Scientific communication is increasingly recognized as a core area of competency for graduate students, yet many STEM programs still rely on informal mentoring rather than evidence-based approaches to developing these skills. This webinar brought together three NSF Innovations in Graduate Education (IGE) projects that are advancing the research on STEM communication while developing, testing, and evaluating scalable models for graduate education.

Presenters examined how science communication competencies can be strengthened through institution-wide science communication initiatives, systemic approaches to graduate writing instruction, and the application of cognitive theories of learning to communication training. Across the three projects, participants explored what the research reveals about how STEM graduate students develop as communicators, how institutions can create environments that support these skills, and how evidence can be used to adapt best practices within a variety of institutional settings. Attendees took home practical strategies and adaptable models for integrating communication training into graduate curricula, professional development, and institutional practice.

Many graduate programs were designed for academic career pathways that no longer reflect the realities or aspirations of today’s students. As part of its NSF Innovations in Graduate Education (IGE) project, the University of Pittsburgh developed and tested a personalized model that helps programs realign with students’ diverse career intentions, supported by a Faculty Learning Community (FLC), a shared Body of Knowledge (BoK), a robust institutional scaffolding framework, and professional development streams.

By the end of the webinar, participants will be able to:

• Describe a personalized learning model for graduate STEM education and outline the value proposition for students and for faculty/administrators
• Identify institutional barriers to implementing components of the model
• Formulate actionable strategies to overcome these barriers

Download the slides from this webinar here.

Janis Bush, PI, University of Texas at San Antonio

Eric Vance, PI, University of Colorado Boulder

Diana Nicholas, CoPI, Drexel University

Himanshu Jain, PI, Lehigh University

Rose Marie Ward, PI, University of Cincinnati (previously Miami University)

Corrie Kuniyoshi, PI, American Chemical Society
Joerg Schlatterer, CoPI, American Chemical Society

Gundula Bosch, PI, Johns Hopkins University