Shu Hui Koh

Scientific writing is a common challenge for university students, particularly those lacking proficiency in academic English. Despite being routinely evaluated on their understanding of concepts through scientific writing, students are not explicitly taught how to write scientifically. STEM education often prioritises the teaching of concepts and experimental theories, leaving students to independently decipher the expectations of advanced scientific writing at a tertiary level. However, first-year students often encounter difficulties discerning and executing the essential elements of scientific writing. To address this, we developed five high-quality, online interactive modules with the aim to augment the first-year experience and empower students to master the intricacies of scientific communication. These modules complement traditional in-class teaching and facilitate the acquisition of scientific writing skills by actively involving students through interactive unit-specific exercises and structured scaffolding of scientific writing concepts. By creating an inclusive learning environment aligned with Universal Design for Learning principles, we hope to bridge gaps in scientific communication skills. Preliminary data analysis, offers valuable insights into the effectiveness and potential impact of these modules, particularly on academic success and confidence. 

Poor numeracy/quantitative skills (QS) development is a widespread issue across Australian tertiary education. Lack of fundamental QS can impede students' progression in STEM degrees, and disadvantage individual students across other domains of life (e.g., financial literacy and active citizenship). Our ACDS-funded Diversity in Numbers (DiN) project seeks to evaluate a targeted, course-wide, just-in-time model for undergraduate development of QS. Digital numeracy modules will be designed to scaffold QS development through embedded interactive content and rich automated feedback. Each module targets a core QS concept (e.g., statistical testing, unit conversions, mathematical relationships) and is framed around a published article relevant to unit content, to expand student awareness of numbers as a tool across diverse fields of science. Given the ongoing under-representation of women, LGBTIQA+ people and other minorities in STEM, the selection of journal articles aims to increase students' appreciation of diversity from many different viewpoints, while developing their QS. At a broader level, the project aims to address the ongoing lack of diversity among STEM graduates and within the STEM workforce by enabling students to "see themselves" within published research. Here we will present the design of our research project to assess the success of our pilot DiN modules.