Teaching atmospheric science and science communication hand in hand

Study programmes in atmospheric science usually start with introductory courses in mathematics, physics and meteorology. Current scientific topics and also science communication are often not addressed in the early stage. We wanted to give first semester students the opportunity to come into contact with cutting-edge research and to gain science communication skills at the same time. Therefore, we offered an elective seminar, where the students were asked to make a video about the Collaborative Research Centre TPChange (The Tropopause Region in a Changing Atmosphere, CRC 301).

Scientists from seven German universities and research institutions are working together within TPChange to investigate the tropopause region, a layer that separates the troposphere from the stratosphere above. This region of the atmosphere is of special interest, because it is highly sensitive in terms of climate change. Many people have never heard of the tropopause region, despite society's awareness of climate change. Also the students had limited to no prior knowledge about this topic.
The students had two tasks in the seminar: 1) to understand the  fundamentals up to the specific research questions of TPChange and 2) to present their gained knowledge in a clear way for a broad audience in the form of a video. We included science communication from the beginning of the seminar. The students were given the task to communicate and present newly learned facts. This had two advantages, the students practised their communication skills and we used the task to verify the student‘s comprehension.
With this seminar, we aimed to enhance the students' understanding of the complex interplay of different concepts and to give them a perspective, for what they need the knowledge from the introductory courses. Furthermore, the seminar gave the students the opportunity to get into touch with many scientists at different career levels.
We will discuss the student‘s learning success, both in terms of scientific knowledge as well as science communication, and their opinion on the seminar.