Assignments

Over the course of this semester you will complete three projects. Each project has a few tasks to complete on the road to constructing successful final projects. These tasks are graded, often rigorously, in order to give you a clear assessment of your competencies as you develop your final projects.

The first project is a popular science blog post, designed to get you comfortable with reading, evaluating, and ultimately repackaging original scientific research on a given medical/health topic of your selection. The emphasis of this project is on popular science writing.

The second project is to find and complete an application for a SUMMER RESEARCH PROGRAM or INTERNSHIP in the medical or health sciences.  The emphasis of this project is on formal grant writing.

The third project returns to the theme of popular science, but instead of creating a written popular science blog, you, along with a few of your classmates, will be composing a 20-35 minute podcast on an important medical/health issue.  These groups will consist of trios and quartets.  Duos acceptable on a case by case basis.

Revised third project (in light of COVID-19 telecommuting) will be the creation of a web.unc.edu website based on your group topic + infographics. The purpose of this unit is to investigate social, cultural, economic, and political concerns of a pressing medial/health/science-related topic chosen by your group. To illustrate the economic, social, and political elements of the topic, you will create an informative infographic that allows viewers to quickly understand and assess the numbers and their impact. The inspiration for this project is Mona Chalabi whose hand-illustrations – featured on her instagram – highlight important social, economic, gender, and race issues in the US and the world today.