the chemical information instructor
edited by
ARLEENSOMERVILLE Carlson Library Univenih, of Rochester Rochester, NY 14627
Online Searching Assignments in a Chemistry Course for Nonscience Majors Sara J. Penhale Wildman Science Library, Earlham College, Richmond IN 47374 Wilmer J. Stratton Department of Chemistry, Earlham College, Richmond, IN 47374 Chemical educators have long recognized the need to teach their students how to locate andkse chemical information ( I ) .Increasingly, the emphasis has been on instruction in online information retrieval, either in separate chemical literature and independent research courses (241, or integrated into junior- or senior-level courses such as advanced organic (5, 6).Typically, students are taught to search Chemical Abstracts through STN's CAS ONLINE or Dialog's CA SEARCH. At Earlharn College we have made instruction in the use of thc scientific literature an internal pan of nearlv cverv chemistry course for many years.%&is part of a collegewide philosophy that education means empowering students to go beyond textbooks and lectures so that they can learn on their own. We now teach chemistry majors to conduct online searches of Chemical Abstracts and other databases on Dialog, starting not later than the sophomore year. In the fall of 1990, we began offering a new kind of chemistry course designed for nonscience majors, and we decided to offer online retrieval of chemical information to this additional audience of students. The course is based on the innovative text developed by the American Chemical Society, Chemistry in Context: Applying Chemistry to Society (7).The course examines a variety of critical science-based contemporary issues (air pollution, global warming, energy resources, use of plastics, design of medicinal drugs, etc.) and introduces chemical principles as needed to understand the scientific aspects of these issues. In our course for nonmajors we want students to be able to access current information in order to stay abreast of these rapidly changing issues. Chemical Abstracts is not the appropriate search tool for these students because the technical literature i t indexes is not readily understandable by nonscience majors in an introductory course. Instead, we teach these students to search databases that include nontechnical chemical information already placed within a societal context, such as full-text newspapers and newswire databases. In this article we wish to describe not only what assignments we have used, but also how the course instructor and librarian work together to plan the assignments and
provide instruction to groups of students. Although we shall limit our description to one particular course, much of what we have learned about teaching online skills is applicable to other courses, either in chemistry or elsewhere in the curriculum. Sample Assignments In developing online search assignments, we have been guided by two goals: (1) the assignments should support overall course objectives
and (2) the assignments should he tailored to match the specific interests of the students enrolled in the course.
Thus, first, the assignments direct students to find current information about the particular societal issues being discussed in the text and second, we ask students to loo5 for information about these issues in their own home area. In addition, because Earlham College has a strong emphasis on international education and many of our students study abroad, a number of the assignments pertain to a foreign country of the student's choosing. Assignments used in the last two years have included the following. They are presented here as illustration to show the general nature of what we assign. The substance of the assignments will vary with the particular topics being studied in the course. Assignment 1. Become acquainted with the process of online searching. Look for news stories on air pollution in one US city, preferably near where you live. What chemicals are responsihle? Turn in a summary of your search and a hard copy of a t least one article. Assignment 2.
Find current information about either
(a) the ozone layer,
(b) the Antarctic ozone hole, or (4 CFC's and their replacements Turn in a summary of the search and either a commentary about one article or a summary in your own words of the articles you found. Assienment 3. Choose either one countrv or one citv and see what has been puhlishrd in the last'two years on the subject ofacid rain. Some ponsihle questions to explore: ~
Presented in part at the 206th meeting of the American Chemical Society, August 22, 1993,at a symposium on "Chemical lnformation Instruction in the 1990's: Facing Reality,"co-sponsored by the Division of Chemical Education and the Division of Chemical Information.
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Haw much damage has been done by acidic precipitation (e.g., to forests, lakes, agricultural land, buildings)? (b) How serious is the problem perceived to be?
(a)
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What controls have been (or are being) imposed on electric power generation or automobiles? (d)What are the economic impacts of the controls?
of information without accessing the original articles or reports.
Assignment 4. For your chosen country, search for information about current energy usage and projected future consumption. Some possible questions to ask:
Evaluation of the Online Search Assignments In the second year the course was offered (1992-19931, students completed Assignments 1,2, and 4. For each assignment, a group search session was conducted during a laboratory period. The class was divided into two laboratory groups, so a total of six online sessions were held. We kent records of online search time and wst oer student. g an Fbr Assignment 1, students were logged into ~ i a l o for averaee of 20 min each. The time decreased to an averaee of 11h i n per student for Assignment 2, indicative of & overall improvement in search skills. Assimment 4 was more com&ex and required more time: anaverage of 26 min per student. Altogether, each student spent a p p n d mately one hour searching, thus the average total cost per student was a little over $15 for all three assignments. We evaluated the 1992-1993 online assignments in two ways. Students completed a questionnaire designed to assess their overall opinion of the assignments and the significance of conducting the searching in group sessions. Second, we tape-recorded the comments made by instructor and librarian as we circulated around the room during one session. Student responses to a question of what they liked best about the online search assignments suggest that the original goals of supporting course objectives and appealing to student interests were fulfilled for many individuals. For instance, one student stated that "the assignments helped us to gain a better understanding of what is going on around us environmentally." Another liked "choosing a country in which I had an interest. I am an international studies major and this was a nice supplement to my learning." Students were asked to indicate to whom they turned for assistance with various aspects of online searching. Their responses indicated a high degree of interaction among everyone during the online search session (see the table). On every aspectof online searching-from using the basic commands to reviewing the retrieved m a t e r i a l d u r s e instructor. librarian. and classmates were consulted. We noted some specialization of roles, however. For instance, the instructor was consulted most oRen on matters related to the overall assignment. The librarian played a large role in the mechanics of online searchine. Classmates talked extensively with each other aboutthe information retrieved in the online search. We gained an additional perspective on interactions during online searching by reviewing the tape-recording of our own comments. One of our roles as instructors was to prompt students as they faltered in their use of search commands. For example, students frequently neglected to insert the Dialog "select" command before they entered search tern or had problems executing the "type" command. We also assisted students in refming search strategies by reminding them to use features of the online system such as narrowing a search by restricting to keywords in the titles of articles. More commonly, we helped students think of alternate search terms (hydroelectric, in addition to hydropower) or additional approaches to their topic (broadening to a larger geonaphic area when a search on a specific c&try neitedfew risults). Finallv. ".we ~rovidedrmidance in interoretine the results of the searches. We foGd that students ieedeihelp inrecognizing what could be learned simply from the numbers of "hits" obtained with various search terms. For example, searching for energy sources in France gave many hits for nuclear but very few for coal or hydroelectric. Students
(c)
What is the total mnsumption of energy? (b) What fraction is electric energy? (a)
What are the major energy sources (coal, gas, oil, nuclear, hydroelectric, other)? (d) If coal is extensively used, what is its quality (e.g.,brown coal or lignite)? (e) Is there a significant energy shortage? (e)
Turn in a summary of your search plus a written summary of what you found out about that country. Logistics of Online Instruction Online searching assignments are done in groups during regular scheduled laboratory periods. In our situation this means taking 30-60 min out of a three-hour lab period every two or three weeks. This allows us to take advantage of the presence of the course instructor as well as the librarian; each assists in online training, and each wnsults with students as they work. Further, we pair students a t the online workstations so that they provide additional ast each other. sistance and s u.~. w rfor Searching takes place in a microcomputer laboratory where we have eight workstations equipped with modems. Communications software automatically logs students into Dialog accounts. We use Dialog's Classroom Instruction Program that allows student searchers to access a wide ranee of Dialoe databases for a substantiallv reduced price of $15 per hour connect time, plus an additional hourly wmmunication cost of $3 for Internet access or $6 for telephone access. Trainim is a hands-on activitv Durine the first online assignment, the librarian begins by describing what Dialog is, what databases are, the basic commands for searching on Dialog, and basic principles of developing a search stratem. Then all students simultaneously work through a sampGsearch a t their workstations to be sure theyean successfully find the specified item. Following this, each student pa& carries out assignment 1while we circulate around the room, answering questions, offering advice, and trouble-shooting as needed:
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Databases Searched For the Grst three assignments described above, students use the wllcction of news~awrs . . available on Dlalog. Over40 newspapers from around the muntry are accessible in fulltext format. Initiallv, students select newspapers fmm their hometowns orregiok, such as the~hiladelbh&~nquirer,the Chicago Il)ibune, the Seattle Inmes, and the Akmn Beacon. For later assignments, they use newspapers that have reasonably good national wverage, such as the Washington Post or the Christian Science Monitor For the fourth assignment, students use a different set of databases. Current energy information is obtained through Dialog's full-text newswire databases such as Newswire ASAP, Arab Information Bank, and Japan Ewnornic Newswire Plus. For more technical information on energy topics, students turn to Energy, Science, and Technology, a large database maintained by the US Department of Energy. This database provides abstracts of journal articles, reports, conference papers, books, patents, and dissertations on a broad range of energy and environmental issues. Approximately 50% of the abstracts are &om nou-US sources. The abstracts include enough information so that students can use these as their sole source 228
Journal of Chemical Education
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Questionnaire Responses
Type of Interaction
with
Instructor
with
with
Librarian Classmates
discussed the goals of the assignment talked abo~tnarrowlng !he toplc or chang ng the focus had help in using Dialog commands talked about what search terms to use and how to combine them had help in making the computer or printer work talked about the articles or abstracts while viewing them onscreen had help in understanding the content of the material onscreen Percentages of studentswhoconsulted the course instructor,the librarian,or classmates for assistance with various aspects of online searching.
also needed help in extracting useful information out of abstrads that appeared at first glance too technical. This need for support and encouragement during online searching was acknowledged bv some students in their answers touthe question ofkhad they liked least about the online assignments. One listed "feeling like I%n still not quite sure I could do it by myself." Another indicated a lack of self-confidence by noting, "I'm not all that great with computers." Conclusions Usine erouo online search sessions carries some advantages over individual searching. Since our Chemistry in Context course is desimed for nonscience majors. it carries the risk of attracting students for whom chemistry may be intimidating or lacking in inherent interest. Enthusiastic and informative guidance can help overcome these attitudes. Thus, we want to maintain a n active instmctorllibrarian as students work on their online assignments. We can accomplish this in a manner that makes efficient use of our time by scheduling the online searching in groups. In this way, we are able to work with 16 or more students a t a time. In addition, the assignments for this course are more open-ended than thosc ~ypically given to chemistry majors conducting online searchex. Since the dcvelopmcnt of a topic can be a more complex activity than retrieving specific pieces of information, the presence of both the instruc-
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tor and the librarian allows us to help students develop the types of judgment that are needed. We are also pleased with the degree to which students rely on each other's assistance as they carry out their online searches together. This probably reflects not only that searching in pairs means that students have continuous access to advice from their partners, but also their readiness to collaborate with someone who is their Deer when trying to sort out unfamiliar ideas. Learning that takes lace in such a "communitv atmos~here"has been deemed to be one of the elements"of succ~ssfulscience education (8).
Perhaps the most important assessment ofthe success of these assignments was the high quality of the written work submitted aRer each assignment. We have been especially pleased with the excellent essays written for Assignment 4, in which students integrated and expanded on what they had learned from the searches, adding perspectives from their own major field of study or from personal experiences in a foreign country. Our overall conclusion is that the addition of online searching assignments to the Chemistry in Context course has been very successful. Online search in^ enables students to find current information on chemical issues of relevance to society. This supports one of the most important objectives of the Chemistry in Context course: to empower students to locate information needed to address technical issues. Thus. for the nonscience maiors in this course. the significant edacquisition of online retrieval s k i l ~ s " ~ laa ~ s ucational role in a manner oarallel to that for chemistrv majors in more traditional courses. Acknowledgment We are grateful to Dialog Information Services, Inc. for the online search time which led to the development of these course assignments. In particular, we wish to thank Roger Summit who led the way in providing Earlham College with unlimited access to Dialog databases for a twoyear period trial, and to Anne Caputo who provided ongoing s u o ~ o r and t encouraeement during our oeriod of experimentation. We also G s h to thank steven tongenecker for his role in assistillg with course instruction. and to Michael Bowden for t e k n i c a l assistance with'online searching.
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Literature Cited 1.Somenille, A.M.J. Cham.Inf Cornput Sn'. 1985,25.314321. 2. Jenkins, J. k J C h m .Educ. 199% 69,639641. 3. Gaur, P 0.;Borders, C. L., Jr; Powell, J. k Survey, D. J. Cham Educ. 1988,60, 1048-1049. 4.Abraah. H. I. J. Cham.Edm. 198e,69,14M46. 5 K ~ m p o l cM, . h k a r . D . h l d l n . C J Ch
