Very few people will ever read even the best-written academic paper. Sharing knowledge widely requires presenting it in formats that are quick and accessible. For this assignment, you will create a Popular Source about your Course Project topic, with the goal of communicating information about that topic to the general public in a format that is both informative and engaging. You may choose any popular source format that you would like to use to achieve that goal, as long as you can provide me with a digital version of that popular source. Commonly selected formats include infographics, blog posts, and video presentations (back when the class was small, we did 5-minute talks - feel free to make some slides and record yourself presenting!)

Objectives

  • Draft a popular science communication piece to share what you know about your topic to a broad audience.
  • Consider the content and organization that you used in your draft paper in a new format.

Time Estimate

4 hours

Assignment Instructions

Create a brief piece (blog post, video presentation, infographic, mocked up wikipedia page, graphic storytelling, or similar) to convey information about your paper topic to the public. Aim for something that would take the viewer no more than 5 minutes to engage with (for example: a 700-1000 word blog post or a 5-minute video of you presenting some slides).

Drafts submitted on time will receive peer feedback during Week 13. Your Final Popular Source will be scored by your peers on Engagement and Informativeness. The goal of this draft step is to structure your taking some time between drafting and finalizing your popular source, including an opportunity to see how other people are approaching the same problem and receive feedback.

Evaluation

3 points possible (for the most part either all-or-nothing, as long as you’ve made a genuine effort to submit a reasonable attempt at a draft).

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