Communicating science to college students and the general public

Abstract

As teachers we try to find ways to effectively communicate with our students, in order to help them to learn. Education is a two-way process that consists of teaching and learning. Whether this package results in the desired effect (i.e., “education”) depends on how well the subject matter is communicated. Obviously, effectiveness of communication depends upon transmission and reception, the ultimate goal being that the transmitted and received messages carry the same meaning for the teacher and student. In other words, we want the recipients of our communication to understand our words and phrases and concepts in the same way as we do. Whether or not we achieve this goal depends upon a variety of factors, including how instructors present their material, and how students learn. We also communicate science to the general public in different contexts. One effective way to learn something is to teach it – something most of us have experienced. What better way for students to learn a concept or fact than to communicate it to the public? Here, I present our experiments at the University of Delhi in using this approach to convey the principles of evolutionary biology. Our annual celebrations of Evolution and Evolutionary Biology around “Darwin Day” (12th February, Charles Darwin’s birthday) have turned out to be an excellent opportunity to illustrate this point. It is difficult to determine the results of these experiments, but anecdotally we can say that our efforts have been a great success in terms of garnering widespread interest and enthusiastic participation by students, faculty, staff and the general public.