Information Literacy in the Natural Sciences

Days 7-10: Sample Assignments, Rubric, and Digital Learning Materials

Learning outcomes

Table of Contents:

I. Introduction

Integrating information literacy into your course can be accomplished in a variety of ways. A simple task such as requiring students to locate one authoritative source to support a position in a class discussion is one method. Having students evaluate a Web site or analyze a scholarly article are other methods.

There are also more involved assignments, besides the traditional research paper, that serve to meet information literacy objectives. Different types of assignments are included here as possible examples, and each one can be adapted to meet your particular needs. Many more possibilities exist. Our library's Information Literacy and Writing Assessment Project: Tutorial for Developing and Evaluating Assignments and the UMUC Virtual Academic Integrity Laboratory's Designing Plagiarism Resistant Assignments: Best Practices provide a wealth of additional ideas.

Below are four sample assignments that may serving as jumping-off points for you:
  1. Wikipedia
  2. Research a Specific Topic
  3. Investigate a Claim
  4. Annotated Bibliography

Sample Assignment 1: Wikipedia

Whether we like or not, students love Wikipedia, the free online encyclopedia, which allows anyone to edit any entry. Many students look upon Wikipedia uncritically as an authoritative source. Although it includes some excellent material, Wikipedia's lack of signed articles obviously raises questions regarding credibility.

The following exercise provides an opportunity to demonstrate this first-hand to your students. Through this assignment you will be able to reinforce all of the School of Undergraduate Studies information literacy objectives through locating and accessing the information (information literacy objectives #1 and #2); evaluating the original entry for accuracy and determining what has merit in order to improve the entry (objective #3); using the information to complete and/or rectify inaccuracies (objective #4); understanding the ethical and legal use of information (objective #5).

For this assignment you can either pre-select an article or, as part of the assignment, have your students identify an article, related to your subject area, that is incomplete or contains inaccuracies. Then, either as a class, study group, or individually, have your students locate links and/or add text to this article to make it more complete and/or clear up inaccuracies.

Through this process the students get a better sense of the inconsistency of quality in Wikipedia and reinforce their understanding of scholarship, research, and writing.

Sample Assignment 2: Research a Specific Topic

Although this example is chemistry-specific, it can be adapted to another subject area. The purpose is to locate, evaluate and use information for a specific purpose, in this case pertaining to a hazardous substance. You can substitute a virus, a planet, a species, etc. This assignment meets all the School of Undergraduate Studies information literacy objectives.

Please note, the following assignment is presented here with the kind permission of UMUC faculty member Sabrina Fu, who has used it with excellent results in her Environmental Management classes.

Choose a hazardous substance, such as dioxin, selenium, aldrin, etc. Then have students, either individually or as part of a group, search for information on that substance and address one of the following topics in this process:

This part of the assignment addresses the information literacy objective "determining the nature and extent of the information needed."

To locate resources the students can be required to search two or more databases such as Science Citation Index Expanded, GeoBase, ScienceDirect, and/or General Science Abstracts as well as searching for, evaluating and using authoritative Web sites. Through this process your students will have to demonstrate search techniques and strategies, as well as critical thinking skills in choosing appropriate databases and Web sites, evaluating the resources, and selecting those which best answer the questions.

This aspect of the assignment pertains to the following information literacy objectives: accesses needed information effectively and efficiently; evaluates information and its sources critically; and incorporates selected information into his or her knowledge base.

Finally, the student can then post a correctly formatted citation for one resource, either a journal article or Web site, which was located through his/her search. In addition, they can go a step further and post answers in a Conference to such questions about the resource as :

As a final part of this assignment they can then summarize the article and state what it taught them about their topic.

This last section of the assignment pertains to UMUC's information literacy objectives 3, 4, and 5:
"incorporates selected information into his or her knowledge base"; "individually or as a group uses information effectively to accomplish a specific purpose;" and "understands many of the economic, legal, and social issues surrounding the use of information and accesses and uses information ethically and legally."

You can break this into two separate assignments, with one focused on using just the databases and the second on just the Web. If you use this approach the library's guide Evaluating Web Resources can be incorporated into the assignment to serve as the Web site evaluation criteria. Your students can locate information about a particular hazardous substance using either pre-selected Web sites or, as part of the assignment, have the students locate the Web sites using various search engines.

Conference postings can address such questions as:

Sample Assignment 3: Investigate a Claim

As you have no doubt encountered in your own research experiences, scientific claims and frontier research have been put forth that proved to be invalid. This exercise provides an opportunity to identify and dispute a specific example. Numbers 3 and 5 of the SUS information literacy objectives: "evaluates information and its sources critically" and "understands many of the economic, legal, and social issues surrounding the use of information and accesses and uses information ethically and legally" can be met through this assignment.

The following example focuses on astronomy, but it is also adaptable to other subject areas.

For this assignment you can either assign or have the students, individually or as a small group, select a fantastic claim that has some relation to astronomy. This should be something that someone is seriously trying to claim is true. The Web provides a wealth of such claims and will be a good source to consult in locating such a claim.

The student can begin with a summary of the claim, explaining it in the author's own words. If possible, they should quote the author exactly. They will not alter or belittle the claim but instead try to state it in a way in which the author would approve.

The next step is an examination of the claim asking such questions as:

The various library databases will serve as the tool to research the particular claim. The results can either be written and then posted to the Assignments Folder or you can create a Conference in which the results can be posted and the other students and/or groups can post their responses.

Sample Assignment 4: Annotated Bibliography

Understanding how to locate, evaluate, and synthesize research into an annotated bibliography can be used as a pre-cursor to a research paper or as a way of gathering information in order to better understand a topic. Assigning an annotated bibliography can be a useful way to incorporate all of the SUS information literacy objectives and provide your students with a better understanding of the types of resources available, how to locate a variety of resource types, how to evaluate the resources in meeting the focus of the topic as well as the parameters set, how to synthesize the information into an annotation, and how to correctly cite each annotation.

In creating this assignment the following are suggested parameters that you can set in order for the student to experience different aspects of research without having to create an in-depth final product.

The following are possible additional parameters, which pertain to the actual annotations. These are included as an exercise in critical thinking, another important aspect of information literacy. These suggested parameters are:

For additional assistance on annotated bibliographies, you can give your students these links:

Summary

The preceding four examples are suggestions in order to stimulate your thinking in the creation of assignments that integrate UMUC's information literacy objectives into your course's curriculum. There are many other methods available that can serve your purposes. Individual assignments that you create may focus only on one or two objectives. The goal is to address all of the objectives through various assignments spread out through the curriculum. The key is to provide your students with a solid framework and comfort level which serves as a continual process of reinforcement and mastery throughout his/her academic career.  As you know, students work best when the assignment is meaningful.  Testing out the assignment beforehand is a good way of ensuring that it is indeed doable and that the possible resources you are suggesting or assigning are available and have not changed.

For additional assistance with designing meaningful assignments, which  integrate information literacy objectives intro the curriculum, consult UMUC Library and Information Services' Information Literacy and Writing Assessment Project: Tutorial for Developing and Evaluating Assignments and UMUC Virtual Academic Integrity Laboratory's Preventing Plagiarism Resistant Assignments: Best Practices.

Table of Contents

II. Sample Information Literacy Rubric

To help assess your students' information literacy skills as demonstrated in an assignment, here is a sample rubric you can adapt and expand as needed. Remember, too, that sharing the rubric with your students at the beginning of their assignment can help them understand, meet, and exceed your expectations!

 
EXCELLENT
SATISFACTORY
NEEDS IMPROVEMENT
FINDING & EVALUATING INFORMATION
Student uses a wide range of appropriate tools (library databases and other resources such as printed books, the free Web, interviews, etc.) to gather information. All informaton sources used in the project are relevant to the topic and appropriate for use in college-level research. Student uses several appropriate tools (library databases and other resources such as printed books, the free Web, interviews, etc.) to gather information. Most information sources used in the project are relevant to the topic and appropriate for use in college-level research. Student uses only a small number of tools (library databases and other resources such as printed books, the free Web, interviews, etc.) to gather information. Informaton sources used in the project are tangential to the topic and inappropriate for use in college-level research.
USING INFORMATION
Student analyzes and/or critiques information sources and incorporates them into the project to support an argument, provide alternative viewpoints, or otherwise further the project. Information sources are synthesized rather than merely paraphrased or quoted; that is, the student builds upon the sources cited to create new ideas or arguments. Student quotes or paraphrases information sources and incorporates them into the project to support an argument, provide alternative viewpoints, or otherwise further the project. Information sources are summarized rather than analyzed or critiqued. Student quotes or paraphrases information sources in unclear ways or ways that are irrelevant to the project.
CITING INFORMATION
 Student cites sources according to an established format (APA or other, according to the assignment's requirements) with a minimum of errors. Student cites sources according to an established format (APA or other, according to the assignment's requirements) with some errors. Student fails to cite sources according to an established format (APA or other, according to the assignment's requirements) or does so with many errors.

Table of Contents

III. Digital Learning Materials

As you begin to create or revise assignments, and even create/revise course content, the inclusion of Digital Learning Materials (DLMs) should be considered as a method of augmenting the content and assignment.

1. Definition

DLMs can be defined as any web-based digital resource that is used for instruction...The components of digital learning can include text, graphics, animations, audio, and video. DLMs can also take many forms including tutorials, simulations, demonstrations, exercises, experiments, and case studies. What sets them apart from already existing formats such as monographs, periodicals, traditional media, and a simple web [sic] site is that DLMs are interactive and designed to promote student learning of a specific concept, a specific skill, or a set of concepts and/or skills. Source: Shank, J. D. (2005). Why DLMs matter. Library Journal, 130, 16-19. Retrieved July 17, 2006, from the Academic Search Premier database. DLMs:

  1. Include an objective/learning outcomeInclude a learning activityCan be assessedMeet a variety of learning styles because of the variety of formatsAre self-paced
  2. Are re-usable,  repeatable, and sharable

Source: Shank. J. D. (2003). The emergence of learning objects: The reference librarian’s role. Research Strategies, 19, 193-203. Retrieved July 17, 2006, from the ScienceDirect database.

2. DLM Locating Source: MERLOT (Multimedia Educational Resource for Learning and Online Teaching) MERLOT is a peer-reviewed source for locating DLMs. MERLOT, the Multimedia Educational Resource for Learning and Online Teaching, provides access to a variety of DLMs in a variety of formats. Science and Technology is a category of DLMs within MERLOT. Within this broad category are more focused subcategories including general science, astronomy, biology, chemistry, and physics. You can browse the collection and its subcategories as well as search for specific types of materials in specific formats.  The DLMS that are included here have been peer-reviewed by at least two higher education faculty members. The evaluation criteria they use consist of three ranking categories: quality of content, potential effectiveness as a teaching tool, and ease of use.  Each category has to receive at least a 3 out of possible 5 points. MERLOT also seeks contributions to its ever-growing collection from faculty members such as you.

3. DLM Locating Source: iLumina Digital Library The iLumina Digital Library is a collection of DLMs is made available by the University of North Carolina-Wilmington through a National Science Foundation grant. Materials included here focus on the areas of chemistry, biology, computer science, mathematics, and physics. Like MERLOT it allows for both searching and browsing. There is no information, however, given as to a review process for the resources that are included.  Each entry provides authorship, description and link, and technical information and requirements.

4. DLMs and Information Literacy The inclusion of DLMs into course content and assignments provides opportunities to further integrate information literacy objectives into your curriculum. The various tutorials, simulations, animations, etc. can be used to reinforce learning experiences and demonstrate concepts. Your students can even be tasked with locating, evaluating, and using DLMs to supplement the course content. 

For example, in MERLOT, under the Science and Technology category, is a simulation entitled Ideal Gas Law Simulation (See below). It has been given the highest ranking (5) and is classified for college general education use. Created by John Gelder, Department of Chemistry at Oklahoma State University, in February 2001, it was modified in August 2006.

Using simulation to explain concepts of gas law, this DLM also provides "guided inquiry activities." Using this DLM as part of an assignment reinforces all of the SUS Information Literacy Objectives. The simulation is used to answer a problem statement (the information need) through locating and observing (locating information) and then recording, interpreting, and drawing conclusions (using the information) based on this experience.

Table of Contents