To help program participants set realistic goals for playing a complex role as scientist managers, the Cain Project in Engineering and Professional Communication will engage students in a case with environmental, legal, and professional elements. The resources for the case are located at the West Eugene Wetlands web site, which was created by a team from Rice University in collaboration with urban planners and individuals from the City of Eugene and Lane County, Oregon. The URL is http://www.rice.edu/wetlands/

Communication Goals

The communication goals for participants align with their future responsibilities for explaining science and its implications for government and industry to complex audiences and facilitating decision-making and conflict resolution. The goals are to be able to

• provide leadership by inspiring confidence and trust in their integrity and expertise
• articulate scientific and technical issues in the vocabulary of the field
• translate these issues for people with minimum backgrounds in science
• identify relationships between technical analyses and policy decisions
• facilitate complex problem solving
• facilitate political resolutions that are consistent with scientific understandings
• design accessible, accurate, and complete communication in multiple media
• analyze community / audience needs and legitimately fill these needs
• design and prepare visuals that communicate clearly to varied audiences
• set out a problem by showing its

– symptoms
– importance
– stakeholders
– local and technical definitions

Recognizing that the program’s participants have varied backgrounds and many kinds of communication experiences, the instructors intend to use the review to help participants create a portfolio that can demonstrate their proficiency to prospective internship employers and provide a basis for setting personal communication goals that the Cain Project will help them achieve through coaching on various assignments and preparation of on-line materials.

Diagnostic Review Assignments
Each participant will prepare

• a written document that includes a data display and a diagram
• a leadership talk of 5 to 7 minutes, and
• his or her portion of a team assignment.
These are shown at the web site noted above.