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Transcript of 1 Integration of Information Literacy into the Biology Curriculum Department of Physics and...
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Integration of Information Integration of Information Literacy into the Biology Literacy into the Biology
CurriculumCurriculum Department of Physics and Astronomy, and Biophysics
Ilo-Katryn Maimets, Science Librarian
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
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IL and Biology – History
Several years of one-offs in specialized upper level courses and graduate program
A few very supportive faculty Ecology (2ndyr, 4thyr and grad level) Immunobiology Microbiology
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Summer 2007 Abysmal quality of writing and
referencing Lack of understanding of the
research process
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SC/BIOL 3100Current Topics in Biology ‘Gateway' course for 3rd year honours biology
students Designed to prepare them for the 4th year
honours thesis Major aim to teach the research and writing skills
to students, at a level appropriate for an upper-year course
“I am sick and tired of citations from the 1st year biology textbook and Wikipedia!”
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Desired Outcomes1. How to search for and evaluate relevant
primary, secondary and tertiary literature as well as grey literature – government reports etc.
2. How to read and interpret research articles
3. How to properly write a research paper
4. How to properly give a research seminar
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Skills Needed for Research:
Learn how the scientific method is related to the research process as well as the publication cycle in Science
Acquire expertise in the use of tools and resources in the chosen subject area
Develop sound research, evaluation and critical thinking skills
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Ultimate Goal: To be able to participate in the research culture of
the University and the science community at large
Science research is enhanced when students: Know what research has been done, and where the gaps
are in the existing literature Who is doing good work How they do it, what tools are they using How research is evaluated
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Framework
Outlined list of objectives for each session and related outcomes for the assignments
Designed collaborative assignments that coupled content with process
Pre-test/Post-test/evaluation
Student evaluation of the course content
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Tying Science Literacy to Information Literacy Scientific Method - Research Publication Cycle
Grey literature vs. Popular literature Primary / Research Secondary / Review Tertiary / Accepted theory, data, etc
Indexing and databases Resources and access Formal peer review vs. Informal evaluation Reading papers and Writing annotations
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Biology 3100 - assignments Assignments
In-class exercises1. Comparing publication types2. Reading for information – what and how to read, writing
annotations – questions to ask Take Home assignments focused on topic development
through library research1. Scavenger hunt – orientation in the library2. General background information – tertiary literature –
locating/evaluating resources3. Identifying areas of interest – secondary literature4. Developing a research strategy – primary literature5. Evaluating research using citation information:
researching a researcher6. Reading skills and writing annotations
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Biology 3100 – Skills Learned Technology skills introduced and practised:
Library catalogue/Library resources Moodle Biological Abstracts Web of Science Gov Docs searching RefWorks / RefShare / RefGrabIt / WriteNCite
Soft skills mastered for informed searching: Evaluating publication types and sources Refining and broadening concepts and searches Using citation data to evaluate articles
All the basic skills they will need to conduct research for their honours level research thesis
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Objectives for session 1 Look at the scientific method as a thinking and
communication process and see how it forms the basis of the publication cycle in Science
Examine different types of scientific publications: what purposes they serve, and how they are used to disseminate scientific information to various audiences
Understand the importance of evaluation, and how it is structured in science: formal process: peer review – evaluating content for publication informal process: evaluating grey literature and websites –
Navigating the library website and the Steacie Library Homepage to find Resources for Biology at York
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Objectives for session 2 Rationale for using subject-specific databases in biology Developing a Keyword Search Strategy from a research
topic Applying the Keyword Search Strategy to:
Library Catalogue Biological Abstracts Web of Science
Additional options for finding books: Google books (some free on the web) Electronic Books: York has access to many e-book packages
Review the Biology Research Guide: additional sources of biological information
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Objectives for session 3 Searching for Government Documents and
publications on the web Peter Duerr – Gov Docs librarian
Citation searching in Web of Science General and facetted searching in the Web of
Science Writing an annotated bibliography:
Summarize Evaluate Reflect on how an article relates to your research topic.
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Pre-test/post-test – basic Qs
IL Training Test Results
0%
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Question number
Perc
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Student perception of learning outcomes
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Strongly disagree………………………...strongly agree
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Understanding of research process
Transferability of knowledge
Resource knowledge
Formulating search strategies
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Student Perceptions of EvaluationStudent perceptions of evaluating publication types
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Strongly disagree...strongly agree
# of
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Understanding of publication cycleEvaluation of web sites
I now understand how and when it is appropriate to use Tertiary, Secondary and Primary literature in my course work.Yes 89% No 11%
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Effect of sessions on resource selection
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LC1 SL1 BA1 BRG1 WoS1 Med1 Gov1 GL1 Goo GooS RW1
Resource
# of
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Before Af ter
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Student perceptions of the value of assignments
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1 2 3 4 5Low value………………………………………………..…………High value
# of
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Article comparison
Library scavenger hunt
Gathering tertiary information
Searching Biological Abstracts
Formulating search strategies
Web of Science citation searching
Researching a researcher
Writing annotations
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Faculty feedback
“I hope this year's BIOL 3100 offering can be utilized by librarians to widely advertise and highlight the teaching and research resources librarians have to offer to course curriculum.
This course would have been much less useful if not for the time and resources the librarian had to offer to the course.”
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More Faculty feedback“The class average to date, without considering Assignment 3 - Web of Science and annotated bibliography - is a
The Chair of the Biology Department also mentioned to me that she has heard good things from students about the course! “
79%
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Integration into 1st Year Biology
First Term: All 1st year students received “Publication Cycle” lecture 4 Questions from the presentation were on the final exam
Second Term: All 1st year students will have a “dry lab” replaced by a hands-on IL session in a computer lab – in the works!! Lab report will focus on process of library research