A Collaboration Between Faculty and Librarians to Develop and Assess a Science Literacy Laboratory Module

ABSTRACT

An Introductory Biology faculty member and a Biology Librarian formed a partnership to develop a Science Literacy Laboratory Module for use in introductory biology instruction. The module, designed to assist students in performing efficient science library research, consisted of interactive in-lab and homework activities and a web-based tutorial. Student learning and satisfaction were assessed both before and after completion of the module through WebCT-based multiple-choice questions and open-ended feedback. Student performance improved on the multiple-choice questions after completing the module activities. More dramatically, students' confidence in finding scientific literature was higher because of the module activities, and students indicated that they would use the web-based tutorial as a guide in the future. The partnership between the faculty member and the librarian has been successful in developing relevant and useful resources for the introductory biology students. Suggestions for revision of the module are discussed.

Key Words:

• Faculty
• librarian
• bibliographic instruction
• database searching
• undergraduate
• information literacy
• teaching
• academic library
• research