Print PageMany undergraduate biology courses expect the students to read and summarize primary literature; however, these primary literature articles are often dense and difficult to read, resulting in poor student comprehension. Fortunately, the information in these articles follows a pattern, so students can be taught how to read them without significantly increasing their workload. In the past, students in an introductory biology laboratory course at Indiana University have been unable to accurately summarize primary literature articles, basing their summaries mainly on the title and part of the introduction. We tested whether a new set of assignments based on information literacy integration improved students’ ability to understand primary literature articles on UV mutagenesis. In total, three sections of the course participated in the study: the experimental section of the course used two new assignments, while two control sections were only asked to summarize their articles (as in previous years). The experimental group received two assignments: 1) summarizing an encyclopedia article to give them experience with the topic and the scientific vocabulary; and 2) completing a worksheet that asked students for specific pieces of information, showing them which information is important and where in the article it can be found.
Results/Conclusions
Twenty percent more students in the experimental group were able to accurately summarize their primary literature article compared to the control groups. In addition, 30% more students in the experimental group cited primary literature articles in their lab reports. Our results indicate that students are better able to understand primary literature when 1) they are first introduced to a topic with an encyclopedia or textbook article with more accessible language, and 2) they are taught which pieces of information in primary literature articles are important and where to locate them.
