Clear, effective communication of science is needed for public engagement, but these skills are not commonly taught or evaluated in chemical engineering undergraduate and graduate curricula. K-12 outreach has been reported to improve scientists’ communication skills; however, assessments of communication skill development are not well-studied outside of the classroom setting. Here, we present a mixed-methods approach to assess chemical engineering student researchers’ gains in communication skills that were acquired through developing STEM outreach activities. Undergraduate and graduate student researchers collaboratively developed an outreach activity to teach K-12 students and families about engineering tools to study and treat bacterial infections. Student researcher communication skills were evaluated using the VALUE rubric for Oral Communication and the Student Assessment of Learning Gains survey. The mixed-methods approach enabled the assessment of student gains in communication skills through both direct observation and student perceptions. Direct observation of student presentations revealed the importance of including metrics for assessing the flexibility and adaptability of the presenter in evaluating scientific communication with the public. Student self-perceptions of their communication revealed that the experience of developing the outreach activity is more impactful in their perceptions of their communication skill development than the presentation of the outreach activity itself. These findings can be applied to the design of learning activities to support communication skill development in the chemical engineering curriculum as well as in the development of mixed-method assessments for evaluating student development of other professional skills of relevance to chemical engineering students.
