It's a Bug's World
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Insects are largely responsible for making the world work. World-renowned entomologist and writer E.O. Wilson once surmised that “the world would go on with little change” were humans to disappear form the planet. However, the disappearance of invertebrates, especially insects, would change the world drastically. Unfortunately, several recent studies have highlighted precipitous declines in insects in many areas across the globe. In Writing 101: “It’s a Bug’s World” we learn about the many ways in which insects contribute to our well-being, our ecosystems, and our economies, and explore the potential reasons for their decline.
The overarching goal of this course is to help students develop as confident and thoughtful consumers, translators, and contributors of science and scientific literature. Although insects are the focus of the course, students can take the knowledge and skills learned in this course and transfer them across disciplines. The first pedagogical aim of the course is to engage students in the exploration, dissection, and interpretation of scientific literature. Once students gain confidence in how to search for, interpret, and evaluate scientific journal articles, they can begin to think strategically about how to write narratives that synthesize information from many different sources, the second pedagogical aim of the course. The third pedagogical aim of the course is to encourage students to practice translating science to different audiences by writing many different kinds of narratives, including a research proposal, an op-ed, a literature review, and a policy memo. Lastly, students participate as contributors to science by engaging in problem solving with regard to a current insect topic and proposing policy solutions to a local policy maker.
This course is structured around three major writing assignments that are scaffolded assignments, which build on one another: a research proposal, a literature review, and a policy memo, and two smaller assignments: a reflection of a journal article and an op-ed. At the beginning of the semester students are assigned to groups, based on their preferred insect topic of focus for the semester. We then engage in several class discussions on how to identify primary sources in the sciences and explore how to correctly cite, paraphrase, and synthesize information from several sources. Students practice citation, paraphrasing, and synthesizing with their first assignment: a research proposal related to their insect topic. The students work collaboratively on the proposal with their group members, practicing collaborative science writing, a frequently exercised skill in the sciences that they will use in their future careers at Duke and beyond. Next I provide students with several articles related to the topic of insect biomass decline. Students focus on one article in the series on which they write a reflection. Associated with this article is a rebuttal article to acquaint students with the role of scientific discourse in advancing scientific knowledge. We discuss the article in class, and then in their reflection assignment, students are asked to critically evaluate the article using a method known at QERIP (Question, Experiment, Results, Interpretation, & Problem). This assignment helps students build interpretation and evaluation skills that will help them throughout the semester and their careers with digesting scientific literature. Students also are also tasked with writing an op-ed to a local paper about insect biomass decline to practice translating science to a broad audience, many of which include non-science peers. We invite speakers from Duke’s student newspaper, The Chronicle, to discuss the mechanics and purpose of the op-ed. This discussion provides students with an opportunity to interface with Duke student leadership at the university, and exposes students to opportunities to pursue extracurricular writing with The Chronicle in their future at Duke. Students can opt to submit their op-eds for publication. In fall of 2020, one student’s op-ed, “Silence of the cicadas: Can we stop the insect extinction?” was featured in The Chronicle.
The latter half of the semester is focused around the last two scaffolded assignments related to the students’ insect topics: the literature review and policy memo. Students work collaboratively on the literature review to further practice collaborative science writing. A scientist from Duke is invited to engage in a conversation with students about science writing, both as it relates to their literature reviews and other types of science writing. These conversations allow students an opportunity to engage with another scientist, who is not their professor, and learn about the process and obstacles that sometimes come with scientific writing. At the end of the semester students focus on writing their policy memo to get another opportunity to translate science to non-science peers, in this case, local policy makers. Students have to critically evaluate their insect topic, use problem-solving skills, and propose feasible policy solutions to a local policy maker. To help them in this process a local state senator is invited to the class to speak with students about what to consider when writing a memo, and how to write an effective memo. These conversations allow students to interface with an elected local official, similar to the one they will target for their memo, and help them navigate how to translate science to policy makers. Students also get some insight into the policy-making process at the local and state level. After students turn in their final memos, with student permission, I share the memos with the local officials that they target, many of which are Duke administrators and staff. I often follow up with the recipients of the memos to get feedback and explore new insect topics for the following semester. Students often express that they are excited to share their work with local officials, as it makes them feel a part of creating solutions to real-world problems in their community.
By the end of the semester students leave the course having developed and practiced skills in interpreting and critiquing scientific literature, collaborating with peers on scientific writing projects, translating scientific literature to many different audiences, and contributing to solutions to problems related to a scientific topic, specifically with regard to insects. The hope for myself, as a professor, of course, is that my students leave the my class disliking bugs just a little less, and maybe even acknowledge a small appreciation for their existence among us.