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Practice makes pretty good: assessment of primary literature reading abilities across multiple large-enrollment biology laboratory courses.

ABSTRACT: Primary literature is essential for scientific communication and is commonly utilized in undergraduate biology education. Despite this, there is often little time spent training our students how to critically analyze a paper. To address this, we introduced a primary literature module in multiple upper-division laboratory courses. In this module, instructors conduct classroom discussions that dissect a paper as researchers do. While previous work has identified classroom interventions that improve primary literature comprehension within a single course, our goal was to determine whether including a scientific paper module in our classes could produce long-term benefits. On the basis of performance in an assessment exam, we found that our module resulted in longitudinal gains, including increased comprehension and critical-thinking abilities in subsequent lab courses. These learning gains were specific to courses utilizing our module, as no longitudinal gains were seen in students who had taken other upper-division labs that lacked extensive primary literature discussion. In addition, we assessed whether performance on our assessment correlated with a variety of factors, including grade point average, course performance, research background, and self-reported confidence in understanding of the article. Furthermore, all of the study conclusions are independent of biology disciplines, as we observe similar trends within each course.

SUBMITTER: Sato BK

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4255354 | biostudies-literature | 2014

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Practice makes pretty good: assessment of primary literature reading abilities across multiple large-enrollment biology laboratory courses.

Sato Brian K BK Kadandale Pavan P He Wenliang W Murata Paige M N PM Latif Yama Y Warschauer Mark M

CBE life sciences education 20140101 4

Primary literature is essential for scientific communication and is commonly utilized in undergraduate biology education. Despite this, there is often little time spent training our students how to critically analyze a paper. To address this, we introduced a primary literature module in multiple upper-division laboratory courses. In this module, instructors conduct classroom discussions that dissect a paper as researchers do. While previous work has identified classroom interventions that improv ...[more]

PMID: 25452490

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Project description:We explored traits that promote plant invasions. External factors affecting invasion success consist of various abiotic and biotic constraints. How well plants perform under those depends on multiple characteristics, such as life history traits, genetic variation patterns, competitive and dispersal abilities, phenotypic plasticity, resistance, tolerance, and possibly allelopathic interactions. Since the introduction of invasive species is often connected with humans, their geographical distribution and differentiation may not reflect adaptation. However, a lack of adaptation may be compensated for by repeated introductions via mixing genotypes from multiple populations or through novel mutations. As a case study, we used data from the Global Invasive Species Database of IUCN and attempted to reveal factors contributing to invasiveness. The most prevalent features are that the dispersal is strongly human assisted, many species are used as ornamentals, disturbed habitats are favored, and most species are perennial. Distribution features show that the worst invasive species typically have a narrower native distribution, but both groups, i.e., most serious invasive and other listed invasive species, have commonly developed a multicontinental distribution. The change in the multicontinental distribution from 6% to 63% in most serious invasive species reflects their effectiveness in global dispersal and establishment. High proportions of invasive species in both groups have mixed reproduction systems, i.e., they have the ability to propagate both sexually and asexually (57% and 50%, respectively). This provides flexibility for spreading and establishment. A lower proportion of the worst invasive species was mainly/only sexual (23%, often hermaphrodites) when compared to other invasive plants (40%). In the case of sexual reproduction, hermaphroditism combined with self-compatibility may enhance invasiveness, since selfing allows fertilization and recombination even under low population densities. Overall, the ability for asexual propagation and, in the case of sexuality, hermaphroditism, is an asset in the invasion process.

Dataset Information

Practice makes pretty good: assessment of primary literature reading abilities across multiple large-enrollment biology laboratory courses.

Publications

Practice makes pretty good: assessment of primary literature reading abilities across multiple large-enrollment biology laboratory courses.

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