221.700.01
Public Engagement Practices for Scientists (Peps) in International Settings

Location
East Baltimore
Term
3rd Term
Department
International Health
Credit(s)
2
Academic Year
2024 - 2025
Instruction Method
In-person
Class Time(s)
Tu, Th, 8:30 - 9:20am
Auditors Allowed
Yes, with instructor consent
Available to Undergraduate
No
Grading Restriction
Letter Grade or Pass/Fail
Course Instructor(s)
Nina Martin
Contact Name
Nina Martin
Frequency Schedule
Every Year
Description
Climate change, pandemics, poverty, genocide, and overpopulation are some of humanity’s most pressing problems that can be approached through science. Billions of dollars in public and private funding have generated many science-based solutions, but they are at risk of being rejected by the public because of an omnipresent chasm between science and society, with frustrations felt from both the lay public and scientists. Public health professionals can play a powerful role in building trust in scientific processes, data, and solutions through training how to incorporate, design and assess public engagement practices for scientists (PEPS) before, during, and after research.
Introduces the fundamentals of PEPS and its importance for public health professionals. Explores applications of quantitative and qualitative methods from other public health disciplines to assess and improve PEPS. Analyzes different frameworks to plan, implement, and assess PEPS, with a focus on low income, global settings. Provides opportunities to practice designing and evaluating PEPS within five engagement goal areas: (1) increasing scientist to scientist engagement, (2) increasing uptake of interventions, (3) increasing evidence-informed public health policy, (4) increasing minority populations into public health science workforce, and (5) increasing capacity of public health science workforce.
Learning Objectives
Upon successfully completing this course, students will be able to:
  1. Understand how public engagement practices for scientists (PEPS) is important & relevant to public health goals, history, philosophy, & values
  2. Discuss the quantitative and qualitative methods from diverse public health disciplines that can be applied to improve PEPS research
  3. Explain how to adapt The PEPS Method to select audience appropriate content, e.g. for different cultural and socioeconomic audiences
  4. Apply The PEPS Method to five types of engagement goals, e.g. increasing interprofessional teamwork, evidence-informed policies, intervention uptake, workforce, and capacity building
  5. Incorporate evidence-informed PEPS into short and long term public health career plans
Methods of Assessment
This course is evaluated as follows:
  • 50% Participation
  • 20% Group Presentation
  • 20% Paper(s)
  • 10% Quizzes
Instructor Consent
No consent required