C&EN: EDUCATION - LEARNING HOW TO GET THE WORD OUT

In addition to technical capabilities, "much of the literature that discusses what industry desires in a new graduate emphasizes communications skills and teamwork," notes Michael A. Matthews, a chemical engineering professor at the University of South Carolina, Columbia. But Matthews and some of his colleagues in USC's College of Engineering & Information Technology were frustrated by their inability to adequately teach communications skills within the framework of the existing engineering curriculum, he says.

This situation led to an interdisciplinary effort to establish the Research Communications Studio, a project to help undergraduate students wade through the intricacies of the written and oral communications needed to carry out and disseminate scientific research. The premise of the studio approach is that by working with a group of peers and mentors, students can better learn how to prepare research proposals, papers, and effective presentations while additionally enhancing their cognitive development.

The group that planned the project, which is supported by a $375,000 National Science Foundation grant over three years, consists of Matthews; English professor Nancy S. Thompson; and Elisabeth M. Alford, an engineering research associate professor who has a Ph.D. degree in English and coordinates communication instruction in the engineering college.

By design, three to five undergraduates meet in a studio group one class period per week. Each group includes a studio staff member, an engineering graduate student mentor, and an English or linguistics graduate research assistant. The group discusses, critiques, and revises the rhetorical features and technical content of written and oral assignments related to the undergraduate students' research.

"The studio provides immediate feedback to students on communications in the context of learning to do research," Matthews says. But it's not just the students who benefit, he notes. "If we can better understand how students learn and determine some of the best practices for mentoring students through the studio approach, then this should benefit both the students and faculty."

CONCEPTUALLY, the Research Communications Studio was set up to respond to the needs of the three participating entities: NSF, the faculty, and the students, Matthews explains. For NSF, students and faculty offer feedback on the studio approach through interviews and questionnaires evaluated by the university's College of Education. Information on cognitive development could be used to help develop national standards for research-based learning, he says.

For a faculty member, the studio provides a service to his or her research group by helping to train students while they are using their actual research materials and by increasing their productivity, Matthews adds. Early feedback from the faculty has been very positive in this regard. For students, the communications practice offered by the studio is a valuable supplement to their research experience that also provides course credit, Matthews notes.

During this past fall semester, 10 undergraduates from the chemical, electrical, and mechanical engineering departments participated in the studio's inaugural sessions. These students are continuing in the studio program and have been joined by other students for the spring semester. The students are expected to participate in the studio for three semesters.

STUDIO ASSIGNMENTS may include research proposals, literature reviews, research progress reports, abstracts, posters, talks, and research papers. The studio program emphasizes student participation in professional meetings, thus some travel funds are available.

One of the ongoing studio groups includes three chemical engineering students who are conducting research on different aspects of heterogeneous catalysis with chemical engineering assistant professor Christopher T. Williams. This group spent part of the first semester writing a description of the students' research projects for the studio's Web page (http://www.che.sc.edu/centers/rcs/rcsmain.htm).

The students also gave a short oral presentation on their research to a freshman engineering class. And they prepared posters on their research for a departmental poster session. They are planning to present posters on their most recent results at an upcoming American Institute of Chemical Engineers student regional meeting and are gearing up to write research papers.

The students agree that the studio setting has helped them to become better organized and to think more critically about the goals of their research. "Learning how to communicate what I am doing in my research to those who may not know much about engineering is a good way for me to better understand what I am doing on a basic level," notes D. Jason Owens, one of the undergraduate studio members. "I think this is a good practice because undergraduates doing research may not always fully understand the work they are doing." Owens is investigating acetaldehyde dissociation on the surface of palladium catalysts by in situ infrared spectroscopy.

Group input on revising the oral presentation for the freshman class and the Web material was beneficial, notes Michelle D. Casper, another undergraduate member of the group. "At first, there were just some rough revisions. But after we discussed my work further in the group, everyone was contributing finer details to correct things that I had not thought about," she says. "Overall, these contributions made the presentations much better." Casper is using dendrimers as frameworks to prepare bimetallic nanoparticle catalysts.

"THE STUDENTS have really learned how to better articulate their work," says Sirena C. Hargrove-Leak, who serves as the chemical engineering graduate student mentor for the group. "In the beginning, it was obvious that they needed some guidance. But they learned to think more analytically about their research during the course of the semester and to understand what they are doing and why they are doing it." Hargrove-Leak, who is in the research group led by associate professor Michael D. Amiridis, is investigating the heterogeneous catalytic synthesis of fine chemicals and pharmaceuticals.

Although the studio's goal is to help the students with their communications skills, she adds, the chemical engineers in the group also have been able to discuss issues related to their research since they are all working in the area of heterogeneous catalysis. This is interesting to observe, Hargrove-Leak says. "I have an interest in an academic career, so this has been a good opportunity for me to learn to steer student research."

The goal for the Research Communications Studio is eventually to have 15 students participating per semester and to expand it to include all departments in USC's College of Engineering & Information Technology, Matthews says. In the future, all USC engineering undergraduates may be required to have three semesters of research and communications experience, he notes. Beyond USC, the studio approach should be broadly adaptable by other universities, he adds.