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Teaching materials : Undergraduate teachers' lounge :
The Journal Club Toolkit
by the Understanding Evolution team

Many undergraduate biology instructors want to help their students learn about authentic scientific practices by engaging them with the primary literature. However, scientific articles present serious challenges for typical undergraduate students. These challenges include: understanding the biological concepts that the research addresses, 2) translating unfamiliar vocabulary, 3) navigating the unusual format of a scientific paper, 4) making sense of statistics, references, and other unique aspects of scientific writing, and 5) synthesizing the paper in an independent analysis or critique. The Journal Club Toolkit is designed to help students overcome these challenges, while delving into fundamental concepts of evolutionary biology.

What's in the Toolkit?
The Journal Club Toolkit includes three reading guides for scientific papers, a set of research articles on key concepts in evolutionary biology that provide a gentle entrée into the primary literature, and a guide for students leading a discussion of a journal article:

How to use the Toolkit
The Journal Club Toolkit was designed to be implemented in the discussion section of an evolution course or of an evolution-oriented introductory biology course; however, instructors are encouraged to adapt the above materials to suit their needs and the constraints of their class format. In a typical weekly discussion section, the materials from the Toolkit might be implemented as follows:

  • Week 1 – Students read Dunn et al. (2008) and Dissecting a scientific paper I on their own. In section, the teaching assistant explains the purpose of a journal club and leads a discussion of the paper, implicitly modeling the discussion on the Tips for leading a discussion document.

  • Week 2 – Students read Head et al. (2005) and work with a partner to write answers to the questions in Dissecting a scientific paper II. The teaching assistant collects these answers and grades them with a check/check-plus/check-minus system. In section, the teaching assistant introduces students to the Tips for leading a discussion document and leads a discussion of Head et al. (2005). During discussion, the teaching assistant refers back to the Tips document in order to explicitly demonstrate different strategies for leading discussion.

  • Week 3 – Students read a selected recommended paper and write answers to the questions in Dissecting a scientific paper III. The teaching assistant collects these answers and grades them with a check/check-plus/check-minus system. In section, the teaching assistant again models the process of leading a discussion, referring back to the Tips document. Depending on class size, individual students, pairs, or small groups sign up to lead discussion in future weeks.

  • Weeks 4-12 – Students (or groups of students) lead discussion. If desired, the instructor may require all students (or just the students leading the discussion) to turn in responses associated with Dissecting a scientific paper III. For more advanced students or later in the semester, discussion leaders may select a paper on their own, pending approval from the instructor.

If you've adapted these materials to suit your needs, we'd love to hear about it. Just contact us.


 

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