Demystifying the Chemistry Literature: Building Information Literacy in

Sep 11, 2014 - Demystifying the Chemistry Literature: Building Information Literacy in First-Year Chemistry Students through Student-Centered Learning...
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Demystifying the Chemistry Literature: Building Information Literacy in First-Year Chemistry Students through Student-Centered Learning and Experiment Design Margaret Bruehl,*,† Denise Pan,‡ and Ignacio J. Ferrer-Vinent‡ †

Department of Chemistry, University of Colorado Denver, Denver, Colorado 80217-3364, United States Auraria Library, University of Colorado Denver, Denver, Colorado 80204, United States

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S Supporting Information *

ABSTRACT: This paper describes curriculum modules developed for first-year general chemistry laboratory courses that use scientific literature and creative experiment design to build information literacy in a student-centered learning environment. Two curriculum units are discussed: Exploring Scientific Literature and Design Your Own General Chemistry Laboratory Experiment. The modules sequentially develop and expand upon students’ chemical literacy, including the use of scientific literature to support experiment design. Student success is dependent on developing and using information literacy in service to critical thinking and practical analytical problem solving. A longitudinal study of students participating in this project surveyed self-assessed attitudes and beliefs. Initial findings suggest that introducing the scientific literature and building information literacy skills in first-year chemistry courses provide immediate and long-term benefits to student performance and engagement in the sciences. Course materials and assessment strategies used in the modules are provided as Supporting Information to this paper. KEYWORDS: First-Year Undergraduate/General, Laboratory Instruction, Curriculum, Inquiry-Based/Discovery Learning, Problem Solving/Decision Making, Interdisciplinary/Multidisciplinary

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BACKGROUND Is it possible to develop student competency in information literacy at the start of the college career by introducing scientific literature to first year chemistry students, and will those skills benefit students in their subsequent coursework? Often, undergraduate students do not engage with the scientific literature until their final years in college and many do not read the primary literature at all during their undergraduate education.1−3 This delay in exposing undergraduate science students to the real language and authentic processes of science can result in missed opportunities for undergraduate research experiences and even the loss of science majors.3,4 Over the years, there have been numerous efforts to introduce the scientific literature to chemistry undergraduates.1,5−13 Separate courses devoted to chemical information have been offered at the introductory and upper-division level.8,13 Modules focused on chemical literature have been added to traditional General Chemistry1,2,6,7 and Organic Chemistry9 lectures. Commonly, scientific literature has been used to support work in organic and upper division laboratory courses.6,10−12 However, the approach described in this paper to integrate exposure to the scientific literature, information literacy, and creative experiment design all in a first year General Chemistry laboratory experience is much less common. Close reading and class discussion of primary literature describing real chemistry research can serve to demystify science and scientists. By exploring the primary literature and © XXXX American Chemical Society and Division of Chemical Education, Inc.

relating it to their own laboratory work, students are exposed to the gray areas of designing experiments and collecting and interpreting data. They begin to experience the creativity and open-ended nature of research. Ultimately, this shows students how scientists think and begins them on their way to developing their own scientific thinking skills.2,14 Through these efforts, students begin to establish chemistry information literacy, which serves both as a pathway to explore the nature of scientific discovery as well as fulfilling the information literacy standards for chemistry undergraduates in bachelor’s degree programs as laid out by the American Chemical Society (ACS) Committee on Professional Training.15−17 In this paper, we explore the idea of establishing information literacy at the beginning of our students’ science education through the use of two general chemistry laboratory curriculum modules centered on experiment design. The long-term benefits of the skills developed in these modules are assessed through longitudinal student surveys. This paper describes the curriculum development component of a three year case study using the scientific literature to teach information literacy and its connection to experiment design. This case study occurred in the Honors General Chemistry I and II Laboratory courses at the University of ColoradoDenver over the three academic years 2010−11, 2011−12, and 2012−13. Each semester, 20−30 students were

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divided into two lab sections. The student populations were high-achieving students, well prepared for their general chemistry studies via Advanced Placement or honors level chemistry courses in high school or previous college chemistry coursework. Predominantly, these students were in their first year of college and were declared health science or physical science majors. The laboratory course itself was a studentcentered investigative, inquiry-based course emphasizing the development of problem-solving and critical thinking skills through open-ended experiments and using specialized techniques and instrumentation. Explicitly, the goals of this case study were to introduce scientific literature to honors general chemistry students and measure the benefits of familiarity with the literature in the general chemistry curriculum; build information literacy early in the students’ college careers, measure the effectiveness of library instruction and demonstrate the value of library collections; and track and assess student performance during the course and evaluate students on their continued use and development of information literacy subsequent to completing the courses. This paper describes the curriculum units developed and their connection to building information literacy. Companion papers address the case study methodology, implementation, student performance assessments,18 and the measured quantitative benefits of online access to library collections.19

During this study, the authors captured a variety of data about students’ literature research processes, their skill levels and perceptions before, during, and after the activities, and the assignment grades. The Colorado Multiple Institutional Review Board (IRB #10-1106 10/2010) reviewed and approved our data collection templates and processes. Prior to each curriculum unit, students were explicitly invited to participate in the research project. They were made aware of the conditions under which their activities were measured and used as well as how their anonymity is preserved and were given an explicit opportunity to opt-out of the study.

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CURRICULUM DESIGN AND INFORMATION LITERACY The philosophy of the Honors General Chemistry I and II Laboratory courses at the University of Colorado Denver is to create a student-centered learning environment in which the student is an active participant in his or her own learning and the teacher is the facilitator of the learning. Borrowing from the Boyer Commission report on Reinventing Undergraduate Education, our “students enter a world of discovery in which they are active participants, not passive receivers.”20 The coursework starts by introducing various inquiry-based activities at the beginning of the semester, encouraging students to focus on problem solving and critical thinking. Mainly, we couch these activities in small experiment design decisions set in the context of larger well-defined procedures. For example, in the first experiment of the semester, we ask students to devise a method for measuring the final mass of a synthesis product. In the postlaboratory report, we ask them to evaluate the efficacy of their chosen method and suggest improvements were they to repeat the experiment. As the courses progress, the curriculum introduces more extensive laboratory projects that emphasize the classic student-centered learning activities where students must “frame a significant question, employ the research or creative exploration necessary to find answers, and then communicate those results to expert and novice audiences.”20 One of the tenets for success in these types of projects is an adequate level of information literacy in the student. As such, we integrated the competency standards of information literacy from the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL)21 and the ACS16,17 into our approach. According to ACS guidelines, students must be able to retrieve specific information from the peer-reviewed scientific literature effectively and efficiently and evaluate technical articles critically.16,17 These specific skills mesh well with the larger content of the ACRL definitions for information literacy, which includes six core competencies: the ability to determine the extent of the information needed; the ability to effectively access information; the ability to critically evaluate information; the ability to incorporate information into one’s work; the ability to use information to accomplish research or other goals; and the ability to understand legal and ethical issues surrounding the discovery and use of information.21 In order to ensure we are addressing each of these core competencies in our curriculum, we have mapped the components of information literacy to the components of student-centered learning and then directly to specific activities included in our modules. Each activity in the modules allows students to develop and then use their information literacy to master the material and successfully complete the assigned tasks. By self-directing their actions, they take control over their learning, thus reinforcing the student-centered learning

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METHODOLOGY The intention of these curriculum units is to expose a population of general chemistry students to the scientific literature and its role in experiment design and scientific discovery. By introducing literature search resources available from our campus library and the Internet, we establish a level of information literacy in these beginning science students that supports the development of their reasoning and critical thinking abilities. For the case study, we developed two curriculum units: “Exploring Scientific Literature” (1 week) in Honors General Chemistry I Laboratory and “Design your own General Chemistry Laboratory Experiment” (3 weeks) in Honors General Chemistry II Laboratory. The modules are embedded in laboratory curricula which also include experiments on gas laws, aqueous chemical reactions, calorimetry, titrations, atomic spectroscopy, kinetics, quantitative and qualitative equilibria, buffers, and qualitative analysis. The first semester module is typically taught during week five of the 15 week Honors General Chemistry I Laboratory, and the second semester module during weeks seven through nine of the 15 week Honors General Chemistry II Laboratory. Both curriculum modules include the use of scientific literature to support experiment design, during which students capture and submit citations for any resources they download and review. The second module builds on and expands the students’ chemical literacy skills sequentially. Student success is dependent on developing and using information literacy in service to critical thinking and practical analytical problem solving. Subsequent to their completion of the course, we surveyed the participating students to assess their perceptions of the value of the skills they learned and whether their beliefs and abilities were persistent. Using these data, we show that introducing scientific literature to these students has had an impact, both during the course and afterward as they progress on to upper division coursework. B

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Figure 1. Our goal is to build information literacy via exposure to the scientific literature and creative experiment design. Student-centered learning is the core of our approach. The middle layer reflects the six core competencies of information literacy as defined by the ACRL. The outermost layer summarizes the specific student activities included in our curriculum modules. Together, these layers map our integrated approach to establishing information literacy in our students.

explore the literature, accessing information effectively and efficiently and ultimately choosing three journal articles that support their idea. During this process, sometimes students begin with extremely broad topics such as “gas laws” or “calorimetry”, which are then narrowed by keywords such as “general chemistry experiment” or “laboratory experiment” and often filtered by publications focused on education such as the ACS Journal of Chemical Education. As a result, students practice critically evaluating what they find, rejecting ideas that fall out of the scope of general chemistry and refining those ideas that meet the needs of the assignment and their interest. Ultimately, students describe their proposed new experiment in a written assignment including the science questions addressed, objectives, and the student activities. Students only earn full credit if they adhere to ethical and legal standards of proper information discovery and literature research and citation. This is assessed by requiring formal reference citations in ACS format for three resources that directly support their proposed new general chemistry experiment (Propose a New Experiment Design and Properly Cite Resources Used in Figure 1). The second semester multiweek project “Design Your Own General Chemistry Laboratory Experiment” is more comprehensive. Though the first semester project simply asks students to research an idea, during the second semester students must come up with an idea that they have to actually implement in the laboratory. Students use their experience in the general chemistry laboratory and their scientific literature research skills to identify, design, and develop their own laboratory experiment for use in a typical General Chemistry Laboratory course. Their goal is to develop an experiment that provides an active learning laboratory experience about a topic in the general chemistry curriculum. The experiment must be appropriate for

environment. We represent our integrated approach in Figure 1. During the first semester module “Exploring Scientif ic Literature”, we start by establishing the foundation for information literacy through formal library instruction to expose the students to the resources available for exploring the scientific literature (Exposure to Scientif ic Literature as a Resource in Figure 1). Students use these tools to find, download, and read the assigned journal article from the primary literature. Students read the paper and prepare for a class discussion held during the laboratory period (Read & Understand a Scientif ic Paper in Figure 1). Each year the same article is assigned, “Romano-Egyptian Red Lead Pigment: A Subsidiary Commodity of Spanish Silver Mining and Refinement” by M.S. Walton and K. Trentelman.22 This article was chosen because of its unique blend of art, culture, history, and science. Key elements of the instructor-led class discussion include the scientific principles underlying the instrumental and analysis methods used in the paper. In addition, we consider the process of scientific research including the challenges of collaboration across multiple research groups and the uncertainty associated with interpreting results and drawing conclusions. These activities give students practice in finding, assessing and evaluating information from the scientific literature. In the postlaboratory assignment of this module, we ask our students to research and propose an idea for a new general chemistry experiment based on published experiments (Explore Literature Search Tools and Research a Design Idea in Figure 1). Students start the project by framing their idea for the experiment as a research question. They use the library resources and search tools acquired during library instruction to C

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and use this information to fine-tune their experimentation during the second week. Typically, the second week of experimentation goes much more smoothly, as students spend more time preparing ahead of the lab period and, once in the laboratory, are more focused and intent on completing their design. During the second week of experimentation, students are charged with running their new experiment from start to finish, in order to collect a complete set of data for inclusion in their final report. Often students are not able to completely achieve this goal, particularly for those students who experiments required significant revision after the first week. Nonetheless, over the course of the three year case study, less than 10% of the projects resulted in unsuccessful experiments, and even in those cases the design activities themselves result in a successful student learning experience. Table 1 provides a list of representative student-designed experiments.

a first year chemistry student to complete within one 3 h lab period. Students are allowed to further develop the idea they proposed during the first semester module, as long as it is practical and feasible within the constraints of department resources. (However, typically students choose another topic, usually reflective of their greater exposure to topics in general chemistry.) The result of the project is a complete laboratory experiment package, including the experiment document, supporting research, and a complete set of data and calculations. Finally, students present their design and experimental results to the class. During this project, students practice and further develop their information literacy, all the while self-directing their work through multiple project phases including literature research, design, experimentation, documentation, and presentation. The project begins in a similar fashion to the first semester module in that students use their literature research skills to identify an area of appropriate subject matter and scope for their experiment design, again capturing citations for any resources downloaded and reviewed (Research a Design Idea in Figure 1). Often, students veer outside the confines of general chemistry, commonly proposing organic synthesis or biochemical analysis experiments and need to be refocused. To help students critically evaluate their ideas against the requirements of the project, a preliminary approval meeting with the instructor is required to provide guidance with scope and topic choices. Safety and waste disposal approaches are also discussed, and the students are challenged to go back to the literature as needed to resolve issues and refine their ideas. From this activity, students make a formal experiment proposal (Propose a New Experiment Design in Figure 1). The proposal includes a short description of the proposed experiment, the citation for the published experiment on which the proposal is based, modifications to the published experiment, any equations describing the chemistry, an outline of procedures, a list of reagents, glassware, equipment and instruments required, and an assessment of the chemical waste that will be generated. Proposals are evaluated by the instructor, and approvals or requests for modifications are returned within a week. Throughout the literature research and experiment design phases, we explicitly reinforce the information literacy skills required to determine the extent of information needed, access that information effectively and efficiently, and evaluate the information critically. Once approved, students embark on the two-week experimentation phase where they actually design, develop, and test their experiment procedure in the laboratory (Evaluate Exp Methods by Doing in Figure 1). Students are provided with their requested materials, and before they can begin experimentation, they are required to create a chemical waste label according to university standards. For most students the first week of experimentation is quite challenging, as students realize that experimentation rarely goes as anticipated. Routinely, students report being surprised at how much planning, adjustment, and readjustment goes into creating a workable 3 h experiment that illustrates a chemical principal clearly and concisely. After the first lab period, students are encouraged to go back to the literature and review existing data and experiments to put their work into the larger scientific context, including how their measured data compares with literature values. Students begin to see the practical value of using published literature to incorporate alternate procedures, data collection, and analysis techniques into their experiments

Table 1. Representative Experiments Designed by Students from the Spring 2013 Semestera Paper Chromatography: The separation and identification of biological pigments in blackberries Determining the Conductivity of Common Consumer Products Colligative Properties of Consumer Deicing Salts Surfactants: Determining the effect of household soaps on the surface tension of water Kinetics of Metal+Acid Reactions Cooling Curves: The effects of solutes on the cooling of water Themochemistry of Cold Packs Titration of Vitamin C a The experiments listed here represent the typical range of scientific complexity and sophistication found in the second semester “Design Your Own General Chemistry Laboratory Experiment” module.

The project concludes with the final documentation (Document New Design and Properly Cite Resources Used in Figure 1) and presentation phases (Present New Experiment to Class in Figure 1). Students are required to provide a written summary of their design process and a formal experiment document. The design process document is a narrative of the students’ experience of proposing an experiment, working through the implementation in the laboratory, and an assessment of how the project has affected their view of general chemistry laboratory experiments. Typically, this is where the student reflects on the creative, open-ended aspects of the scientific process, and it can be quite gratifying both to the student and the instructor. The formal experiment document is patterned on a standard undergraduate laboratory experiment, comprised of objectives, background, procedures, data collection, pre- and postlaboratory assignments, and citations. In addition to writing the experiment document, students must also submit a complete set of data as well as answers to all pre- and postlaboratory questions and calculations. Finally, students communicate their experiments and design processes to each other in oral presentations during the third week of the project. It is during the presentations that students inspire each other to think creatively about the material. Curriculum materials for both units including instructions, assignments, and performance rubrics are included as Supporting Information to this paper. D

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It has helped my education because I know the information comes from a trusted source. Also when I am curious about an up and coming topic, I can look it up in the databases to gain more information about it. The introduction to scientific literature has been helpful for completing projects for other courses without needing extra time to familiarize myself with the process. I expect it to help in future coursework for the same reason it has helped before.

Yes because in any science class, particularly Chemistry, being knowledgeable about what you use in an experiment is crucial. Knowing the safety concerns as well as any details about the chemicals’ properties helps with the level of attention you take. Yes, it has. It has increased my interest in science and helped me with homework. It makes it a lot easier to find really useful materials for research paper and for chemistry lab. I thought it was helpful because it introduced the very helpful system to many Freshman who otherwise would not have known how to use it or how easy it was. Yes. In my opinion I think every science major should be required to take an “intro to research” class of some sort. Understanding how to find legitimate and useful sources is a crucial part of becoming a successful undergraduate student. It has helped me to think critically in ways I have not before. A very helpful and important introduction. I was thankful both for the instructional class and the work done in subsequent classes relating to the search for scientific literature, as it is a key skill that will serve me well throughout my academic career! Yes, it is basically a necessity in science education. Plus, seeing what the world is looking at in science is always interesting.

AY 2012−2013 AY 2011−2012 AY 2010−2011

Table 2. Representative Responses from Students to an Anonymous Longitudinal Web Survey

CONCLUSIONS: ASSESSING THE IMPACT THROUGH STUDENT SELF-ASSESSED ATTITUDES AND BELIEFS This paper has described curriculum modules for first year General Chemistry Laboratory courses which use scientific literature and creative experiment design to build information literacy in a student-centered learning environment. Companion papers present extensive results collected during the case study, including student performance and both qualitative and quantitative benefits of access to library collections.18,19 To provide a measure of the impact of these curriculum modules on individual students, here we present comments collected during an anonymous longitudinal survey of the case study population. In March of 2013, all three case study student cohorts were contacted via email and asked to respond to an anonymous web survey about their experiences in the scientific literature curriculum units. In total, 88 students were polled and 37 students responded (35% from academic year 2010−2011, 45% from 2011 to 2012, and 44% from 2012 to 2013). Several questions were posed and a detailed analysis of their responses is presented in a companion paper.18 In Table 2, we include a list of representative comments from the final free-response question regarding the impact of these activities on their education. A complete list of all comments is available as Supporting Information to this paper. Overwhelmingly, students indicated their experiences with the modules were positive and constructive. They indicate that the literature skills they learned were valuable and necessary to their education. More than half of student respondents reported continued usage and development of these literature skills to support their coursework (51%) or research activities (24%). A total of 19% stated that they thought the activities in these modules are integral to a science education and that they use the skills they learned to fuel their interest and curiosity about science. No students reported a negative experience in the modules. Only one student mentioned that he or she continues to use Google as a search tool for scientific literature. Also, only 2 of the 37 respondents indicated that they do not use literature resources at all anymore. These survey comments strongly suggest to the authors that introducing scientific literature and building information literacy skills in first-year chemistry courses provide immediate and long-term benefits to these students’ performance. In summary, two curriculum modules for general chemistry laboratory courses were created to expose first-year science students to the scientific literature and creative experiment design. Activities in the modules were mapped to the core competencies of information literacy and the student-centered learning environment where the student is an active participant in his or her own learning. The modules were delivered in a three year case study of honors general chemistry students at the University of Colorado Denver. Although these modules were developed for and are taught in honors courses, there are components that could translate to regular sections of general chemistry laboratory. In particular, the first semester module “Exploring Scientif ic Literature” could be adapted to a regular general chemistry audience by using web-based library instruction and moving the module to the second semester when students have a better grasp of experimental methods and design.

In your opinion, has your introduction to scientific literature and online search resources helped you in your education thus far? Do you expect it to help in your future coursework? Please comment on why or why not.

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Initial findings from a longitudinal survey of student selfassessed attitudes and beliefs suggest that introducing the scientific literature and building information literacy skills in first-year chemistry courses provide immediate and long-term benefits to student performance and engagement in the sciences. Companion papers address the additional details of the case study methodology, implementation, student performance assessments,18 and the measured quantitative benefits of student access to library collections.19 This research project is a case study, with all the limitations of case studies as a scholarship methodology including its specificity, which makes it difficult to generalize the results. Additionally, while statistical significance has been demonstrated between some aspects of student use of library resources and overall performance in the course,18 the small sample size and variability of results makes it difficult to make global pronouncements of effectiveness or relevance. Nonetheless, the results of this project do give us a deep view of this specific approach and allows us to identify positive and negative features, which are described in this paper and its companion papers.18,19

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(6) Somerville, A. N.; Cardinal, S. K. An Integrated Chemical Information Program. J. Chem. Educ. 2003, 80, 574−579. (7) Locknar, A.; Mitchell, R.; Rankin, J.; Sadoway, D. R. Integration of Information Literacy Components into a Large First-Year Lecture Based Chemistry Course. J. Chem. Educ. 2012, 89, 487−491. (8) Carpenter, N. E.; Pappenfus, T. M. Teaching Research: A Curriculum Model That Works. J. Chem. Educ. 2009, 86, 940−945. (9) Jensen, D., Jr.; Narske, R. Beyond Chemical Literature: Developing Skills for Chemical Research Literacy. J. Chem. Educ. 2010, 87, 700−702. (10) Tomaszewski, R. A Science Librarian in the Laboratory: A Case Study. J. Chem. Educ. 2011, 88, 755−760. (11) Rosenstein, I. J. A Literature Exercise Using SciFinder Scholar for the Sophomore-Level Organic Chemistry Course. J. Chem. Educ. 2005, 82, 652−654. (12) Walczak, M. M.; Jackson, P. T. Incorporating Information Literacy Skills into Analytical Chemistry: An Evolutionary Step. J. Chem. Educ. 2007, 84, 1385−1390. (13) Garritano, J. R.; Bartow Culp, F. Chemical Information Instruction in Academe: Who is Leading the Charge? J. Chem. Educ. 2010, 87, 340−344. (14) Hoskins, S. G.; Stevens, L. M.; Nehm, R. H. Selective Use of the Primary Literature Transforms the Classroom Into a Virtual Laboratory. Genetics 2007, 176, 1381−1389. (15) Information Competencies for Chemistry Undergraduates: the elements of information literacy; Special Libraries Association, Chemistry Division and American Chemical Society, Division of Chemical Information: Alexandria, VA and Washington, DC, July, 2012. http:// en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Information_Competencies_for_Chemistry_ Undergraduates (accessed Aug 2014). (16) ACS Guidelines and Evaluation Procedures for Bachelor’s Degree Programs (2008). http://www.acs.org/content/dam/acsorg/ about/governance/committees/training/acsapproved/ degreeprogram/2008-acs-guidelines-for-bachelors-degree-programs. pdf (accessed Aug 2014). (17) ACS Guidelines and Evaluation Procedures for Bachelor’s Degree Programs (2008), Chemical Information Supplement. http:// www.acs.org/content/dam/acsorg/about/governance/committees/ training/acsapproved/degreeprogram/chemical-information-skills.pdf (accessed Aug 2014). (18) Ferrer-Vinent, I. J.; Bruehl, M.; Pan, D.; Jones, G. L.Introducing Scientific Literature to Honors General Chemistry Students: Teaching Information Literacy and the Nature of Research to First-Year Chemistry Students. J. Chem. Educ. 2014; submitted for publication. (19) Pan, D.; Ferrer-Vinent, I. J.; Bruehl, M. Library Value in the Classroom: Assessing Student Learning Outcomes from Instruction and Collections. J. Acad. Libr. 2014, In press. (20) Boyer Commission Report on Educating Undergraduates in the Research University. Reinventing Undergraduate Education: A Blueprint for America’s Research Universities; State University of New York: Stony Brook, NY, 1998; Association of College and Research Libraries. Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education. (21) Association of College and Research Libraries. Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education; American Library Association: Chicago, IL, 2000. (22) Walton, M. S.; Trentelman, K. Roman-Egyptian Red Lead Pigment: A Subsidiary Commodity of Spanish Silver Mining and Refinement. Archaeometry 2009, 51, 845−860.

ASSOCIATED CONTENT

S Supporting Information *

Curriculum materials from Exploring Scientific Literature, and Design Your Own General Chemistry Experiment, including instructions, assignments, and performance rubrics; Appendix including all responses to free-response question from an anonymous longitudinal Web survey. This material is available via the Internet at http://pubs.acs.org.

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AUTHOR INFORMATION

Corresponding Author

*E-mail: [email protected]. Notes

The authors declare no competing financial interest.

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS We would like to thank the University of Colorado Denver Honors General Chemistry I and II Laboratory students who participated in the case study described in this paper. Cathy Rathbun, Laboratory Coordinator for General Chemistry, provided valuable material support in making our students’ creative ideas a reality. Additional thanks go to Jane Hood (University of Colorado Denver, Auraria Library, Marketing and Communications) for her help in visualizing the impact of this effort.

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REFERENCES

(1) Gawalt, E. S.; Adams, B. A Chemical Information Literacy Program for First-Year Students. J. Chem. Educ. 2011, 88, 402−407. (2) Forest, K.; Rayne, S. Incorporating Primary Literature Summary Projects into a First-Year Chemistry Curriculum. J. Chem. Educ. 2009, 86, 592−594. (3) Gottesman, A. J.; Hoskins, S. G. CREATE Cornerstone: Introduction to Scientific Thinking, a New Course for STEMInterested Freshmen, Demystifies Scientific Thinking through Analysis of Scientific Literature. Life Sci. Educ. 2013, 12, 59−72. (4) Seymour, E.; Hewett, N. Talking About Leaving: Why Undergraduates Leave the Sciences; Westview Press: Boulder, CO, 1997. (5) Lee, W. M.; Wiggins, G. Alternative Methods for Teaching Chemical Information to Undergraduates. Sci. Technol. Libr. 1997, 16, 31−43. F

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