USING ENVIRONMENTAL GEOLOGY TO TEACH RESEARCH SKILLS TO UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS

Louise S. Zipp, SUNY Geneseo, zipp@geneseo.edu

Bonnie J. M. Swoger, SUNY Geneseo, swoger@geneseo.edu

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?

“Poison Pills for the Environment”

“Pharmaceuticals: a threat to drinking water”

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.

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’ 2nd 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