Presentation and reflection assessment activities as a means of connecting students with a university department’s research culture and promoting thinking about their next steps.
The University of Leicester’s Research Inspired Education strategy ensures all students engage with world‑leading research throughout their degree. In Chemistry, this has reshaped the first‑year experience to include not only research‑informed lectures but also a skill‑focused curriculum that supports this approach. Students receive dedicated research lectures and access to papers authored by departmental academics, with engagement strengthened through embedded skills training and reflective assessments.
One such activity required students to create an infographic based on a departmental research article as part of the module’s science communication component. Although infographics are widely used in teaching, students are rarely asked to produce them. This task encouraged students to prioritise extracting/reporting key information, strengthening their summarisation and scientific communication skills. Survey data indicates that using Leicester research articles helped students connect with the department’s research culture and better understand how staff expertise aligns with inorganic, organic, and physical chemistry teaching.
A second activity involved a structured reflective exercise prompting students to consider which research topics they found most engaging, how these aligned with their interests and ambitions, what skills they would need for future research, and whether they already possessed these skills or needed to develop them. Our findings show that these reflective prompts encouraged students to think more deeply about the purpose and value of the research lectures within the curriculum. They also supported students’ forward planning around research interests, skills development, and, in some cases, their broader career trajectories.