The Journal Club: Seeding scientific understanding at the Universidade Federal do Triângulo Mineiro, Brazil

Traditionally, in many universities, student groups that promote critical and informative discussion are organized, aiming to debate themes from scientific articles and recent advances. Such groups are usually called Journal Clubs. Their aim is to provide the tools for both successful presentations and for comprehension/critical analysis of scientific publications, in order to use them in their own research and/or in the classrooms. The present communication details such a project involving engineering students from the Universidade Federal do Triângulo Mineiro (UFTM), located in south-east Brazil. The novelty in this case is two-fold: (1) the Engineering course at the UFTM has only recently been inaugurated and research activities are still tentative, and (2) reported examples of Journal Clubs are rare among engineering courses. This creates a gap between undergraduate studies and research activities, which we try to bridge here. Weekly, 1 h meetings were organized in which the participating students developed the skills necessary to understand and interpret scientific articles and present their findings. The principal result of the project was the enriching of the participants' training and confidence in discussing scientific data and in verbal communication of complex concepts. The project also taught the value of interaction between professionals during the discussion of scientific data. The project also helped to reduce the English language barrier and currently finds itself in its 4th year of activity.