STEM Tell Research: How Communication Centers Can Impact the Scientific Communication Competency of Grade School STEM Students

Abstract

            This article details ways Communication Center consultants can use their training and skill sets to impact their community. Specifically, it will relay how one Communication Center spent a couple weeks working with Junior High STEM students from marginalized districts on their scientific research presentations, giving special detail to consultant methods of student empowerment, context, and agency. This article also outlines the different theories and practices at work, such as hook’s radical pedagogy, when consultants engage ethically and effectively with diverse community populations. By placing Communication Center theory, Feminist theory, Composition theory, Education theory, and personal narrative in dialogue with one another, this article lays an analytical, pedagogical framework for why it is important that Communication Center consultants not limit their influence to only the students who fall within their university’s boundaries. Ultimately, this article will prove, through storytelling and analysis, that the demographics Communication Centers can collaborate with are virtually limitless.