Introducing Undergraduates to Primary Research Literature

Abstract

All students pursuing STEM careers need to be adept at interpreting and evaluating primary research literature. The complexity of research articles requires significant practice and training in order to become skilled and efficient at this process. Thus, an early start in undergraduate education is essential and allows for development and practice through subsequent coursework and undergraduate research. The project presented here was an effort to develop fundamental literacy skills for a first semester honors general chemistry course. The curriculum included five iterative guided worksheet assignments comprising one secondary article and four related primary research articles. Each subsequent assignment was designed to be more challenging, by selecting more complicated articles and subjects, to encourage and increase literature assessment skills. Two workshops were presented after the first and third assignments to provide formal instruction on strategies to effectively read and understand research literature and promote discussion on the literature assignment articles. Assignment performance was consistently strong throughout the semester as the complexity of the assignments increased for three of the four learning objectives. However, students struggled with identifying research hypotheses despite direct instruction on this learning objective during both workshops. Pre- and post-semester survey data indicated that, while students came to the course with fairly strong confidence in their abilities to interpret and evaluate research literature, they also indicated very strong improvement in these skills by the end of the semester. These results indicate that this one-semester curriculum was an effective means to introduce students to scientific literature and develop basic literacy skills.

Enhancing Student Interest in a General Chemistry Course via Short, In-Class Topical Presentations: A Qualitative Assessment

“…Importantly, it was also required that they discuss and analyze a real peer-reviewed scientific paper of the students’ choice, closely related to the FT topic. A corequisite course offered at NYUAD provides first-year students of science and engineering majors the opportunity to familiarize themselves with the process of search and analysis of primary scientific literature; the importance of students engaging with the academic literature in undergraduate STEM education is regularly highlighted. , At the end of the FT, speakers asked one or two questions to the audience, which very often sparked a lively discussion. FTs could commence at any time during the main lecture, depending on the logical flow and appearance of the material.…”

The Scientific Method as a Scaffold to Enhance Communication Skills in Chemistry

“…The literature surrounding chemical communication pedagogy is diverse. However, efforts to improve written and oral communication skills have followed four general and broad approaches, which are sometimes presented in a hybrid form: (1) the incorporation of technical writing with chemical literacy, 66 − 77 in first-year courses, 39 , 66 , 67 , 78 − 83 stand-alone classes, 27 , 43 , 69 , 79 , 84 − 96 and/or discipline specific courses; 70 , 97 − 115 (2) laboratory experiments; 21 , 26 , 32 , 59 , 69 , 107 , 116 − 127 (3) critical thinking exercises; 3 , 13 , 26 , 117 , 128 − 143 and (4) research experiences. 134 , 144 − 155 Despite the community’s best efforts, a host of factors, which were identified early on, continue to present significant barriers for engaging and enhancing the communication skills of undergraduate students.…”

“…The literature surrounding chemical communication pedagogy is diverse. However, efforts to improve written and oral communication skills have followed four general and broad approaches, which are sometimes presented in a hybrid form: (1) the incorporation of technical writing with chemical literacy, − in first-year courses, ,,,− stand-alone classes, ,,,,− and/or discipline specific courses; ,− (2) laboratory experiments; ,,,,,,− (3) critical thinking exercises; ,,,,− and (4) research experiences.…”

“…At the end, students splice the knowledge generated from each phase into a single cohesive and meaningful scientific story, which is communicated both orally and in writing. In this report, we specify how we have leveraged the scientific method along with the community’s reports on technical writing for chemical literacy, ,,,− , laboratory experiments, ,,,,,− ,− critical thinking exercises, ,,,,− and research experiences − …”

Leveraging the Analytical Chemistry Primary Literature for Authentic, Integrated Content Knowledge and Process Skill Development

“…The pedagogical literature includes several strategies to scaffold student engagement with the literature, including methods based on key sentences, POGIL, and KENSHU . Beyond the skill of reading scientific articles, some instructional activities focus on how reading the literature can support the development of student writing. − Some courses are designed to include literature-reading activities that span multiple class periods or an entire semester. − Virtually all published examples have students engage with full articles, although a few instruct students to focus on figures and data tables. , While tremendously valuable, assignments that ask students to read full articles are time-consuming and therefore may preclude frequent practice, depending on other course goals. In contrast, end-of-chapter problems in textbooks are designed for routine homework, and recent updates to popular undergraduate analytical chemistry and biochemistry textbooks have included more end-of-chapter problems using data from the literature, − demonstrating the growing interest in using authentic data in the classroom.…”