Today I participated an American Chemical Society (ACS)
Webinar on “Science Communication: Visual Chemistry by Design”. The main
presenter was Andy Brunning, a high school chemistry teacher in England, and
the creator of Compound Interest – a showcase of his Infographics. (Go check
them out!) Apparently he had started out making infographics for his classes,
showed them to some of his friends, and then created a website so they could
download his material.
What is an infographic? Here’s what Wikipedia has to say: “Information graphics or infographics are graphic visual representations of information,
data or knowledge intended to present information quickly and clearly. They can
improve cognition by utilizing graphics to enhance the human visual system's
ability to see patterns and trends.”
ACS does a great job with its Webinars.
There’s a feed that you can use for Q&A with someone other than the main
presenter who answers straightforward questions, includes tips and weblinks in
real-time, compiles submitted questions and summarizes them for Q&A with
the main presenter in the second half of the session, and does little things to
help the participants feel engaged. There were several polls interspersed in
the first half of the presentation too. I felt I was engaging in an
information-rich learning environment, and it was a good reminder that online
tools and technology, when used in the right way, can be a powerful medium to
engage the learner.
The webinar was also very useful
because it exposed me to a number of tools that I, and more importantly my
students, can use. I was reflecting on how I can incorporate this aspect of
communicating science into my classes, and then it dawned on me – make it an
assignment in (at least one of) my classes. I’d been mulling how to structure a
final project in my Chemistry & Society course (aimed at non-science
majors). In the past I’ve had the students do some research on a chemical
everyday product and write a short paper. For smaller classes the students do
presentations. For larger classes, students work in groups. I didn’t fancy
reading and having to grade a bunch of papers at the end of the semester so I
think I might assign designing an infographic as a final project. While I will
be responsible for assigning the final grade, I could incorporate peer review
into the process. I think the students will find it both useful and fun! Now I
need to drill down and refine the parameters of the assignment. But I’m excited
to do this! The Webinar hour was time very well spent!
P.S. I apologize to my regular readers
for the dearth of posts the last couple of weeks. Life interferes on occasion –
this time in a good way!
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