Faculty: Sheryl Hemkin, Assistant Professor, Chemistry
Librarian: Jasmine Vaughan, Librarian and Technology Consultant
Course: Chem 392 - Special Topics
This will be new course for me, however I have tried the root of this idea in courses at my previous employer. In this experience, the majority of questions that I fielded revolved around finding, accessing and referencing texts, documents, etc. that related to the topic of study. Therefore, to have an expert in the field of information literacy involved with this course will not only help professionally answer many of the students questions, but will also elevate the level of the products. I expect the students will be able to spend more time engaged with the literature and less time in frustrating, fruitless searches.
PRODUCTS
During the semester, students will create:
NARRATIVE
Since the seminar will be small, it is an ideal place for the students to continue to experience the learning process as a two way street; that they not only need to learn how to learn, but also how to integrate and disseminate the information they have taken in (ACRL Information Literacy standards 3 and 4). With this need to disseminate information, comes the responsibility to have thoroughly researched a topic and properly acknowledged the sources used, concepts the students should be familiar with due to work in previous classes (searching Science Citation Index in Organic Chemistry and if they are seniors, the various topics covered in the Senior Seminar). In fact, this course should be a complement to the concepts introduced in Chem 475. Both the impetus for and the culmination of the research will differ in the two courses. In this proposed course, the research is driven by the need to understand a topic in general, whereas in Chem 475, the students literature search, etc., is driven by a paper taken from the primary literature, instead of by the general need to understand a general chemical topic (as in this proposed class). Also this proposed class will culminate in the student groups giving a teaching lecture to their peers, whereas in Chem 475 the culmination of the course is in the Senior Examination, when the students present their findings to the faculty.
This project has several goals that extend from a primary root, which is for a small group of students to explore an unfamiliar topic from the ground up and to educate their classmates about this topic through a 50 minute lecture. I expect that the students will have limited exposure to their chosen topic prior to this class, so they will have to use textbooks and other background materials as well as the primary literature to educate themselves in this area. However, as in life, one rarely learns about a topic only for personal consumption; most often the learning process is accompanied by the subsequent dissemination of the learned information. Therefore, the primary product will be accompanied by 2 other methods of dissemination, each with a different stated purpose and audience. These student projects will take a considerable amount of time to develop properly. The lecture, website and poster assignments should not appear to be "added on" but an integral part of the seminar, and more importantly, the projects will be used to educate others, so they must be accurate and understandable.
Jasmine Vaughan, Librarian and Technology Consultant will provide several instruction sessions during the whole class period or part of the class session throughout the semester. Depending on students' previous experiences, these sessions may be optional. There will be sessions on the following topics:
Jasmine will also be involved in helping to create interesting and educational assignments in which concepts in information literacy will be integrated into the chemistry. For example, the creation of a "search strategy diary" in which the students will record, evaluate and share with the rest of the class, the success of their methods.
The student-created products of this course, in the order in which they will be completed, include:
Web site (due in 8th week)
The intended audience will have varied backgrounds, but will also have self-motivation to study this topic.
Ideally this site will be a general clearing house of information about this topic. The site will include a brief written background and history of the chemistry surrounding the topic and will utilize any web-based material (animation, visuals, etc.) to complement the writing. The site will also contain information and other related links such as databases and research groups. Students will also write a brief explanation of how they evaluated each site to which they link.
Information resources needed and skills learned:
Lecture (due in 10th week)
The intended audience will have similar backgrounds, all having passed through organic and most likely physical chemistry, however they will have little understanding of this particular topic.
The lecture will be tailored such that in 50 minutes the audience will learn the essentials of the topic's background to enable them to understand the basics of a current research topic that you will present at the end of the lecture. Ideally, all the students will leave class with the ability to comprehend the fundamentals of most modern research in this area. You will give the presentation using PowerPoint, pre-prepared overhead transparencies or another medium.
Information resources needed and skills learned:
Poster (due in 13th week)
Intended audience will have varied backgrounds, ranging from junior/senior chemistry majors, to chemists with advanced degrees. This part of the project will make the students take the leap from concrete background facts and current research to the uncharted world of original research. This poster will contain only the background and modern research directly applicable to the future research they propose.
Information resources needed and skills learned:
EVALUATION
The students could take a quick pre-class evaluation so we can gauge their level of understanding of information literacy. Their progression in this area can be evaluated by the accuracy of citations and appropriate use of images in their web sites, lecture materials and posters. Also, the students will be given assignments that will incorporate information literacy concepts, such as the "search strategy diary" mentioned in the narrative section. This should enable us to keep a closer eye on how their understanding of the literature is progressing throughout the semester.
TIME & TIME LINE
As noted above, this concept will take a considerable amount of time to develop properly, so that the project does not take on the feeling of being an "add on", but is an integral part of the seminar itself. Research into the course theme and supporting materials has already begun and the syllabus and assignments for this new course will be completed by the end of Fall 2002. Sheryl and Jasmine will meet once every 2 weeks in order to explore ideas and to develop and coordinate lectures and assignments. Work needing to be completed includes (but is probably not limited to) the following:
Previous experience has shown that this type of project was far more successful when the students' work was to be finished in smaller increments that could then be assembled into the lecture. (For example, progressive due dates for the outline, summary of the background, summary of the recent research, etc.) This was coupled with short meetings with each group to chart their progress and check on any problems. With the addition of Jasmine to this project, these assignments will be reassessed and revamped to allow us to evaluate how the literature is being utilized by the students (ex. "search strategy diary"). Similar strategies and assignments will need to be developed to keep the research behind the web pages and posters on track.
Perhaps the most important lessons the students could continue to learn is how to conduct successful research projects and work as a team. Therefore, the class needs to be involved in the critique process, to help evaluate and give direction and suggestion to their peers. Specifically, while they will develop some expertise into the types of chemical literature available through their own topic research, the critique process will enable the groups to exchange literacy information. This exchange process should allow the students understanding of the literature and the research process to grow at a much faster pace than normal, and this information will be useable whether or not they remain in chemistry. Again, the method of this exchange and evaluation will be developed and coordinated with Jasmine.
I have never tried anything like this in a seminar style class, where the topics of discussion, and the method of delivery are less prescribed than in other classes such as physical or general chemistry. In previous discussions with Jasmine, as well as my own experience, we have learned that it is often difficult for the students to pick a topic that is manageable, both from the aspect of their ability to commit time to doing proper exploration and their ability to communicate the necessary information in 50 minutes. Furthermore, the topic must tie into the theme of the class. Therefore, I need to spend a considerable amount of time researching and developing a list of potential topics that will have relevance to the class as a whole and are of the proper size so as to be "do-able" for the student groups. Since this course is a seminar and is not expected to follow a lecture-only format, Jasmine and I will need to discuss how to best use some of the class time to aid the students in accomplishing their project and our information literacy goals. (For example, twice-monthly class meeting devoted to evaluation and critique of the research, etc.)
Finally, there are more concrete things that we must accomplish. I need to research whether there are books available that would support a class like this, or if I need to be more creative about where the background text for the class as a whole will come from. I need to learn web-design on one of the modern programs. (My experience with web pages is back in the day when you had to code everything yourself.) Although Jasmine has already developed a web page for the Information Literacy course, Chem 475, with links to tutorials covering basic speaking and presentation materials, this information may need to be tailored a bit for this course. Additional links could be added to help the students learn about principles of web design, etc..