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Week 9: Communication of Scientific Findings

Overview

Science communication means explaining scientific evidence clearly and responsibly for a specific audience. In this course, that means turning one audited health data finding into a short, plain-language message that includes evidence, limitations, and appropriate caution.

This week turns one audited result into a short scientific communication product. The goal is not to make a slide deck bigger. The goal is to make one claim easier to understand, easier to verify, and harder to overstate.

You will reuse work you already have: a corrected plot from Assignment 5, a Table 1 or methods note from Assignment 6, and a dashboard adaptation or limitation statement from Assignment 7.

ImportantRequired / Draft / Optional This Week
  • Required (graded): the Assignment 8 files, explained in comm05, plus the peer-feedback exchange in comm04.
  • Draft (class work that feeds A8, not graded on its own): the claim-evidence-limitation table and the 3-5 slide draft from the class plan below.
  • Optional (no penalty for skipping): extra slides beyond the 3-5 slide story — the deck and the outline are graded identically, so do not pad.

Tags like [required] and [optional] are defined in How To Read Submission Lists.

Objectives

By the end of the week you can:

  • identify an audience and decision context for one result;
  • write a claim that includes evidence and a visible limitation;
  • build or outline a short Quarto revealjs slide story;
  • cite the data source for a figure, table, or dashboard screenshot;
  • use peer feedback to improve clarity without inflating the claim.
NoteKey Terms This Week
  • Knowledge translation (KT): turning evidence into a form that helps a specific person understand it, question it, or act on it.
  • Decision context: the decision, conversation, or question your audience is facing when they see your result.
  • Audience-facing text: writing meant for your audience to read directly — not notes for yourself or your team.
  • Claim-evidence-limitation: the three-part pattern used for every message in this course: what you say, what supports it, and what it cannot prove.
  • Plain-language takeaway: the one sentence a non-expert should remember, written without jargon.

Connection

Week 8 built a small dashboard-style KT product. Week 9 turns one dashboard finding, plot, or table into a concise slide story. Week 10 then expands the same evidence into a reproducible Quarto report.

Dashboard Case Study: NHANES Equity

The NHANES Health Equity Dashboard is now the foreground case study. Use it as a small knowledge-translation product built on the cached NHANES equity dataset.

  • App code: examples/nhanes-equity/app/app.R
  • Cached data: examples/nhanes-equity/data/nhanes_equity_v6.rds and examples/nhanes-equity/data/nhanes_equity_v6.csv
  • Optional rebuild script: examples/nhanes-equity/scripts/build_nhanes_equity.R

Run the dashboard from the repository root:

shiny::runApp("examples/nhanes-equity/app")

The app is offline-first: it loads the local RDS cache when available. Rebuilding from CDC uses nhanesA, requires internet access, and is optional unless assigned.

Companion materials:

  • Week 10 report template: weeks/week10-reporting-publishing/report-template.qmd
  • Week 11 static dashboard demo: weeks/week11-portfolio-surgery/static-dashboard-ojs.qmd

Reading Order

Work through the pages in order. Each page asks you to reuse an artifact rather than start over.

  1. comm01 - Why Communication Is KT
  2. comm02 - Claim, Evidence, Limitation
  3. comm03 - Revealjs Starter
  4. comm04 - Peer Feedback
  5. comm05 - Assignment 8 Walkthrough

The raw starter file is starter-slides.qmd. Use it as a renderable template, not as a reading page.

Class Plan

  1. Choose one finding from A5, A6, or A7.
  2. Write the audience and decision context in one sentence.
  3. Build a claim-evidence-limitation table for that finding.
  4. Draft a 3-5 slide story using the revealjs starter or a structured slide outline.
  5. Exchange peer feedback focused on clarity, evidence, limitation, and source note.
  6. Revise one slide sentence or limitation statement before submission.

Student Output

By the end of class each student has a draft slide deck or outline, a plain-language summary sentence, a peer feedback note, a source note, and an AI-use note if AI helped with wording or structure.

Definition of Done

  • The slide story has a named audience.
  • The main claim is supported by one visible plot, table, or dashboard output.
  • The limitation appears on the slide or in nearby notes.
  • The source note names the dataset or source.
  • Peer feedback led to at least one concrete revision.

What Students Leave With

A short, audience-facing communication product that can be reused later in the narrated presentation deck and final portfolio.