Information Literacy in a Large 1st Year Class: Can a “Quirky

Assignment” Effectively Engage Students?

Elizabeth Rennie, Instruction & Outreach Librarian Susan Purdy, Lecturer Department of Biological

Sciences

Presented at UBCO’s 10th Annual Learning Conference, May 7-8, 2014

Biology 1210 is a second semester First Year Biology majors’ course, ~ 250 students in 12 lab sections.

In the past students were required to do a library assignment as part of the lecture component.

Students requested library assistance on a voluntary basis, at the Reference Desk.

What we used to do….

21st Century Education

Relate abstract concepts in biology to real-world situations, and make biology content relevant

Stimulate the curiosity students have about learning for the natural world

Integrate multiple forms of assessment to track student learning

Engage students as active participants

Ensure that courses are active, outcome orientated, inquiry driven and relevant

Introduce fewer concepts, but present them in greater detail

Based on the “There’s a Heifer in Your Tank” project developed by Dr. Frank Robinson at the University of Alberta, Agriculture Science program.

By posing ‘quirky questions’ teams of students went about answering them using videos.

Two years ago we introduced our version with the first quirky question being ‘Why is there a salmon in the tree’?

‘Salmon in the Tree’ Project

Find, differentiate and correctly use academic information sources

Communicate biological concepts effectively – both in writing and verbally

Form contacts with other Biology faculty / learn about their research or else other biological research happening currently

Learn to work cooperatively in teams

Develop a sense of community in first year Biology students

SITT project learning outcomes:

Groups – must be properly formed and managed Accountability – students must be accountable

for the quality of their individual and group work Feedback – must be frequent and timely Assignment design – group assignments must

promote both learning and team development

The essential elements of team-based learning (Michaelsen & Sweet, 2008)

Forming teams◦ Include students with diverse ability levels◦ Avoid isolating at-risk minority students◦ Minimum 3, maximum 5 (although TBL recommends 5

to 7)◦ Reform teams for new projects?

Establishing expectations◦ Team policy statement / team expectations agreement

Dealing with problem team members◦ Evaluation of team functioning – part-way through the

project◦ Peer Ratings

Turning student groups into effective teams (Oakley et al. 2004)

“With a group, the whole is often equal to or less than the sum of its parts; with a team, the whole is always greater”

How does a Vancouver Island marmot find a date these days?

Why would a black bear and a squirrel make poor bed mates?

How do Canadian monarchs find their way to Mexico?

Why does dwarf mistletoe resemble a cannon?

Why are bluebirds blue?

Why do female hyenas have a penis?

Why does this flower smell like a rotting corpse?

Will adding iron to the ocean help the planet escape from heating up?

Overview of the project

Introduce the project, choose questions and teams

Library session

Team Bibliography

Prepare an individual article

Teams develop videos (4-5 min in length) to answer their question. Must use accurate and complex scientific content but be entertaining

3%

5%

7%

Librarians teach twelve 3-hour lab sections in one week

Each session includes:◦ An overview of the Team Bibliography assignment◦ A group exercise evaluating resources, practicing

the process they’ll need to apply in their assignment

◦ Demonstration searches to find different resources◦ Getting set up in RefWorks◦ Approximately 2 hours of hands-on group research

time, with librarian assistance as required

The Library Session

Several of the SITT Learning Outcomes match those of the Library Instruction Program.

This in itself isn’t unique; the library attempts to conduct most library instruction sessions in a lab environment in order to give students direct active learning experiences.

BIOL 1210 is, however, one of the more successful library instruction collaborations.

Shared Learning Outcomes

3-hour time period

Assignment timelines: Bibliographies are due the following week

The Bibliography is a TEAM assignment

Why it works:

Nursing (and why that worked) Arts (why it didn’t work, and how it might)

Transfering to Other Courses

The SITT assignment required making significant changes to the BIOL 1210 labs

Student feedback, however, indicates that most students found the assignment to be enjoyable and engaging – and that they found the library session to be useful.

Outcomes & Recommendations

Feedback from students about the library sessions

useful for learning the CSE citation style

useful for learning to differentiate bewteen information sources

useful for learninmg how to find information sources

0 20 40 60 80

DisagreeNeutralAgree

Feedback from students about the team aspect of the project

I felt my team functioned well

I felt my team was just the right size

I enjoyed the collaborative nature of the project

I would prefer to work on my own for this project

0 40 80

DisagreeNeutralAgree

Students rated their peers in 5 categories (Van den Bogaard, 2007)

◦ Job performance◦ Attitude and interaction with team members◦ Leadership and initiative◦ Team meetings and time management◦ Communication within the team and for the project

Peer-Evaluations

Excellent – 100Good – 87Satisfactory – 75Ordinary – 63Marginal – 50Poor – 25Nothing - 0

Only multiply up to 1.05

Peer-evaluations feedback

I thought the peer-evaluation process was fair

I did like to have a chance to do a team -eval part way

through the project

0 20 40 60 80

DisagreeNeutralAgree

So how did the SITT project do in regards to meeting the learning outcomes?

Library session was useful in learning how to find sources

Library session useful for learning CSE style

Library session useful for differentiating between info sources

I felt I learned a lot about the topic

Disagree

Neutral

Agree

So…..did the SITT project lead to student engagement?

I would recommend this project be used again

Overall I enjoyed this project

0 102030405060708090

Disagree

Neutral

Agree

“It was an interesting way to develop knowledge on biology subjects.”

“Good way to learn in groups – seemed scary at first, but overall a good experience.”

“I did not enjoy this project!”

“Thank you! Very fun learning the topic this way!”

Provide students with real-world questions Provide opportunities for group work, balanced by

individual assignments Consider creative assignment options (such as

videos), accompanied by clear grading rubrics outlining assignment expectations

Be willing to consider experiential exercises that teach group work, critical thinking, verbal communication, creative problem-solving, etc. – even at the expense of (some) discipline-specific content.

How to Adapt for your Course?From Biology:

Collaborate with a librarian, well in advance

Consider how to make hands-on research time immediately relevant

Consider how to encourage students to stick around for hands-on research time: groups, partnered exercises, etc.

Think about how much time you can reasonably devote (and whether that’s enough for students to be able to meet your expectations)

How to Adapt for your Course?From the Library:

Discussion… http://demo.firepad.io/#17Qt56jlKa http://qikpad.co.uk/p/b1EWPbr41S http://collabedit.com/be3fr

Video Showcase winners 2014 How and why did the hummingbird cross

the Gulf of Mexico? http://youtu.be/vmBROO8ZyQ8

How are leaf cutter ants good farmers? http://youtu.be/m19TEDOMDq8

Why have male fish living downstream from big cities switched their sex? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7mP0ZA9_MJg

AAAS. 2009. Vision and change in undergraduate biology education – a call for action. Final Report of a National Conferences organized by the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Oakley B, Felder RM, Brent R, Elhajj I. 2004. Turning student groups into effective teams. J Student Centered Learning: 2 (1) 9-28

Van den Bogaard ME, Saunders-Smits GN. 2007. Peer and self evaluations as means to improve the assessment of project based learning. Proceedings from 37th ASEE/IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference, Milwaukee, WI

Michaelsen, LK & M Sweet. 2008. The essential elements of team based learning. New Direction for Teaching and Learning 116: 7-27

ACRL…

References

Questions?

Elizabeth Rennie, erennie@tru.ca Susan Purdy, spurdy@tru.ca