A Picture is Worth 1000 Words: Teaching Science Communication with Graphical Abstract Assignments

Swati Agrawal; Paul Ulrich

doi:10.1128/jmbe.00208-22

A Picture is Worth 1000 Words: Teaching Science Communication with Graphical Abstract Assignments

J Microbiol Biol Educ. 2023 Mar 15;24(1):e00208-22. doi: 10.1128/jmbe.00208-22. eCollection 2023 Apr.

Authors

Swati Agrawal¹, Paul Ulrich²

Affiliations

¹ Department of Biology, University of Mary Washington, Fredericksburg, Virginia, USA.
² Department of Biology, Georgia State University, Atlanta, Georgia, USA.

Abstract

An important part of scientific training in undergraduate curriculum involves teaching students how to effectively communicate in science. Scientific writing and oral presentations are important parts of most science classes. The same cannot be said about a new and emerging aspect of many recent scientific articles: graphical abstracts. In recent years, many scientific journals have adopted graphical abstracts as a way to capture both the scientific audience and increase visibility on social media platforms. Graphical abstracts are becoming the norm for many journals; however, there is no equivalent training in undergraduate classes that teaches students the intricate skills of efficient graphical design. In this paper, we share our course design and discuss how students can be taught to design better experiments and excel in communicating their research findings through graphical abstracts.

Keywords: CURE; graphical abstract; scientific literacy.