Learning Outcomes:

 

At the end of this course, students will be able to:

 

• Identify the effect that technology has had on information production and    dissemination.
• Understand how sci-tech information is created, distributed, and used.
• Describe a variety of information sources and tools you can use to access these information sources.
• Develop an effective search strategy for finding information using access tools.
• Identify and analyze the source, authority, and perspective of information sources.
• Apply knowledge of the APA (American Psychological Association) style by compiling a bibliography.  Know how to write critical annotations.
• Discuss current issues relating to information policy.  Analyze the impact of these policies on information access for individuals and communities.
• Be able to follow and keep up with science and technology in society.

 

Student Responsibilities:

 

Each student is expected to contribute to an environment conducive to the learning of all students.  This contribution includes, but is not limited to:

·                     Respecting the opinions of others

·                     Being prepared to participate actively, both in class as a whole, and in your team

·                     Taking responsibility for your learning and progress in the course

·                     Helping your team and the rest of the class to learn, and allowing others to help you learn

·                     Seeking help from the instructor as needed

 

Students are also responsible for knowing and following the University policies outlined in the Undergraduate Bulletin (http://www.albany.edu/undergraduate_bulletin/academic.html).

 

Instructional Format:

 

This course will be using a Team-Based Learning (TBL) format that incorporates active learning techniques and will require a high level of student participation. Teams will be established on the first day of class, and will work together throughout the course. Preparation for class material will take place before class, and several times during the quarter, I will be giving Readiness Assessment Tests (RATs), to check your preparation for class. These tests first will be taken individually (iRATs), and then together as a team (tRATs). Students will be responsible for taking part in class and team discussions. The class participation will be graded and then incorporated into your final course grade.

 

Class readings, handouts and other supplementary materials will be available through Blackboard.

 

Because of the structure of the course and your team’s reliance upon every member, you need to attend regularly in order to do well.

 

Using social media This course is designed to foster constructive communications via social media channels for students. Successful completion of this course will involve your participation in a variety of online publishing platforms which may include, but is not limited to, social networking websites (e.g., LinkedIn, Facebook), microblogging websites (e.g., Twitter), blogs, and video and photo sharing websites (e.g.,YouTube, Flickr, and Instagram). While we encourage you to own your work on these platforms, if you are concerned about your privacy, you may use a pseudonym or nickname. Please make certain that you let the instructor know what it is so you can receive credit for your work.

 Class Policies:

 

1. Class attendance:

  i.      Readiness assessment tests are generally given at the beginning of class, and once one starts it is not possible to take it if you arrive late.

 

  ii.      Work done during class is integral to the course, so this work cannot be made up. Your team will be counting on your participation. Stay in touch with your team members and instructor.

 

1. Assignments:

 

• It is always the responsibility of the student to know when assignments are due.

 

• All assignments must be typed. Citations and annotations’ assignments must be submitted via Blackboard as Word or rtf files in order to show correct formatting. If there are problems with Blackboard (technical glitches do occur) you can e-mail me the assignment as MS Word attachment. Most of the assignments are due by the beginning of the class; however some exceptions apply. Such exceptions will be specified individually.

 

 

1. The use of personal electronic devices is not allowed during the class period.

 

1.  In order to protect the computers, only water can be brought into the classroom.

 

1. Incompletes are not given for this course.

 

Academic Integrity

·         If at any point in the semester you attempt to pass off someone else’s words or ideas as your own – i.e. plagiarize – you will receive a grade of "0" for the assignment.  You are responsible for acquainting yourself with the University’s Plagiarism Policy (see http://www.albany.edu/undergraduate_bulletin/regulations.html).

 

Blog Posting Assignments

 

We will be using a class blog http://liblogs.albany.edu/unl206x/in order to practice one of the popular Web 2.0 tools. Most of the time you will be required to read an article or watch a web tutorial or video and then present your responses to the questions formulated in the assignment. Grades will be based on the quality of your writing. Thoughtful, in-depth posts should be comprised two paragraphs and present a good example of college writing. Brief, perfunctory, or unoriginal responses will earn fewer points. Please be civil and considerate in your posts. If you do not wish to have your comments posted on the web you can choose to submit the blog posting assignment via e-mail.

 

Team Research Guide Project (Wiki or Weebly)

 

Your final course project is a web-based information guide, produced collaboratively by your team. You have a choice of using either Weebly at www.weebly.comor wiki platform at PB Works  http://spring2015infolitsci.pbworks.com/.

This guide will provide solid evidence of your team’s understanding of the material highlighted in this course. Consider it, too, as a guide for novice researchers on the topic you are addressing. You should create your web research guide with these interested users in mind. You will be finding, evaluating, citing and annotating resources in various formats that will become an annotated bibliography part of your project. The information guide will also contain the thesis statement, a glossary of key terminology on your topic, a one-page narrative describing how your team came up with the topic, narrowed it down and proved your thesis statement by selecting appropriate materials.

 

I encourage your team to use the team discussion forums. I can set up such forums within Blackboard upon your team’s request.

 

Your individual weekly assignments ought to be submitted via Blackboard. During the class meetings the team will decide which sources might best contribute to the team project.

 

The final web-based research guide created by your team will contain the following components, presented in an aesthetically pleasing and functionally effective way:

 

• Title
• Indication of the research guide’s components, with a way to maneuver between them (similar to the table of content)
• Thesis page: This page will include your team’s thesis statement, and a narrative of approximately one page that indicates how key items in the research guide helped you prove (or modify) your thesis statement
• Glossary of terminology: Define, in your own words, at least five of the terms connected with your team’s topic. Select terms that novice researchers might not understand, or that were important when you were doing database searches for materials. If you need to include a brief phrase from a print- or Web-based source, include an in-text citation to show that these are not your own words
• Annotated bibliography: See below for full specifications

 

The annotated bibliography portion of the web project  should contain eight items in alphabetical order:

·         A reference source (usually an entry in an encyclopedia, handbook, etc.)

·         A book

·         Two articles: one scholarly and one popular (based on criteria discussed in class)

·         Two excellent websites

·         Primary research article

·         One source in the format not mentioned above: government document, a multimedia source, etc.

·         An appropriate source from amongst the eight sources should also be labeled as a secondary source

 

Use the APA page in CitationFox (linked through Blackboard or available through the library’s website), or the Sixth Edition of Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association to make certain your citations are written correctly.

 

Course Readings:

·         Students are required to read two-three articles from the Science Section of the New York Times (comes out on Tuesdays). Each class we will begin with the discussion.

·         Other required and suggested readings, tutorials and videos for this course are available through Blackboard. 

 

Grading and Course Requirements:          

 

Grading (A-E grading system)        

                                                                                                             

Scale
A	1000-926
A-	925-896
B+	895-866
B	865-826
B-	825-796
C+	795-766
C	765-726
C-	725-696
D+	695-666
D	665-626
D-	625-596
E	595 and below

 

 

               

10%	Discussion posts on class blog
20%	RATs (divided between individual & team)
20%	Individual research guide components (i.e. your citations and annotations)
10%	In-class participation
25%	Team wiki/Weebly
7%	Team presentation
8%	Team peer feedback and assessment

                                                                                   

                                                                                   

 

Class 1/ January 22

 

Introductions:  students and instructor

Syllabus and course policy discussion; team formations

Information literacy and science literacy concepts

Virtual tour of the University Library and Science Library

Minerva/WorldCat (first peak)

Selecting a topic – groups are working during class

Formulating a thesis statement (in-class ex.)

 

The list of forbidden topics follows:

 

1.                  Abortion

2.                  ADHD

3.                  Addictions

4.                  Alcoholism

5.                  Alzheimer’s disease

6.                  Black holes

7.                  Breast cancer

8.                  Depression

9.                  Diabetes

10.              Marijuana

11.              Steroids

12.              String theory

Recommended (but not limited to) topics plus list of topics circulating in class (also available from Blackboard in Handouts folder):

• A biographical research about the scientist who made an extremely important scientific discovery
• A scientific theory
• An animal or plant species
• Chemical elements
• Topics in health and medicine with the exception from above.

 

Homework assignment:Due by 11:59 a.m., noon, Wednesday, January 28, 2015

Post individually to the class blog http://liblogs.albany.edu/unl206x/(Blog posting assignment #1) as a comment:

·         Your research strategy for narrowing down the topic selected by your team (you may list 3-5 questions or write a short paragraph), and 4-5 keywords that you might use for research on this topic.

·         A preliminary thesis statement (use the strategies in the handout distributed in class.) It is also available from www.indiana.edu/~wts/pamphlets/thesis_statement.pdf.

 

Readings:

1. Science Section of the New York Times
2. Reference Resources, a mini-lecture available from Blackboard
3. Mini-lecture on Thesis Statement from Blackboard
4. Research strategies: Finding your way through the information fogby Bill Badke, abridged online edition, Chapter 1, “Taking charge”, available online at https://acts.twu.ca/library/chapter1.htm  (link is also available through Blackboard)

Class 2 / January 29

 

RATs (individual and team)

News in science for today (discussion of the Science Times)

Team work (web-based project)

Reference sources in natural sciences

Call numbers for sciences; LCSH classification

Annotated bibliography/Critical annotations

Tour of the Science Library

Online reference sources; in-class exercise

Math and Computer Sciences: introduction to various sources in Mathematics and Statistics and Computer Sciences, MathSciNet. In-class exercise.

 

Homework assignment: Due by10:00 a.m. on February 5, 2015 via Blackboard

1.  Find, cite and annotate a book and a reference book on a topic of your team project (both must be in print from the University Libraries – not from Amazon or Google books). No textbooks.

 

Readings: 

 

      1.  Science Section of theNew York Times.

2.  Research Strategies: Finding your way through the information fog by William Badke, Fourth edition,  Chapter 4, “Metadata and the Power of Controlled Vocabularies” (available through Blackboard)

3. Mini-lecture Periodicals available from Blackboard

 

Class 3 / February 5

 

RATs (individual and team)

News in science for today

Team discussion and posting to the wiki or Weebly of the selected citations and annotations

Periodicals: scholarly journals vs. trade/professional or popular

A scholarly article: how to read?

Electronic databases: selection, search strategies.  Boolean operators, fields, controlled vocabulary vs. keyword search

Biological Sciences: Sources in biology in various formats.  Class exercise.

 

 

Homework assignment:Due by 10:00 a.m., February 12, 2015

1.  Find, cite and annotate two articles on a topic of your bibliography. 

• Article 1 must be from the scholarly journal.
• Article 2 must be found from the  popular magazine, trade/professional journal or newspaper

Note: Both articles should be found in one of the online databases to which University libraries subscribe such as Medline, INSPEC, Web of Science, MathSciNet, eDiscover, LexisNexis, etc. and should not be from online news web sites

 

Readings:

 

1. Evaluating Web Content available at http://library.albany.edu/usered/eval/evalweb/index.html
2. Web Sources mini-lecture available from Blackboard
3. Science Section ofthe New York Times

 

Class 4 / February 12

RATs (individual and team)

News in science for today

Web sources: search engines and search directories

Web sources evaluation

Google; Wikipedia; Web 2.0; Class exercise

Health Sciences.  PubMed. Health resources in various formats.  Class exercise.

 

 

Homework assignment: Due by 10:00 a.m., February 19, 2015

 

1.      Find, cite and annotate two excellent websites on your topic (no Wikipedia articles).

2.      Blog posting (check our blog at http://liblogs.albany.edu/unl206x/for a new assignment)

3.      Complete mid-term peer-assessment

Readings:

 

1. Science Section ofthe New York Times
2. Mini-lecture Primary, Secondary and Tertiary Sources from Blackboard
3. Primary and Secondary Sources for Sciences available from http://library.albany.edu/usered/dr/prisci.html

 

 

Class 5 / February 19

 

News in science for today

Team wiki discussion and posting

Primary/Secondary/Tertiary sources in the sciences.

Dissecting a primary article

Science literacy: civic, practical, cultural

Physics:Sources in physics; INSPEC; class exercise

 

Homework assignment: Due by 10:00 a.m., February 26, 2015

·         Find, cite and annotate one primary scholarly article (it should be found through one of the library databases, such as Medline, Web of Science, EBSCO Academic Search Complete, SciFinder, etc.)

• Find, cite and annotate one additional source (such as government document, a multimedia source, etc.; no Wikipedia articles)

·         Blog posting (check our blog at http://liblogs.albany.edu/unl206x/for a new assignment)

 

 

Readings:

 

1. Science section of theNew York Times
2. “Cracking open the scientific process”, an article by Thomas Lin from the New York Times (January 17, 2011) (available through Blackboard)
3. Mini-lecture Patenting and Copyright available through Blackboard

 

Class 6 / February 26

 

RATs (individual and team)

News in science for today

Team project work: discussion and finalizing the pages of the web-based research guides

Questions/answers/final projects

Team project grading rubric

Copyright/plagiarism/academic dishonesty

Digital divide, electronic privacy issues

Open source publications

Patents; in-class exercise

Chemistry:Various print and online resources; SciFinder database; class exercise

 

Homework assignment: Due by 10:00 a.m., March 5, 2015

• Complete the team research project
• Prepare an outline of your presentation consulting the handout
• Final peer assessments

 

Readings:

 

• Science Section ofthe New York Times

 

Class 7 / March 5

News in science for today

Course overview

Wrap-up exercise

Presentations

 

Characteristics of all General Education Courses

 

1. General Education courses offer introductions to the central topics of disciplines and interdisciplinary fields.
2. General Education courses offer explicit rather than tacit understandings of the procedures, practices, methodology and fundamental assumptions of disciplines and interdisciplinary fields.
3. General Education courses recognize multiple perspectives on the subject matter.
4. General Education courses emphasize active learning in an engaged environment that enables students to be producers as well as consumers of knowledge.
5. General Education courses promote critical inquiry into the assumptions, goals, and methods of various fields of academic study; they aim to develop the interpretive, analytic, and evaluative competencies characteristic of critical thinking.

 

 

Information Literacy General Education Courses

 

Information Literacy General Education courses introduce students to various ways in which information is organized and structured and to the process of finding, using, producing, and distributing information in a variety of media formats, including traditional print as well as computer databases. Students acquire experience with resources available on the Internet and learn to evaluate the quality of information, to use information ethically and professionally, and to adjust to rapidly changing technology tools. Student must complete this requirement within the freshman or sophomore year.