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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

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Student perception of learning outcomes

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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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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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Student perceptions of the value of assignments

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1 2 3 4 5Low value………………………………………………..…………High value

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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