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Assignment 8: Scientific Communication

Purpose

This assignment turns one result from your analysis or dashboard into a short audience-specific communication product. You will create a small slide deck or slide outline, write a plain-language summary, cite the data source, and use peer feedback to improve the claim.

Learning Objectives

  • Translate one technical result into a clear audience-facing takeaway.
  • Build a short Quarto revealjs deck or structured slide outline.
  • Use one figure or table from prior work as evidence.
  • State a limitation and source note beside the claim.
  • Give and apply peer feedback on clarity, evidence, and KT value.

Inputs

  • Week 9 page: weeks/week09-science-communication/index.qmd
  • Peer feedback page: weeks/week09-science-communication/comm04-peer-feedback.qmd
  • Renderable slide starter in your personal workspace: assignments/assignment08-communication/starter-slides.qmd
  • Slide-outline starter in your personal workspace: assignments/assignment08-communication/slide-outline-template.qmd
  • Peer-feedback template in your personal workspace: assignments/assignment08-communication/peer-feedback-template.md
  • Prior work from Assignment 5, 6, or 7
  • Submission folder: assignments/assignment08-communication/submission/

Tasks

  1. Create or use the folder assignments/assignment08-communication/submission/.
  2. Choose one figure, table, or dashboard finding from prior work.
  3. Define the audience in one sentence.
  4. Write one plain-language takeaway that a non-technical reader can understand.
  5. Create either slides.qmd as a revealjs deck or slide-outline.qmd as a structured slide outline. Copy the corresponding starter from assignments/assignment08-communication/ in your personal workspace into its submission/ folder and rename it before editing. Do not edit the original starter.
  6. Include 3-5 slides or slide sections: context, evidence, takeaway, limitation, and next step.
  7. Add one source note or citation for the dataset.
  8. Complete the in-studio partner review early enough to make at least one A8 revision before submission. Also complete the Canvas Discussion exchange by the standard syllabus deadline — Monday after the Week 9 class, 4:00 PM. Canvas feedback may inform the presentation deck or final-portfolio revisions; it is not the feedback source required before the initial A8 submission.
  9. Revise at least one sentence or slide based on feedback.
  10. Document any AI assistance used for simplification, slide wording, or feedback synthesis.

AI-Use Expectations

AI may help simplify jargon, suggest slide structure, or tighten wording. You must verify that the simplified text still matches the evidence, citation, and limitation. AI must not invent findings, sources, or audience needs. Include ai-use-note.md.

Reproducibility Requirements

  • The deck or outline must render in GitHub Codespaces.
  • Any figure or table must be traceable to prior code or a submitted output.
  • Source notes and citations must be visible.
  • Paths must be relative.
  • Peer feedback must be specific enough to act on.

What To Submit

Place all submission files in:

assignments/assignment08-communication/submission/

Submit these files:

  • slides.qmd or slide-outline.qmd [required]: source file for the communication product — submit one of the two.
  • slides.html or slide-outline.html [required]: rendered output. Commit this required HTML with its source.
  • plain-language-summary.md [required]: 150-250 word audience-facing summary.
  • peer-feedback.md [required]: feedback received and one revision made. Expected length: the completed feedback form plus one or two sentences describing the revision you made — do not write an essay.
  • source-note.md [required] [brief — 1-3 focused bullets or sentences are enough]: dataset/source note and citation information.
  • ai-use-note.md [required]: what AI helped with and how you checked it, or a sentence saying AI was not used.

Submission Route

Submit your GitHub repository link on Canvas after committing and syncing the required files.

Grading Checklist

Canvas applies a 7-point rubric. This assignment is part of the best-4-of-6 set for Assignments 4-9. The full revealjs deck and the structured slide outline are graded identically — choosing the outline does not lower your possible score.

Criterion Points
Audience and KT purpose are specific 1
Slide deck or outline has a clear 3-5 part story 1.25
Figure/table evidence is traceable and accurately described 1
Plain-language summary is clear and avoids overclaiming 1
Source note and limitation are visible 1
Peer feedback is specific and revision is documented 1
AI-use note and render/sync requirements are complete 0.75

Definition of Done

You are done when a peer can read the deck or outline, identify the main takeaway, see the evidence and limitation, and understand what changed after feedback.

If you submit an outline for A8, it receives the same A8 score as a deck. The narrated presentation deck is a later stage and requires slides.qmd, so convert the revised A8 story into a renderable deck for the portfolio rather than treating the A8 outline as final slides.