Nutritional Digital Essays

Professor Gary Miller

Question

Why was the digital essay incorporated into your curriculum this semester?

Answer

“I think these projects make the student fully understand the content instead of paraphrasing what a study may have shown. They have learned how to do lit reviews through high school and through the first several years of college, so they have that form of writing down. So it’s nice to challenge the students and to recognize that there are different forms of writing.”- Gary Miller

Project Description

Work in small groups of 2-3 students and create a 4 minute Digital Essay. This project will provide an in-depth look at the impact of one of the following foods/drinks on health: chocolate, wine, coffee, olive oil, fish, soy protein.  In the multimedia storytelling video, describe the significant health impact of the food. Focus on just one disease/condition, such as cancer, cardiovascular disease, cognition, etc. Do not try to cover several health conditions. After conducting a scientific literature review, describe your summary in the video using a variety of media to convey this information. This may include interviews with experts in the field, creating graphs/tables with findings from the research studies, video, still images, or audio recordings.

Purpose

The purpose of this project was to give students the skills to work in different forms of media to communicate a scientific topic.

Learning Goals

To develop skills in small groups work and to learn different modes of scientific communication.

Role of Academic Technology

Brianna provided students with the skills to create the project based on the scientific material. They also learned about copyright rules for video and images obtained from the internet.

Technology

• Adobe Rush
• One Button Studio

Target Skills

• Various modes of scientific communication
• Work in different forms of media

Outcomes & Perspectives

Showcase