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Chemical Information Instructor
Andrea Twiss-Brooks John Crerar Library University of Chicago Chicago, IL 60637
A Chemical Information Assignment for Nonscience Majors
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Laura E. Pence Department of Chemistry, University of Hartford, West Hartford, CT 06117;
[email protected] The chemical information requirements of nonscience majors are significantly different from the requirements of science majors, but these needs are equally important. Few projects (1) have addressed the chemical information requirements for nonscience majors since chemical information literacy for science majors is often seen as the more immediate issue. Requiring nonscience majors to become familiar with the types of available information and resources is an important part of mitigating the science phobias both of our students and of the general public. Among the reasons that chemical information training is focused most often on the science majors is that these students take many more classes within a chemistry department, and both upper-level courses and independent research creates the need for the effective application of chemical information. Students participating in advanced study in their majors should be expected to display information literacy, defined as a set of abilities that require individuals to “recognize when information is needed and have the ability to locate, evaluate, and use effectively the needed information” (2). These skills should be acquired as part of fulfilling the requirements for a major, and may be taught either throughout the curriculum or through a specific information literacy course (3–6). Chemists generally define their needs for chemical information literacy to include such resources as accessing and understanding the primary and secondary literature, navigating reference databases, such as Chemical Abstracts or the Science Citation Index, and identifying the properties and hazards of compounds (5–7). Whereas these skills are extremely important for an effective chemist, the specific types of information are not appropriate or necessary for nonscience majors who may take only a single chemistry course during their college careers. Chemical information for nonscience majors requires a different focus. The goal of teaching chemical information to nonscience majors is actually not information literacy. The higher goal of information literacy is best achieved within the framework of the students’ individual majors where the students learn the details of accessing and processing the information specific to their major studies. Two subcomponents of this focused information literacy, the abilities to “incorporate selected information into one’s knowledge base”, and “use information effectively to accomplish a specific purpose” (8), can then be applied to general data, such as chemical information, from outside a student’s chosen field. The specific types of chemical information appropriate for nonscience majors range widely, so for the chemical resource assignment described here, two additional parameters were added. The assignment focused specifically on information that was accessible from the Internet at no cost and that 764
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was applicable to a practical situation. The specific Web sites were chosen as examples of reliable information sources, although other sites may have served equally well. The Internet requirement reflects the growing habit of our students to do most of their research online. For many needs, the Internet may indeed be the most efficient source of information since a wide array of chemical information resources is easily accessible for both chemists and nonchemists (3, 6, 7, 9–12), and in many cases, online references may be more readily available than reference books and may contain more current information. The requirement of a practical use for the chemical information used in the assignment reduced any student perception of the assignment as busy work and, more importantly, focused the assignment on information that the students might find useful long after they complete the course. The Assignment The chemical information assignment was divided into five separate sections in which students researched the validity of urban legends, the relationship between chemistry and their majors, the extent and sources of pollution in their hometowns, and the hazards of a specific chemical. The project replaced a term paper assigned in previous years, so to preserve this writing component of the course, the fifth section required a three to four page risk–benefit analysis paper. The urban legends, relationship between chemistry and a major, and chemical hazards sections were generally each addressed in two to four paragraphs of response. The assignments were individually customized in each category by assigning a different urban legend to each student and supplying a separate link for each distinct major; the hometown investigation was already unique to each student. This personalization allowed the students to collaborate on their search methods, but it resulted in unique data for each student. There were two critical details for ensuring an effective and successful student experience. The first detail was doublechecking access to every main Web site immediately before the assignment was given out. This verification minimized typographical errors in URLs and caught Web site content or structure changes that would alter the instructions supplied in the assignment. The second key to success was giving the students three to four weeks to complete the project. The students encountered a number of unforeseeable broken links or search problems during the assignment, but because the students started early, the vast majority of difficulties were worked out well in advance of the submission deadline. Section I. Urban Legends On several occasions, the nonscience major students have brought in emails detailing how antiperspirant causes breast
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cancer or explaining the dangers of sodium lauryl sulfate, the “soap” in shampoo. These stories fall into the category of urban legends. An urban legend’s primary appeal is that it makes good storytelling through elements of humor or horror (13). Urban legends tend to spread spontaneously, often through email, and although they may be based in fact, many of them are not true. The urban legends component of the assignment required the students to explore one of the several available online resources for checking out alarmist messages. Each student was given one of 26 different urban legends that had some relation to science and was asked to use the urban legend Web site (13) to research the issue, to explain whether the statement was valid, and to defend his or her answer. The stories were a mixture of true and false claims so that the students did not immediately assume that the urban legend was false. The examples were taken directly from the Web site, but the some of the students required a little extra guidance to locate their specific questions. Some examples of the urban legends are: • If a man urinates on the electrified third rail of a subway system, the electricity can travel back and electrify him. • You can get lead poisoning by drinking beverages that have been stored or served in lead crystal decanters. • A woman claims that her husband has terrible arthritis caused by iron poisoning, which itself was caused by use of a cast iron skillet. • Absorbing aspirin or nitroglycerin through the gums will get it straight to your head.
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• Eating asparagus makes your urine smell funny. • Chocolate is toxic to dogs. • You can get high by licking the back of a particular river toad found in Arizona.
Section II. Chemistry and Your Major On the first day of class, very few of the students were able to suggest any way in which chemistry related to their majors, so many of the students could see no particular reason why they should be required to take a lab science course. This section of the assignment was intended to reinforce the link between chemistry and other disciplines by giving each student an assignment that would draw a connection between chemistry and his or her specific major. Each student’s major was obtained from an information sheet that was filled out on the first day of class; students who did not indicate a specific major were contacted prior to the assignment and asked to select from several different options. In keeping with the Internet emphasis of the overall assignment, every connection between chemistry and the major, except cinema, was made by using online material. Table 1 includes a brief summary of majors, Web sites, and the corresponding assignments. Section III. Your Hometown The practical application of this section was well-illustrated by the movies, Erin Brokovich and A Civil Action, in which people were initially unaware of being exposed to harmful chemicals. The goal of this section of the assignment
Table 1. Assignments by Major Major
Web Site
Assignment
Art History
http://webexhibits.org/feast/
Explain how specific scientific techniques were used to investigate the painting, The Feast of the Gods.
Business and Economics
http://pubs.acs.org/cen/
Summarize the influence of the current economy on the chemical industry including stocks and tendency toward mergers. Summarize the outlook for the next year.
Cinema
Watch “Dante’s Peak” and point out the scientifically implausible details or watch October Sky and answer the assigned questions.
Communication
http://www.dow.com http://www.dupont.com http://www.bayer.com
Define the common public image of a large chemical company. Explain how the company Web site attempts to provide a positive public image.
Computer Science
http://pubs.acs.org/cen/
Find and summarize an article on nanotechnology.
Criminal Justice
http://home.earthlink.net/ ~thekeither/Forensic/forsone.htm http://www.Kruglaw.com/f_polygraph.htm
From a selection of topics, summarize what features and details should be examined during an investigation.
Education
http://www.acs.org
Using WonderNet or ChemMatters, describe a scientific classroom activity and explain what the students will learn.
English
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/ frontline/shows/nature/disrupt/ sspring.html
Discuss how Rachel Carson’s book, Silent Spring, influenced the American public, government, and industry with respect to pesticides.
Politics and Government
http://pubs.acs.org/cen/
Summarize how academic and industrial chemistry are influenced by the government in the form of regulation, funding, and specific science agencies.
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was to give students a resource they could use to identify pollutants and risks in their hometowns. The use of each student’s hometown rather than the University of Hartford area made the information much more applicable and interesting to the student. The scorecard Web site (14) is sponsored by the Environmental Defense nonprofit group and provides access to online environmental information sources. The focus is on local environmental data compiled from government and scientific studies. The specific studies and reports that are accessed as well as limitations of the site are clearly stated in a section on caveats, which supports the conclusion that this is a reliable information resource. This section of the assignment was presented as a worksheet of specific questions that could be answered by using the scorecard Web site. The four general areas covered by the worksheet and examples of the types of data requested are shown in Table 2. A few glitches arose when some hometowns were unexpectedly unpolluted or were not monitored for air quality, but since the students generally began working early, difficulties were rapidly resolved over email or by a brief visit during office hours. The complete worksheet used in the assignment is included as Supplemental Material.W Section IV. Researching a Chemical As part of the research in the previous section, the students accessed a list of the top chemicals by volume released in their hometown areas. In keeping with the Erin Brokovich analogy, the students were guided to resources to establish the health and environmental hazards associated with a specific chemical. For this section, the students were asked to use one of the top three chemicals from their list of chemical releases and to find that chemical in at least three of the following Web sites, http://msds.pdc.cornell.edu/msdssrch.asp http://www.epa.gov/enviro/html/emci/chemref/index.html http://www.scorecard.org/chemical-profiles/ http://atsdr1.atsdr.cdc.gov/toxfaq.html
cific term the scorecard site used to identify a released chemical. A listing of “barium compounds” or the bewildering array of variations on chemicals such as methanol, toluene, or hydrochloric acid frustrated the students who were trying to locate information. In all cases, the students identified the confusion early enough that a quick question after class was sufficient to clarify their searches. Section V. Hometown Risk–Benefit Analysis It was anticipated that most of the students would discover that their hometowns were affected by substantially more pollution than they expected. To force the students to put their new information in perspective and to prevent a general panic, the final section of the assignment required the students to write a 3–4 page risk–benefit analysis on living in their hometowns. This requirement also maintained the emphasis on writing that was highlighted by the term paper assigned in previous semesters. The pollution survey information that the students obtained in Section III of the assignment frequently supplied part of the hometown risk but rarely any of the benefit, so the students were asked to give more comprehensive consideration to their hometown environments and include factors such as schools, shopping, sports, cultural resources, open space, and crime rate. Several of the students expanded the scope of their research to include aspects such as the presence or absence of diversity, the population growth, and the average household income. By carrying out a broadly based analysis of living in their hometowns, the students recognized that pollution was one of a number of factors that should be considered in choosing a location in which to live. All but one student concluded that it was desirable to live in his or her hometown. Student Assessment The two objectives of the project were to increase the information literacy of the nonscience majors and to create a new assignment to replace the previously assigned term paper. The term paper was both a chore for the students to write
(all Web sites accessed Feb 2004). Using the information from the sites, the students were asked to 1. Explain the use of the substance as well as the chemical, biological, and environmental hazards to the best of their ability. 2. Explain how the information on the three Web sites was similar or different. 3. Indicate which site they found easiest to use. This section of the assignment presented the biggest challenge for the students; several of the resources included sections of information that would only make sense to scientists working with the chemicals. It was still possible, however, for the students to get a general sense of the hazards. The students who accessed the ToxFAQs site (the last Web site listed above) uniformly identified it as the most clear and friendly to a nonscientist. The other three sites were each identified in various papers as being confusing and difficult to use, but there was no consensus about the least helpful site. An additional challenge for the students was the spe766
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Table 2. Types of Data Requested about Students’ Hometowns Category
Types of Data
Air
Sources of air cancer risk; air quality; top three companies that pollute the air; and areas in which the county rated worst for health risks, exposures, or emissions
Waste
Top three sources of toxic chemical releases; top three chemicals released; chemical release or waste generation categories in which the county ranked worst; and top ranked cancer and noncancer risks for the area
Land
Superfund clean-up sites and lead hazards
Water
Number of watersheds; water quality and vulnerability of each watershed
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and a chore for the professor to grade and did little to increase students’ interest in science. From a completely subjective perspective, the students displayed far more interest and engagement in the information literacy assignment than their predecessors had with the term paper. The professor also found the resulting computer projects to be much more interesting to grade. From this perspective alone, the assignment was a success. Objective assessment was carried out by using a preassignment survey given on the first day of class and a postassignment survey given three weeks after the project was submitted. The results are summarized in Table 3. In the preassignment survey, the students were given several scenarios requiring chemical information and were asked to identify sources they would use to obtain the necessary information. What was most notable was the lack of specific detail in the majority of their responses. When queried about similar research scenarios after the assignment was completed, the Internet figured prominently in the student responses; this result was to be expected since the students’ experiences had been intentionally guided toward using various Web sites. In contrast to their general answers in the preassignment survey, the postassignment survey revealed a much greater ability for the students to identify specific Web sites that would supply reliable information. The students’ increased confidence in their abilities to locate chemical information was reflected by two additional questions included in the postassignment survey. The vast majority of the students, 93%, either agreed or strongly agreed that the assignment improved their abilities to find relevant information about pollution levels for a specific location. Additionally, 86% of the students either agreed or strongly agreed that the assignment improved their abilities to find information about a specific chemical pollutant. Overall, 90% of the students indicated that they liked the assignment, and only one of the 29 respondents had any significantly negative comments. One student commented particularly on the individual tailoring of the assignment by writing, “It wasn’t like a typical term paper/project. It was a specialized project for each of us.”
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Conclusions Numerous students commented in informal conversations that they were genuinely interested in the assignment, and they enjoyed learning about the various topics that had been included. This positive attitude contrasted vividly with the large number of complaints that I received about the term paper assigned in previous terms; the quality of the work on the chemical resource assignment was also substantially higher compared to the term papers. The assessment results indicated that the assignment significantly increased students’ confidence in being able to locate information on those specific topics. From the instructor’s perspective, it was time consuming to assemble the individually personalized assignment packets, but grading the resulting assignments was much more interesting because of the variety. Possibly the most important indicator of success with the assignment was from the last question on the final exam, in which the students were asked to identify the most significant idea that they would take away from the class. Five of the 33 students specifically mentioned the chemical resource assignment as the most important thing they learned in the course. Considering the enthusiastic feedback from the students, this assignment was a valuable and engaging method for incorporating chemical information into a chemistry course for nonscience majors. W
Supplemental Material
The student handout, Gathering Hometown Environmental Information Worksheet, is available in this issue of JCE Online. Literature Cited 1. Penhale, S. J.; Stratton, W. J. J. Chem. Educ. 1994, 71, 227– 229. 2. Presidential Committee on Information Literacy: Final Report; Association of College & Research Libraries: Chicago, IL, 1989. http://www.ala.org/ala/acrl/acrlpubs/whitepapers/ presidential.htm (accessed Feb 2004).
Table 3. Summary of Assessment Scenarios Question
Preassignment Survey
Postassignment Survey
How would you research an alarmist email concerning a health risk?
Internet (38%) Doctor/hospital (35%) Company making the product (18%)
General Internet (34%) http://Urbanlegends.com (72%)
Where would you find the health and environmental hazards of a chemical?
Library (35%) Internet (26%) Town government (26%) Doctor/hospital (12%) EPA (12%) High school chemistry teacher (12%)
General Internet (31%) Specific Web sites, such as http://scorecard.org (62%)
Where would you research air or water pollution affecting your hometown?
Library (18%) Internet (18%) Water company (18%) EPA (15%)
General Internet (28%) http://scorecard.org (62%)
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3. Wiggins, G. Use of the Internet in Teaching Chemical Information Courses. ChemConf 1996. http://www.indiana.edu/ ~cheminfo/gw/onlinsymp.html (accessed Feb 2004). 4. Ricker, A. S.; Thompson, R. Q. J. Chem. Educ. 1999, 76, 1590–1593. 5. Novick, S. G. J. Chem. Educ. 1995, 72, 297–301. 6. Matthews, F. J. J. Chem. Educ. 1997, 74, 1011–1014. 7. Murov, S. J. Chem. Educ. 2001, 78, 1429–1431. 8. Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education; Association of College & Research Libraries: Chicago, IL, 2002; find the Web site at http://www.ala.org/ala/acrl/acrlstandards/
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informationliteracycompetency.htm (accessed Feb 2004). 9. Waldow, D. A.; Fryhle, C. B.; Bock, J. C. J. Chem. Educ. 1997, 74, 441–442. 10. Bauer, F. C&RL News 1996, 57, 726–729. 11. Holmes, C. O.; Warden, J. T. J. Chem. Educ. 1996, 73, 325– 329. 12. Barrie, J. M.; Presti, D. E. Science 1996, 274, 371–372. 13. AFU & Urban Legends Archive. http://www.urbanlegends.com (accessed Feb 2004). 14. Scorecard home page, information provided by Environmental Defense. http://www.scorecard.org (accessed Feb 2004).
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