Science and Technology Section (STS): Science Information Literacy Chat

February 2017 Discussion Leader: Kelly Grossman
The “Research as Inquiry” Frame is closely similar to another research process--the Scientific Method. Why not make use of this parallel to help teach students about information-based research? In this chat, we will compare the “Research as Inquiry” Frame to the steps of the Scientific Method, explore ideas about how to harness the students’ familiarity with the Scientific
Method to conduct successful information-based research, and identify the advantages and imitations of this approach.

March 2017 Discussion Leader: Rebecca Ziino Plotke
This discussion will explore information seeking practices and science literacy components taught in a 1000 level (for majors) Biodiversity class. We will cover the class planning process, faculty partnership, in-class instruction, and the learning outcomes for the course. Overall we will look at how science literacy and information literacy concepts come together to teach students about primary literature.

April 2017 Discussion Leaders: Sara Miller, Eric Tans, and Elizabeth Webster
How can students new to the sciences develop an understanding of scientific information literacy? At Michigan State University, Information Literacy and Science Librarians partnered with the introductory science course lab coordinators to develop an online scientific information literacy module. Designed to be scalable, the module utilizes a flipped classroom approach and introduces students to ideas of authority, the scholarly publishing process, and critical thinking about the media portrayals of science.

October 2017 Discussion Leader: Mary-Michelle Moore
A lesson plan used for biology and earth science classes that has students using clues in news articles shared on social media to original research. This is typically used with seniors, though juniors could probably do it as well (Can do primary/secondary sources with juniors and assign a review of source types as pre-work). It touches a bit on authority is constructed and contextual as we discuss the value of different types of sources, and gets students used to the close reading they would need to do to find information in the articles or posts to trace back to the primary source article of interest.

November 2017 Discussion Leader: Kelli Trei
This presentation will detail a project in a course at Illinois designed to prepare undergraduates in the life sciences to pursue graduate research. This class session uses cognitive constructivism in the context of the ACRL framework to teach information literacy skills in one session of this course.
The lesson plan was a combined effort between the librarian and professor.