Presenting Complex Topics to a Lay Audience

Fordham students in the Bronx Science Consortium presented their work yesterday at the Bronx Zoo.

Beyond the bears, birds, and large body of reptiles, a group of visitors to the Bronx Zoo on Wednesday, Sept. 10, were brought face-to-face with some of the latest research taking place in the Bronx.

The Bronx Science Consortium, of which Fordham University is a member, presented student science research to the Zoo's visitors at its second annual poster symposium, which took place in the Dancing Crane Pavilion. Several Fordham students participated.

Topics were both contemporary and cutting-edge: from the Ebola virus and HPV to breast cancer and hospice care; from the West Nile to the Neotropics to Brooklyn; and from bog turtles, mosquitos and langurs to invasive plants and coconuts.

While explaining university-level research can be daunting, translating it into layperson's language was one of the challenges for the 24 undergraduate, masters, and doctoral students from Fordham, as well as reps from the other institutions (Albert Einstein College of Medicine, the Bronx Zoo/WCS, Montefiore Hospital, and the New York Botanical Garden.)

"The research projects that the doctoral and master’s students contributed are publication-quality," said Amy Tuininga, Ph.D., acting chief research officer at the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences and co-director, Bronx Science Consortium Associate Dean for Strategic Initiatives, Partnerships and Assessment. "The undergraduate research was equally impressive, and the high school students presented were creative works that interpreted their science for general audiences. Altogether, the presentations represented an unprecedented combination of excellent scientific work initiated in the Bronx."

You can read more about the Bronx Science Consortium Poster Symposium here. This year's presentation was underwritten by EmblemHealth.

-Janet Sassi