Informal science participation positively affects the communication and pedagogical skills of university physics students

Many undergraduate and graduate physics students choose to participate in an informal science program at the University of Colorado Boulder (Partnerships for Informal Science Education in the Community (PISEC)). They coach elementary and middle school students in inquiry-based physics activities during weekly, afterschool sessions. Observations from the afterschool sessions, field notes from the students, and pre/post surveys are collected. University students are also pre/post- videotaped explaining a textbook passage on a physics concept to an imagined audience for the Communications in Everyday Language assessment (CELA). We present findings from these data that indicate informal experiences improve the communication and pedagogical skills of the university student as well as positively influence their self-efficacy as scientific communicators and teachers.