can assure that very rarely is there communication and presentations incorporated into my computer programming courses.\u00a0Collaboration is a major part of any job that involves any of these four subjects.\u00a0With this being said, collaboration, quite literally, stems from effective communication and correctly perceiving relationships with fellow members of the\u00a0team (Borowczak, 2).\u00a0Borowczak later explains that the paring of STEM courses and laboratories have been become more popularized\u00a0in order to\u00a0increase the amount of collaboration and communication in these courses (2). In my personal experience, many computer programming classes that involve project-based assignments are joined with laboratories. Certain days during the week would be considered lecture days where students would take notes and listen to the concepts be explained by the professor. Typically,\u00a0one day during the week is assigned as a lab day where students work together\u00a0in order to\u00a0complete an assignment that is centered around the concepts that were taught that week.\u00a0With\u00a0all this being said, stating\u00a0that communication is an undervalued area for students that study STEM related fields. However, finding a method that to improve the communication skills in these students is the difficult part. In the next paragraph, I dissect another article that focuses on the same problem although it proposes a program to tackle the issue.\r\n\r\nIn the article \u201cSTEM Storytellers: Improving the Oral Communication Skills of STEM Graduate Students\u201d\u00a0the authors stress the importance that the skill of communication has on STEM fields (Willoughby). The authors later go on to explain\u00a0that society is advancing at an incredible rate and STEM continues to make improvements. In doing this,\u00a0STEM will keep making society easier for civilians, if not make it progress even further. In order to do this, scientist must be able to communicate their products and findings in a clear and precise manner\u00a0(Willoughby,\u00a02). The authors also emphasize that institutions and universities pay minimal focus on the importance of oral communication.\u00a0With this being said, the\u00a0overall premise of this article is to \u201cdevelop a fellowship program for Ph.D. students that will provide[d] multifaceted training and practice in oral communication to prepare them to effectively convey science to people\u201d (Willoughby,\u00a03). As a computer science student, I completely agree with what the authors are indicating and demonstrating in this essay. I have witnessed firsthand, and even personally, that it is not always easy to communicate your solution to others, let alone the instructor of the course. This program will require students to record themselves presenting an idea or product that is\u00a0under one of the\u00a0STEM\u00a0subjects previously stated. Then, the words that are used in the presentation will be broken down into three groups, counted, and evaluated by an equation to\u00a0identify the amount of jargon in their speech (Willoughby, 3).\u00a0By breaking down the amount of jargon that is present, students in their fields can recognize the difficulty it is for the audience to understand their presentation.\u00a0Not everyone\u00a0can conceptualize an idea when they\u00a0do not\u00a0comprehend most of the words that are being said to them.\u00a0Similar to\u00a0this article, I examine the research of\u00a0another author tackling the problem that is, the lack of communication education in STEM related fields and majors.\r\n\r\nIn\u00a0\"How to Improve Communication Skills in STEM Students\",\u00a0Danielle\u00a0Prier\u00a0confronts the world of science with the issue that communication is lacking in STEM.\u00a0She labels this as a \u201ccognitive gap\u201d,\u00a0an inability to communicate or explain a topic to someone that is not on the same level\u00a0of education on the topic as the speaker (Prier 17).\u00a0Prier\u00a0first\u00a0analyzes\u00a0some teaching methods\u00a0proposed by some professors in Singapore.\u00a0Professors in Singapore developed two methods to\u00a0conduct the experiment with, the first being the IRE method.\u00a0This method\u00a0\u201crepresents initiation of the question, the student\u2019s response, and the teacher\u2019s evaluation of the student\u2019s\u00a0response\u201d (Prier\u00a017). IRE method was found to discourage volunteering and communication of students.\u00a0This was due to the critical evaluation after a student\u00a0incorrectly answered the question. Furthermore, IRE did not encourage critical and creative thinking (Prier 17). The next method is known as\u00a0the social constructivism method.\u00a0On the other hand, this method encouraged more\u00a0analytical and critical responses to the questions being asked. Prier continues\u00a0by saying that this method\u00a0increased\u00a0the\u00a0number\u00a0of student-to-student responses and collaborations\u00a0(Prier 17-18).\u00a0This is\u00a0an important element when it comes to\u00a0engineering. Not only being able to explain your research and\u00a0findings but\u00a0being able to communicate\u00a0critically\u00a0with team members to accomplish a common goal is tremendously important.\u00a0Many\u00a0times,\u00a0engineers are working in teams and are each assigned a problem to solve. If you\u00a0are\u00a0able to\u00a0solve the problem\u00a0but\u00a0cannot\u00a0effectively communicate how you came to the result, then you are a liability to the team.\r\n\r\nIn\u00a0\u201cWhat is Literacy?\u201d written by James Gee,\u00a0Gee explains the importance of communication\u00a0and the different types of communication that exists.\u00a0He further explains this as discourse, the way that communication is accepted in different groups and settings. He\u00a0draws the comparison of\u00a0discourses and \u201cidentity kits\u201d (Gee 18).\u00a0Gee further explains that\u00a0when thinking of discourse,\u00a0\u201cthink of a discourse as an \"identity kit\" which comes complete with the appropriate costume and instructions on how to act and talk\u201d\u00a0(Gee 18).\u00a0Gee\u2019s article relates to all three of the articles chosen because of this idea of discourses and identity kits in STEM. When communicating with your team, often times, you are working in a team that is in the same level of education as you. However,\u00a0if you\u00a0must\u00a0present your findings or project to a business or an audience, all of them might not understand the jargon that is correlated to the field of work. This can cause for misunderstandings or even\u00a0rejection because\u00a0the audience does not know what the presentation was about.\u00a0This directly relates to Gee\u2019s definition of\u00a0literacy;\u00a0he describes this as\u00a0the \u201ccontrol of secondary uses of language\u201d (Gee 23).\u00a0As an engineer or scientist in\u00a0your respected field, you will have to talk to a lot of different people. Whether these be your authorities, acquaintances, customers, or even audiences. A lot of times you may not talk to all of them the same and use the same diction. The ability to switch between\u00a0your critical thinking and solutions that you present to your boss and the questions and concerns that you have when solving a problem that you tell your\u00a0acquaintances or partners can be drastically different conversations.\u00a0This relates to all of the articles that I have chosen because they all deal with preparing STEM students for these types of situations. Effective communication, across any field or profession,\u00a0is a mandatory skill\u00a0to possess.\r\n\r\nEach individual article that I chose either\u00a0stressed the importance that communication and\/or provided a plan to\u00a0help students improve the ability to effectively communicate\u00a0their information.\u00a0When taking STEM courses, many times professors focus on more conceptual and problem-solving skills and exercises.\u00a0While this is not a horrible idea, some attention needs to be drawn to other soft skills like communication and presentation. Without this, the findings and advancements that are discovered can suffer.\u00a0If you can not effectively\u00a0and clearly explain your results, then you can not expect for your audience to get behind your findings or solutions.\u00a0Proper communication is an extremely important skill that, if not taken seriously,\u00a0can prevent the advancements of STEM related\u00a0research and technological advancements from being shared correctly to the public.\r\n

Works Cited<\/p>\r\n

Borowczak, Mike. \"Communication in STEM education: A non-intrusive method for assessment\u00a0& K20 educator feedback.\"\u202fProblems of Education in the 21st Century<\/em>\u202f65 (2015): 18.<\/p>\r\n

Gee, James Paul. \"What is literacy.\"\u202fNegotiating academic literacies: Teaching and<\/em>\u00a0learning\u202facross\u00a0languages and cultures<\/em>\u202f(1998): 51-59.<\/p>\r\n

Prier, Danielle. \"How to Improve Communication Skills in STEM Students.\"\u202fCommunication\u00a0<\/em>and\u00a0Technology in the Classroom<\/em>: 17.<\/p>\r\n

Willoughby, Shannon D., et al.\u00a0Board 81: Stem STORYTELLERS: Improving the Oral Communication Skills of STEM Graduate Students<\/em>. 2 July 2018, peer.asee.org\/board-81-stem-storytellers-improving-the-oral-communication-skills-of-stem-graduate-students.<\/p>\r\n \r\n\r\n \r\n\r\n \r\n\r\n \r\n\r\n \r\n\r\n \r\n\r\n \r\n\r\n \r\n\r\n \r\n\r\n \r\n\r\n \r\n\r\n \r\n\r\n \r\n\r\n \r\n\r\n \r\n\r\n ","rendered":"

February 2021<\/h3>\n

The skill\u00a0of\u00a0communication\u00a0is\u00a0severely undervalued when it comes to the subjects of STEM. STEM\u00a0is a group of subjects that include science, technology,\u00a0engineering,\u00a0and mathematics.\u00a0These subjects tend to advance society and shape the future for civilians.\u00a0Communication is not considered tremendously important when it comes to STEM\u00a0because of all the other skills that STEM students must learn and acquire. In most STEM fields, their jobs are primarily focused on the ability to\u00a0fix\u00a0issues and problem solve.\u00a0Proper communication is an extremely important skill that, if not taken seriously,\u00a0can prevent the advancements of STEM related research\u00a0and technological advancements from being shared correctly to the public.<\/p>\n

In \u201cCommunication\u00a0in\u00a0STEM Education: A Non-Intrusive Method for Assessment & K20 Educator Feedback\u201d\u00a0Mike Borowczak attempts to tackle the misconception that STEM majors and STEM related jobs do not need the use of soft skill sets (Borowczak\u00a01). The major soft skill that Borowczak is attempting to target is the skill of communication. Borowczak explains that the benefits of effective communication are extremely important, and this skill is a pivotal ability of any successful STEM worker (Borowczak 1). As someone that is pursuing computer science and plans to continue with a software engineering graduate degree, I can agree with this stance from the author. In my previous education, not much stress was\u00a0placed on the ability to present information in front of a group of people. At times there were required\u00a0presentations, however not many of them were in STEM related courses. Now that I have attended two different universities, I can assure that very rarely is there communication and presentations incorporated into my computer programming courses.\u00a0Collaboration is a major part of any job that involves any of these four subjects.\u00a0With this being said, collaboration, quite literally, stems from effective communication and correctly perceiving relationships with fellow members of the\u00a0team (Borowczak, 2).\u00a0Borowczak later explains that the paring of STEM courses and laboratories have been become more popularized\u00a0in order to\u00a0increase the amount of collaboration and communication in these courses (2). In my personal experience, many computer programming classes that involve project-based assignments are joined with laboratories. Certain days during the week would be considered lecture days where students would take notes and listen to the concepts be explained by the professor. Typically,\u00a0one day during the week is assigned as a lab day where students work together\u00a0in order to\u00a0complete an assignment that is centered around the concepts that were taught that week.\u00a0With\u00a0all this being said, stating\u00a0that communication is an undervalued area for students that study STEM related fields. However, finding a method that to improve the communication skills in these students is the difficult part. In the next paragraph, I dissect another article that focuses on the same problem although it proposes a program to tackle the issue.<\/p>\n

In the article \u201cSTEM Storytellers: Improving the Oral Communication Skills of STEM Graduate Students\u201d\u00a0the authors stress the importance that the skill of communication has on STEM fields (Willoughby). The authors later go on to explain\u00a0that society is advancing at an incredible rate and STEM continues to make improvements. In doing this,\u00a0STEM will keep making society easier for civilians, if not make it progress even further. In order to do this, scientist must be able to communicate their products and findings in a clear and precise manner\u00a0(Willoughby,\u00a02). The authors also emphasize that institutions and universities pay minimal focus on the importance of oral communication.\u00a0With this being said, the\u00a0overall premise of this article is to \u201cdevelop a fellowship program for Ph.D. students that will provide[d] multifaceted training and practice in oral communication to prepare them to effectively convey science to people\u201d (Willoughby,\u00a03). As a computer science student, I completely agree with what the authors are indicating and demonstrating in this essay. I have witnessed firsthand, and even personally, that it is not always easy to communicate your solution to others, let alone the instructor of the course. This program will require students to record themselves presenting an idea or product that is\u00a0under one of the\u00a0STEM\u00a0subjects previously stated. Then, the words that are used in the presentation will be broken down into three groups, counted, and evaluated by an equation to\u00a0identify the amount of jargon in their speech (Willoughby, 3).\u00a0By breaking down the amount of jargon that is present, students in their fields can recognize the difficulty it is for the audience to understand their presentation.\u00a0Not everyone\u00a0can conceptualize an idea when they\u00a0do not\u00a0comprehend most of the words that are being said to them.\u00a0Similar to\u00a0this article, I examine the research of\u00a0another author tackling the problem that is, the lack of communication education in STEM related fields and majors.<\/p>\n

In\u00a0“How to Improve Communication Skills in STEM Students”,\u00a0Danielle\u00a0Prier\u00a0confronts the world of science with the issue that communication is lacking in STEM.\u00a0She labels this as a \u201ccognitive gap\u201d,\u00a0an inability to communicate or explain a topic to someone that is not on the same level\u00a0of education on the topic as the speaker (Prier 17).\u00a0Prier\u00a0first\u00a0analyzes\u00a0some teaching methods\u00a0proposed by some professors in Singapore.\u00a0Professors in Singapore developed two methods to\u00a0conduct the experiment with, the first being the IRE method.\u00a0This method\u00a0\u201crepresents initiation of the question, the student\u2019s response, and the teacher\u2019s evaluation of the student\u2019s\u00a0response\u201d (Prier\u00a017). IRE method was found to discourage volunteering and communication of students.\u00a0This was due to the critical evaluation after a student\u00a0incorrectly answered the question. Furthermore, IRE did not encourage critical and creative thinking (Prier 17). The next method is known as\u00a0the social constructivism method.\u00a0On the other hand, this method encouraged more\u00a0analytical and critical responses to the questions being asked. Prier continues\u00a0by saying that this method\u00a0increased\u00a0the\u00a0number\u00a0of student-to-student responses and collaborations\u00a0(Prier 17-18).\u00a0This is\u00a0an important element when it comes to\u00a0engineering. Not only being able to explain your research and\u00a0findings but\u00a0being able to communicate\u00a0critically\u00a0with team members to accomplish a common goal is tremendously important.\u00a0Many\u00a0times,\u00a0engineers are working in teams and are each assigned a problem to solve. If you\u00a0are\u00a0able to\u00a0solve the problem\u00a0but\u00a0cannot\u00a0effectively communicate how you came to the result, then you are a liability to the team.<\/p>\n

In\u00a0\u201cWhat is Literacy?\u201d written by James Gee,\u00a0Gee explains the importance of communication\u00a0and the different types of communication that exists.\u00a0He further explains this as discourse, the way that communication is accepted in different groups and settings. He\u00a0draws the comparison of\u00a0discourses and \u201cidentity kits\u201d (Gee 18).\u00a0Gee further explains that\u00a0when thinking of discourse,\u00a0\u201cthink of a discourse as an “identity kit” which comes complete with the appropriate costume and instructions on how to act and talk\u201d\u00a0(Gee 18).\u00a0Gee\u2019s article relates to all three of the articles chosen because of this idea of discourses and identity kits in STEM. When communicating with your team, often times, you are working in a team that is in the same level of education as you. However,\u00a0if you\u00a0must\u00a0present your findings or project to a business or an audience, all of them might not understand the jargon that is correlated to the field of work. This can cause for misunderstandings or even\u00a0rejection because\u00a0the audience does not know what the presentation was about.\u00a0This directly relates to Gee\u2019s definition of\u00a0literacy;\u00a0he describes this as\u00a0the \u201ccontrol of secondary uses of language\u201d (Gee 23).\u00a0As an engineer or scientist in\u00a0your respected field, you will have to talk to a lot of different people. Whether these be your authorities, acquaintances, customers, or even audiences. A lot of times you may not talk to all of them the same and use the same diction. The ability to switch between\u00a0your critical thinking and solutions that you present to your boss and the questions and concerns that you have when solving a problem that you tell your\u00a0acquaintances or partners can be drastically different conversations.\u00a0This relates to all of the articles that I have chosen because they all deal with preparing STEM students for these types of situations. Effective communication, across any field or profession,\u00a0is a mandatory skill\u00a0to possess.<\/p>\n

Each individual article that I chose either\u00a0stressed the importance that communication and\/or provided a plan to\u00a0help students improve the ability to effectively communicate\u00a0their information.\u00a0When taking STEM courses, many times professors focus on more conceptual and problem-solving skills and exercises.\u00a0While this is not a horrible idea, some attention needs to be drawn to other soft skills like communication and presentation. Without this, the findings and advancements that are discovered can suffer.\u00a0If you can not effectively\u00a0and clearly explain your results, then you can not expect for your audience to get behind your findings or solutions.\u00a0Proper communication is an extremely important skill that, if not taken seriously,\u00a0can prevent the advancements of STEM related\u00a0research and technological advancements from being shared correctly to the public.<\/p>\n

Works Cited<\/p>\n

Borowczak, Mike. “Communication in STEM education: A non-intrusive method for assessment\u00a0& K20 educator feedback.”\u202fProblems of Education in the 21st Century<\/em>\u202f65 (2015): 18.<\/p>\n

Gee, James Paul. “What is literacy.”\u202fNegotiating academic literacies: Teaching and<\/em>\u00a0learning\u202facross\u00a0languages and cultures<\/em>\u202f(1998): 51-59.<\/p>\n

Prier, Danielle. “How to Improve Communication Skills in STEM Students.”\u202fCommunication\u00a0<\/em>and\u00a0Technology in the Classroom<\/em>: 17.<\/p>\n

Willoughby, Shannon D., et al.\u00a0Board 81: Stem STORYTELLERS: Improving the Oral Communication Skills of STEM Graduate Students<\/em>. 2 July 2018, peer.asee.org\/board-81-stem-storytellers-improving-the-oral-communication-skills-of-stem-graduate-students.<\/p>\n

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