Using Environmental Geology to Teach Research Skills to Undergraduates

USING ENVIRONMENTAL GEOLOGY TO TEACH RESEARCH SKILLS TO UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS Louise S. Zipp, SUNY Geneseo, [email_address] Bonnie J. M. Swoger, SUNY Geneseo, [email_address]

Starting Points
Environmental geology interests students in other sciences.
The variety of information resources about environmental issues creates instructional opportunities for establishing the credibility of information under different circumstances.

Starting Points (con’t)
SciFinder Scholar provides access to substance-related data + articles & patents.
Active learning techniques engage students & establish basic information retrieval skills in a context relevant to their interests.

CHEM100 Chemistry First Year Experience
Introduction to chemistry & biochemistry programs at Geneseo for potential majors
Topics include career opportunities, the literature of chemists & biochemists , research opportunities, chemical software, & strategies for success
1 credit; graded S/U; one 75-minute class per week, class size varies (17– 39)

Goals for our Sessions
Learn about a real-world application of chemistry in society.
Learn to evaluate different types of information about an issue.
Learn to retrieve scientific information from broad based and focused indexes.
Learn and practice some basic navigational skills on the library website and register for interlibrary loan.

Integrative Interdisciplinary Learning Outcomes
Ability to:
Ask meaningful questions
Locate multiple sources
Compare & contrast those sources
Create an integrative framework

Variety of Information Resources
Jones, O.A., Lester, J. N., and Voulvoulis, N. (2005). Pharmaceuticals: a threat to drinking water? TRENDS in Biotechnology, 23(4), 163-167 (via ScienceDirect)
Sapona, I. (2006, March 30). Poison pills for the environment. The Toronto Star , p. A22 (via LexisNexis Academic)

In-Class Exercise
What are the differences between these two articles ?
From a Chemistry perspective, what are the essential issues here? What are chemists doing as a part of this?
How to do some basic research on this topic?
General periodical database: Academic Search Premier.
Boolean operators & truncation.
“ Poison Pills for the Environment” “ Pharmaceuticals: a threat to drinking water”

SciFinder Scholar
Sophisticated comprehensive data repository & article index for anything chemical
Article coverage back to 1907 or earlier
Multiple searching points: chemical name, topic, chemical structure, molecular formula, reaction mechanism
Substance data: physical & calculated properties and spectra

In-Class Exercise
Part A: In SciFinder, find the substance sulfamethoxazole (an antibiotic). What types of information are there? How many references? How many toxicological references?
Part B: On the Internet, find the same substance in either NIST Chemistry Webbook or the Sigma-Aldrich Catalog. What types of information are available?

In-Class Exercise (con’t)
Part C: Using the Internet locate another source of information about your substance. What information is there and how reliable is it?
Lastly: How do these sources differ? Which would be a better resource for a term paper assigned in a chemistry class?

Free Internet Sources
NIST Chemistry WebBook
Sigma-Aldrich Catalog
Student located sources:
National Library of Medicine
Wikipedia
ChemFinder.com

Active Learning Techniques
Students were given an opportunity to evaluate information, develop search strategies, and interpret search results: building a mental model of the research process
Evaluation of information sources and search practice.
Team work & presentations

Assessment
Brief assessment of learning outcomes
Student were able to use Academic Search Premier to locate article information
About 85% of students were able to effectively evaluate the credibility of a given article
Student Attitudes
“ I learned of different databases that can help me in research. I learned how to tell if a source is credible.”
“ Finding articles on a variety of topics is much easier than I thought”
“ I all ready knew how to search databases for information.”

Conclusion
Successfully engaged freshman considering a chemistry/biochemistry major in a real-world issue
Used active learning techniques and SciFinder Scholar in a freshman class
Organic Chemistry lab sessions will build on this material in students’ 2 nd year.
Special thanks to Dr. Jim Boiani from the SUNY Geneseo Chemistry Department for giving us this opportunity.

For additional information, see
http://www.geneseo.edu/~swoger/GSA2007

Using Environmental Geology to Teach Research Skills to Undergraduates

by Bonnie Swoger on Oct 30, 2007

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