My assignment have to read the article you can see the file I attached after when you read it u should write two paragraphs one paragraph about summary and other paragraph about critical analysis. secondly, answer this question in below write at least 250 word you can answer it after when u read the article.This Question1-list the four sessions each module PBL project need to set up?
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Adding value to a graduate physiology seminar by
focusing on public communication skills
Thomas J. LaRocca, Jamie N. Justice, Douglas R. Seals and Christopher R. Martens
Advan in Physiol Edu 40:365-369, 2016. ;
doi: 10.1152/advan.00183.2015
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This article cites 14 articles, 3 of which you can access for free at:
http://advan.physiology.org/content/40/3/365.full#ref-list-1
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Advances in Physiology Education is dedicated to the improvement of teaching and learning physiology, both in
specialized courses and in the broader context of general biology education. It is published four times a year in
March, June, September and December by the American Physiological Society, 9650 Rockville Pike, Bethesda MD
20814-3991. Copyright © 2016 The American Physiological Society. ESSN: 1522-1229. Visit our website at
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Adv Physiol Educ 40: 365–369, 2016;
doi:10.1152/advan.00183.2015.
Illuminations
Adding value to a graduate physiology seminar by focusing on public
communication skills
Thomas J. LaRocca, Jamie N. Justice, Douglas R. Seals, and Christopher R. Martens
Department of Integrative Physiology, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, Colorado
Submitted 3 December 2015; accepted in final form 12 May 2016
Address for reprint requests and other correspondence: T. J. LaRocca, Univ.
of Colorado Boulder, 354 UCB, Boulder, CO 80309 (e-mail: thomas.larocca
@colorado.edu).
projected to more than double, and we are currently unprepared
for the health care and societal burdens this change will bring
(11). This will be a high priority issue for the next generation
of biomedical researchers, care providers, and policy makers
(today’s graduate students), and they will need the proper core
knowledge, research training, and communication skills to
address it. With this in mind, we set out to design a graduate
course on the physiology of aging focused on building core
knowledge/aptitude and developing public communication
skills.
Approach
Our department offers The Physiology of Aging as a graduate
seminar every other year. This 3-credit hour, ⬃20-student
course is traditionally structured as a series of lectures by
experts in different areas of research on physiology and aging.
The major focus is understanding how physiological functions
change with age and what (if any) interventions may prevent or
improve these changes. We decided to revise the original
course to also include a focus on public communication. To do
so, we developed a semester-long PBL project aimed at identifying timely issues related to the physiology of aging, reviewing the literature on these issues, and creating presentations and
written summaries for a nonscientific audience. To enhance the
project’s relevance and provide students with a concrete goal,
we planned to build a website to make the students’ work
available to the public at the end of the semester. The idea for
a website stemmed from our own laboratory’s recent efforts to
communicate evidence-based knowledge about healthy aging
practices to the general public (healthyagingproject.org). We
restructured the course to include both this project and the
lecture series, thereby maintaining a focus on core knowledge
while exposing students to a real world example of public
communication.
We formatted the course so that we could emphasize both
core knowledge and the PBL/communication project during
each class session. The class met once each week for 2.5 h, and
we devoted one-half of each session to expert lectures on topics
such as the basic biology of aging, energy balance, sleep, bone
physiology, cognitive function, neurodegenerative diseases,
and many others. We assigned readings in advance of each
lecture, and students were expected to participate in a spirited
question and answer period with each presenter.
The other half of each session was devoted to the PBL/
communication project. For this project, we asked students to
1) practice communicating with a nonscientific audience by
writing weekly summaries of new/publicized research on aging
(short individual assignments that could become brief “news
posts” on the website) and 2) develop their ability to interpret
and communicate science for a general audience by working in
teams to review, evaluate, and summarize the quality of liter-
1043-4046/16 Copyright © 2016 The American Physiological Society
365
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A MAJOR GOAL of graduate education is the development of
students as “stewards of the discipline,” scholars who can
create and preserve knowledge and responsibly translate it
through writing, teaching, and practical applications (5). These
qualities are consistent with the American Physiological Society’s list of professional skills for physiologists and trainees
(3). Key competencies on this list include building core biomedical knowledge, research/analytical abilities, and communication skills. By default, core knowledge and research aptitude are a central focus of most graduate physiology programs.
As a result, there is significant interest in teaching strategies
like active and problem-based learning (PBL) that enhance the
development of these competencies (9, 14). However, communication skills often receive less emphasis, leaving many graduate students underequipped to effectively share their knowledge with the wider community (7, 13).
Most opportunities graduate students do have to learn and
practice communication skills involve scientific audiences.
However, for most students, effective public communication
skills may be just as important (7, 13). Students planning to
pursue academic careers, for example, will be expected to
contribute to the research missions of their institutions, most of
which emphasize the dissemination of scientific knowledge for
the good of society. Indeed, public outreach is often a key
component of institutional service expectations. This requires
scientists to clearly and succinctly explain complex ideas to
nonexpert audiences. Successful scientists also need these
skills to effectively explain their work to peers in other disciplines (e.g., as guest lecturers in other departments) or staff
officials at the National Institutes of Health or other health/
research organizations, and to describe the importance of their
research to nonexperts in industry, foundations, and potential
donor/philanthropic groups to obtain funding. Similarly, and
perhaps even more importantly, a significant percentage of
graduate students studying physiology are bound for nonresearch careers in health care, public health, teaching, industry,
and other fields. Without a doubt, these students will need to
clearly and effectively explain science to patients, students,
colleagues, and other nonscientific groups. Nevertheless, most
graduate students receive little or no training in communicating
with such general audiences.
A general lack of training in public communication skills is
a particular concern in the context of key public health problems, pressing issues that require research attention and
broader public action (2). One such issue is population aging.
In the next few decades, the population of older adults is
Illuminations
366
PUBLIC COMMUNICATION SKILLS IN GRADUATE STUDENT EDUCATION
A
Groups identify topics,
start literature review.
1
Students continue
lit. review at home.
2
Groups discuss findings
and develop writing plan.
Students work on
writing at home.
3
Groups edit documents
and plan presentations.
Students work on
presentations at home.
B
Weekly lectures by
experts on key topics.
4
Students learn core
content and presenting skills.
Core knowledge
and presenting skills
facilitate other stages
of course project.
Goal: public “product”.
Fig. 1. General format of the course. A: the four-stage group project aimed at identifying key topics, reviewing the literature, and summarizing findings in
public-friendly (website-appropriate) documents and presentations. B: weekly expert (faculty) lectures to build core knowledge and demonstrate skills, both of
which facilitated the group project.
ature on different “hot topics” in healthy aging (factors or
interventions with the potential to improve physiological function in older adults). We chose to have students work in small
groups, because team-based learning has been shown to promote collaborative problem solving in PBL settings (1). Each
group developed both written summaries and brief PowerPoint
presentations targeted at a nonscientific audience, all of which
could be used as content for a website on healthy aging. To
guide students toward this goal, we provided students with
templates/examples of each assignment type. In addition, at the
start of the semester, we invited a science writer from our
university’s public relations department to speak to the class
about general strategies for writing and communicating with
the public and included a lecture on the skills necessary to
conduct a thorough literature review.
To determine the feasibility of this PBL project, we conducted a “pilot trial.” Before the start of the semester, we (the
instructors) went through the process of identifying a topic,
reviewing the literature, evaluating the quality of the evidence,
and preparing brief written summaries and presentations.
Based on our experience, we set up the project as a module that
students would repeat three times throughout the semester.
Each module consisted of the following four sessions:
1. PBL groups meet (3– 4 students/group each) to identify
topic and conduct an initial literature review. Students
continue the literature review at home.
2. Groups reconvene, evaluate the literature review, and
develop a plan for creating summaries. Students work on
individual components of summaries at home.
3. Groups reconvene, discuss/edit summaries, and plan for
final documents and presentations. Students work on final
summaries and presentations at home.
4. All groups deliver brief presentations summarizing findings for the entire class. Groups turn in final written
summaries.
This project format was complemented by the weekly lectures, which, in addition to promoting core biomedical knowledge, also served as opportunities for students to see how
leading experts convey their science to a diverse, nonexpert
audience (Fig. 1).
To start students off on the right foot, we developed a list of
tractable topics for them to choose from (Table 1). We asked
each PBL group to select a physiological function and related
intervention from this list for the first iteration of the project
and encouraged them to use the list as a guide thereafter. Once
groups had identified a topic, they determined their own
specific action plans; some chose to divide the literature review
into smaller components, whereas others decided to have each
member research the same things and then compared notes.
Most groups divided the writing and presentation/slide-building tasks, and they met outside of class to synthesize their work
into final products. We graded each of these based on accuracy
and comprehensiveness as well as clarity and “public friendliness” so that students could improve those features of their
work from one project cycle to the next.
Table 1. Examples of suggested topics for the problembased learning literature review project
Factors/Interventions
Physiological Functions
Physical activity
Aerobic exercise
Resistance exercise
Daily physical activity
Nutrition
Calorie intake
Diet composition
Hydration
Pharmacological agents
Anti-inflammatories
Pharmaceutical drugs
Dietary supplements
Antioxidants
Calcium
B vitamins
Vitamin D
Glucosamine
Omega-3 fish oils
Nutraceuticals
Resveratrol
Curcumin
Nitrate/nitrite
etc.
Neuromuscular
Aerobic capacity
Strength
Balance
Coordination
Cognitive
Executive function
Memory
Processing speed
Attention
Bone
Bone density
Metabolism
Metabolic rate
Body composition
Insulin/glucose homeostasis
Hepatic
Circadian rhythm
Cardiovascular
Blood pressure
Cardiac
Vascular
etc.
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Groups present findings
to class in brief, general
audience format.
Illuminations
PUBLIC COMMUNICATION SKILLS IN GRADUATE STUDENT EDUCATION
Outcomes
Topics and products. Students’ weekly summaries of new/
publicized research on aging (“news posts”) served as basic
skills practice. Topics ranged from summaries of original
research articles in scientific journals to commentaries on
recent newspaper or website pieces highlighting issues related
to aging. We graded these quickly each week, giving students
brief feedback on readability and appropriateness for nonscientific audiences. This also helped to prepare students for the
PBL project. Students worked on preapproved topics for the
first project cycle. After that, they were more adept at identifying timely issues related to the physiology of aging and
framing manageable questions for subsequent project cycles.
Examples of topics identified by students included:
Efficacy and student feedback. At end of the semester, we
circulated an optional and anonymous survey asking students
about their experience in the course. Because this was an
exploratory project, the purpose of the survey was simply to
determine if students felt that the course format and content
were valuable. Therefore, we designed the survey to focus
on students’ satisfaction with specific aspects of the course
and used “traditionally designed courses” as a reference
point when appropriate, a common approach when piloting
a new course (1, 4). Because the survey was optional/
anonymous and not systematically designed as research, it
was determined to be exempt from Institutional Review
Board oversight by the University of Colorado Boulder. It
contained seven Likert scale-based questions asking students either to rate specific aspects of the course or to
compare the course with other traditional graduate physiology courses they had taken as well as three open-response
questions asking students about their experiences and perceptions of the course.
Based on this survey (n ⫽ 15), it seems that most students
felt the course was both effective for enhancing core knowledge and a useful learning experience for cultivating professional/public communication skills, as evidenced by the following comments:
• “Learning how to quickly compile a snapshot of the literature and distill it into a form that is accessible to the general
public is a great skill to have.”
• “Good practice in reviewing and combining multiple articles
with different conclusions into a recommendation to give a
subject or patient.”
• “Being able to explain scientific findings to a lay audience is
a critical skill, and one that I developed in this course. Also
being able to critically review literature and come up with
my own conclusion is something I’ll use in whatever field I
end up in.”
• “I think the ability to write and speak in front of an audience
is an important skill that many of us will continue to use in
the future.”
• “[Increased my] ability to work with different personalities.
Inevitably, it was easier to communicate with and understand some people than others.”
• “Gaining experience in speaking/writing to a lay audience
will give you the ability to reach more people with the
information you have, whether this is in a community
outreach program, the boardroom, or even in general
conversations.”
In addition to these comments, students’ ratings of the
course suggested that it was as effective as a standard class
format for teaching core knowledge related to physiology and
aging (Fig. 2). In fact, the majority of students preferred the
course format to that of a standard lecture or seminar. Moreover, students consistently indicated that the literature review
experience and writing/communication skills they acquired in
the course were particularly valuable and that the course itself
was perhaps more valuable than other graduate physiology
courses (Fig. 2). Interestingly, student opinions on the concept
of compiling their work for a website were mixed, and the
website did not appear to be a motivational factor for developing effective communication skills.
Discussion/Conclusions
Our primary goal in designing and teaching this course was
to use group PBL with a focus on evaluating literature and
summarizing it for a nonscientific audience to promote several
key competencies in graduate students: 1) the development of
core biomedical knowledge, 2) research/analytical abilities,
and 3) broad communication skills. Based on student feedback,
we believe the course enhanced core knowledge as much as
any standard course and that it was particularly valuable for
promoting students’ analytical abilities and public communication skills.
Promoting public communication skills is an important but
underemphasized goal for graduate education. On one level,
graduate students (like most scientists) have an intrinsic desire
Increased knowledge of physiology*
Increased knowledge of aging
Website product was motivational
Developed valuable literature review skills
Preferred format to other courses*
Developed valuable communication skills
More valuable than other courses*
less/
disagree
similar/
no opinion
more/
agree
Fig. 2. Student responses to questions rating the efficacy and utility of the
course (n ⫽ 15; mean data presented on a common Likert scale). Questions
were based either on a scale from “less” to “more” or from “disagree” to
“agree.” *Questions in which students were asked to compare the course with
other traditionally designed graduate physiology courses they had taken.
Advances in Physiology Education • doi:10.1152/advan.00183.2015 • http://advan.physiology.org
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• The efficacy of probiotics for improving mood/well-being in
older adults
• Evidence in support of antioxidants for enhancing/preserving motor function with age
• The influence of the Mediterranean diet on age-related
changes in cognitive function
• The impact of anti-inflammatories on glucose-insulin homeostasis with aging
367
Illuminations
368
PUBLIC COMMUNICATION SKILLS IN GRADUATE STUDENT EDUCATION
offer opportunities for community outreach in which graduate
students engage and interact with the public.
Broadly, we believe the general concept of using public
communication skills/practice as a vehicle for graduate student
learning can be applied to any topic with public health relevance in physiology. We suggest a key step for any instructor
considering this approach is to identify a feature of his or her
course material that could be relevant and interesting to a broad
audience. In our case, interventions that may promote healthy
aging served as a hot topic that is clearly important from a
public health perspective (11). However, based on the fact that
graduate students appear to be intrinsically motivated to share
their knowledge with broad audiences, any topic that is recognizably interesting for nonscientists would likely work well.
The logistics of organizing such a course will depend on
instructor preferences and available time/resources, but we
hope that the experience we have described here may serve as
a template for anyone interested in incorporating publi …
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