Information • Textbooks • Media • Resources edited by
Chemical Information Instructor
Arleen N. Somerville
Teaching Chemical Information in a Liberal Arts Curriculum
Carlson Library University of Rochester Rochester, NY 14627-0236
Alison Scott Ricker* Science Library, Oberlin College, Oberlin OH 44074;
[email protected] Robert Q. Thompson Department of Chemistry, Oberlin College, Oberlin OH 44074
This paper gives a synopsis of our current approach to teaching a course on chemical information at Oberlin College1 and reports changes made during the past two years. We have described the course in some detail elsewhere (1). Information Literacy in the Chemistry Curriculum There is widespread acknowledgment that information literacy, in its broadest sense, must be incorporated into the chemistry curriculum. What is less clear is the ideal pathway for achieving the goal, given the many constraints that may exist in an institution. The Clearinghouse for Chemical Information Instructional Materials (2) offers many models, several of which have been described in this column. Lee and Wiggins summarize “alternative methods for teaching chemical information”, noting that differences abound regarding not only who should teach CI, but where, when, and how it should be incorporated into the undergraduate curriculum (3). The number of approaches is possibly limited only by the number of chemistry programs in higher education, and the right approach for any one department is determined by many factors unique to that institution. Carr and Somerville provide a good summary of “information skills needed by all chemists” and make useful distinctions based on student level (4). Their overview of the ways computers have transformed chemical information dramatically underscores the need to teach chemistry information at all levels, through a variety of means. Our course incorporates the cooperative learning philosophy described by Penhale (5), the benefits of faculty– librarian partnership related by Drum (6 ), and the relevance of researching an intriguing problem in chemistry that Porter and Woerner (7) emphasize, all within a context that is very different from any of those approaches. Offering a course focused on finding, using, and evaluating chemical information, in the relative expansiveness of 12 class sessions, builds a solid foundation for the student. It contributes to a sense of confidence when students investigate a new problem, must make sense of conflicting points of view, or otherwise integrate the vast amount of information we all encounter daily. We hope to help develop the intellectual skills needed to utilize chemical information, as well as to reinforce effective investigative behavior required of a lifelong learner. Course Objectives and Our Expectations Honors students must complete Chemical Information before enrolling in the advanced research course required of participants in the honors program. Other research students 1590
are strongly encouraged to take Chemical Information as well. Organic chemistry and one other core chemistry course (analytical, inorganic, or quantum chemistry and kinetics) are prerequisites. We expect the students to become more skilled and independent in their pursuit and use of chemical information by semester’s end, acquiring knowledge that will help them complete specific requirements of the research and honors programs. While the course is geared toward the advanced chemistry major, one or two biology majors have also completed and benefited from it. The course syllabus (http://www. oberlin.edu/~aricker/chem396) begins with this statement: The course is designed to familiarize you with the major sources of chemical information, to help you to learn how to assess the information that you obtain, and to develop skills in presenting structural and numerical information in chemistry.
We meet weekly with the students for one and a quarter hours, and give assignments weekly to complete outside of class. These assignments generally take between two and three hours to complete. Most of the work focuses on investigating a question posed by a chemist, designed for learning about some problem of current research interest in the discipline as well as the process of investigation and research. During the first class session the students choose a partner for the course, forming investigative teams of two, and select one question to research throughout the 14-week semester. We invite the chemistry faculty to submit questions for investigation, and we offer a short list of questions from which the students choose a topic for the semester. Some of the questions for the Fall 1997 course were: What are the formula and crystal structure of the substance with the highest reported temperature at which it behaves as a superconductor? What molecules with the formula C4HxNy Oz have been detected in outer space? What do NMR studies indicate about the number of water molecules coordinated to the 3+ ions of the group 3 elements in aqueous solution? What synthetic scheme for Taxol shows the most promise for commercial development?
Weekly Assignments Build on Previous Weeks’ Experience Weekly assignments require the students to use specific strategies and techniques, comparing and analyzing the results between different databases, all within the context of researching the chosen topic.
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The weekly problem sets give experience with specific resources, databases, and retrieval skills and chemical software. We begin with the most general resources in the print reference collection, utilizing the online catalogs for our library and the Ohio consortium OhioLINK, and move quickly to multidiscipline databases on the local CD-ROM Network and offered through OCLC’s FirstSearch service. The search process then narrows to Chemical Abstracts in print and CA Online. Most of the weekly assignments require the students to use specific strategies and techniques, comparing and analyzing the results between databases, all within the context of researching the chosen topic. Problem sets sometimes include a section of “Other activities” to guide the students through a type of search or strategy that may not be necessary at that point in the research on their topics, but is nonetheless an important skill to acquire for the particular database. We also rely on some tried-and-true “canned” searches in the CA learning files during the initial exposure to STN. Another aspect of the weekly problem set is an investigation on an assigned chemical compound. We give the students eight questions to answer about the compound and require citations of their source material. The eight questions are distributed over three weeks, beginning with the second problem set (http://www.oberlin.edu/~aricker/chem396/ problem2.html). The expected result with the assignments is cumulative in that students provide a bit more information on their topic each week. The work in the first week may result in one loosely structured paragraph and a list of keywords and subject headings that were most useful. By the end of the fourth week we expect a one- to two-page summary of the information gathered, with reference to the source of each piece of information, and many more details by the end of the sixth week (following use of Chemical Abstracts). Cited sources are to be numbered consecutively, using superscripts and written in ACS style on a separate page. Even though the final goal (at the end of the semester) is not a written paper, this continuous process of writing on the topic each week helps avoid the last minute scramble to coalesce the information into a coherent presentation. We were pleased with the overall improvement in the students’ performance during the semester we first tried this approach. It seemed that people stayed on track throughout the course, and students’ responses each week (both in class and on problem sets) suggested a good understanding of the variety of resources and indicated how well they were organizing the information gleaned from each source. Oral Presentations on Topics and Process Students’ oral presentations and a final exam conclude the course, giving them opportunity to demonstrate knowledge gained on their topic, as well as information literacy and computer skills acquired during the semester. At the end of the semester each team makes a 10–15minute presentation to the class. They provide an answer to their chosen question, in the context of what they learned about the topic in general and the process they followed to gather the information, and demonstrate skills acquired with relevant software. We give the students relatively little formal guidance concerning the oral presentation beyond stressing the need to be well organized, succinct, and rehearsed and
to focus on the essential points that must be communicated. Most do very well with their ten minutes in the spotlight, but nearly every student would benefit from an additional session on tips for an effective oral presentation. This is good practice for students who will participate in the honors and research projects, and they receive more guidance on presentation effectiveness in those programs. We do ask the students to distribute to the audience a written outline of their talk, including essential data, and to use visual aids (e.g., transparencies). A bibliography and list of tertiary sources (databases and indexes) is included in their handouts. Some students have ventured to include files retrieved from the Web in their presentations, and we encourage that approach when applicable. Faculty/Librarian Distribution of Responsibilities We share the planning, teaching, and evaluation responsibilities fairly equally. The chemist provides the initial overview and introduction to the course, describing research strategies in general and the structure of chemical information, with a brief mention of standard reference sources for chemical data. Thompson wrote the course syllabus, including the short piece Approaching Your Investigation (http://www.oberlin. edu/~aricker/chem396/#invest). This is a useful model for beginning an inquiry in published literature, and we look through it together during the first class session. The librarian then provides a demonstration and leads a hands-on lab of advanced search strategies for the online catalog and our statewide central catalog OhioLINK. Near the end of the class, if we have fewer than 14 or so students, we distribute written questions and set them loose in the library, to see what strategies they employ to answer the questions within 15 minutes. Everyone compares notes at the end of that period, which usually serves to illustrate that finding information quickly and efficiently is not always a straightforward process! During the rest of the semester the librarian teaches multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary electronic bibliographic resources: FirstSearch, UnCover, General Science Index, Science Citation Index, Medline, other bibliographic databases, the Internet as a whole, and the STN command language Messenger. The chemist is responsible for the sessions focused on chemistry: Chemical Abstracts, CA Online, STN Express, ChemDraw, and the Microsoft Word Equation Editor and chemical sources on the World Wide Web. He also leads the session on evaluating chemistry information. Both of us are active participants and assistants in those sessions we do not lead, a cooperative arrangement that helps us evaluate together the students’ progress overall. A significant portion of most classes is devoted to engaged use of demonstrated resources at computers. For this reason, the class meets in the chemistry department’s computer laboratory, which is equipped with a dozen student and one instructor Macintosh workstations. Each student workstation seats two. Teaching Resources We do not require use of a textbook, but refer the students to some recent guides in our reference collection (8). We have generated most of our materials ourselves, including the weekly problem sets, in-class exercises, and examples. Workbooks from Chemical Abstracts Service for teaching CA
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Online (9) are important supplements and teaching aids. Our focus for teaching the Internet has changed fundamentally in the past several years. Most students now come to the course with enough experience with Netscape, Web guides, and search engines that we do not have to focus on specific how-to instructions and can concentrate instead on evaluating different search tools and the content of the information retrieved online. The computing center on campus provides support in this area as well, so that students who lack basic skills with a Web browser can gain experience through workshops taught by computing center staff. This basic understanding has become essential, especially with the introduction of STN Easy as one method of accessing CA Online. Several students expressed a preference for STN Easy over STN Express during the fall 1997 course. We have allowed research students to continue to have unmediated access to STN Easy, once they have successfully completed the course. The librarian monitors the use of those logins and provides the passwords (10 separate logins on the library’s academic discount account). Student Response and Concluding Observations Students have been generally positive in their course evaluations and indicate nearly uniformly that by the end of the course they feel more confident and competent in their information retrieval skills than they did before taking the class. The fall 1997 students were less positive in their assessment of STN Express than previous students, once they had the opportunity to use STN Easy. There remain a few students in each class who value the use of Chemical Abstracts as a print resource and appreciate the relevance of the print for improving online search strategies. Criticism in earlier years centered on what students perceived as “busy work.” In response, we redesigned nearly every problem set so that the primary focus was on researching the students’ chosen topics. The clear relevance to the student’s course assignment helped alleviate that frustration. The confidence we hoped to foster in chemistry majors is becoming more apparent with each semester, as attested by faculty working with research students. Faculty report that sending a student to the library or computer to research a specific problem, whether that involves use of electronic bibliographic tools, print handbooks, or Chemical Abstracts, has become more routine; that is, requiring less instruction at point of use by either the librarian or faculty investigator. It is not uncommon to see an upper-level student who has completed the course guiding another student to a particular reference work, or giving assistance with an electronic resource at one of the library’s public workstations. On the basis of conversations with library colleagues who work with students in the humanities and social sciences, the chemistry research students are among the most efficient and savvy library users on our campus. Beyond their familiarity with bibliographic databases, they continue to utilize computation and molecular modeling skills learned in Chemical Information in other chemistry courses and apply the knowledge for citing literature, presenting findings, and preparing handouts in other courses as well. Faculty have observed that the course has improved the information literacy skills and research input of both honors and research students, relative to the difficulties encountered by their predecessors just ten years 1592
ago. This is a definite benefit in a small college that prizes the faculty–undergraduate research team, as the student must become a relatively sophisticated lab scientist in very short period so that real progress may occur. Some of the observed improvement in students’ skills must be attributed to the continually evolving bibliographic and other reference tools. The transformation of the print Science Citation Index into the ISI Web of Science is just one example of how computing and the Internet have combined to make a very elegant resource that can’t help but improve a student’s ability to access information. Some faculty have benefited from the course directly by sitting in on one or two sessions that are of particular interest, to refresh their own skills and learn new modes of access to the literature. The course was the impetus for establishing a chemistry computer laboratory, which was realized through a grant from the Camille and Henry Dreyfus Foundation. Although other courses could have and would have incorporated computerassisted learning to some extent, there was not enough justification for the lab until we began teaching chemistry information. The existence of the computer lab has opened up a broader range of possibilities for the curriculum, and several other courses now take advantage of the computer lab and chemistry server. Finally, the course has served as a model for other departments on campus that are discussing ways to better integrate information literacy into their curricula. Evidence of those discussions can be seen at the college’s OCTET Web site (Oberlin Center for Technology Enhanced Teaching): http://www.oberlin.edu/~OCTET/. Note 1. Oberlin College is a private, four-year liberal arts college in Oberlin, Ohio. The total 1996/97 FTE student body numbered 2,600. The chemistry department typically awards 20–25 bachelor of arts degrees each year, chemistry and biochemistry majors combined, and involves more than half of those majors in faculty-sponsored research efforts. The campus is fully networked and the library provides access to a CD-ROM LAN in addition to a wide array of full-text and bibliographic sources available on the Internet, World Wide Web, and single workstations. The campus offers a mix of Macintosh, PC, and UNIX workstations, Macintosh being the most prevalent. The Chemistry Information classes take place in a networked computer lab with 13 Macintosh workstations; each workstation is able to accommodate a pair of students working collaboratively. Teachers for the CI Course include Robert Q. Thompson, Professor of Chemistry (robert.q.thompson@ oberlin.edu); Martin A. Ackermann, Professor of Chemistry (martin.
[email protected]); and Alison S. Ricker, Science Librarian (
[email protected]).
Literature Cited 1. Ricker, A. S. Sci. Technol. Lib. 1997, 16 (3/4), 45–67. 2. The Clearinghouse for Chemical Information Instructional Materials (CCIIM) once resided at the University of Pennsylvania Chemistry Library, under the direction of Carol Carr. It is now administered by Gary Wiggins of Indiana University (wiggins@ indiana.edu) and is accessible at URL: http://www.indiana.edu/ ~cheminfo/cciimnro.html (accessed Aug 1999). 3. Lee, W. M.; Wiggins, G. Sci. Technol. Lib. 1997, 16 (3/4), 31–43. 4. Carr, C.; Somerville, A. N. In Using Computers in Chemistry and Chemical Education; Zielinski, T. J.; Swift, M. L, Eds.; American Chemical Society: Columbus, OH, 1997; pp 109–131. 5. Pehanle, S. J. Sci. Technol. Lib. 1997, 16 (3/4), 69–87. 6. Drum, C. A. Sci. Technol. Lib. 1997, 16 (3/4), 89–97.
Journal of Chemical Education • Vol. 76 No. 11 November 1999 • JChemEd.chem.wisc.edu
Information • Textbooks • Media • Resources 7. Porter, K. R.; Woerner, T. Sci. Technol. Lib. 1997, 16 (3/4), 99–114. 8. Bottle, R. T.; Rowland, J. F. B. Information Sources in Chemistry, 4th ed.; Bowker Saur: London, 1993. Wiggins, G. Chemical Information Sources; McGraw-Hill Series in Advanced Chemistry; McGraw-Hill: New York, 1991. 9. Chemical Abstracts Service, Columbus, OH. Using CAS Databases on STN; http://www.cas.org/ACAD/cover.html (accessed Aug 1999). Using the CSA Registry File on STN; http://www.cas.org/ ACAD2/cover.html (accessed Aug 1999). Structure Searching in The CAS Registry Database File; http://www.cas.org/ACAD/casreg.pdf (accessed Aug 1999).
Further Reading Abrash, H. I. A Course in Chemical Information Retrieval; J. Chem. Educ. 1992, 69, 143–146. The Internet: A Guide for Chemists; Bachrach, S. M., Ed.; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 1996. Bauer, F. Internet Resources for Chemistry; Coll. Res. Libr. News 1996, 57, 726–729. Carr, C. Teaching and Using Chemical Information; J. Chem. Educ. 1993, 70, 719–726. Cooke, R. C. Undergraduate Online Chemistry Literature Searching; J. Chem. Educ. 1994, 71, 872–873.
Holmes, C. O.; Warden, J. T. CIStudio: A Worldwide Web-Based, Interactive Chemical Information Course; J. Chem. Educ. 1996, 73, 325–331. Jenkins, J. A. Undergraduate Instruction in Online Searching of Chemical Abstracts; J. Chem. Educ. 1992, 69, 639–641. Mounts, R. D. Chemistry on the Web; J. Chem. Educ. 1996, 73, 68–71. Penhale, S. J.; Stratton, W. J. Online Searching Assignments in a Chemistry Course for Nonscience Majors. J. Chem. Educ. 1994, 71, 227–229. Somerville, A. N. Perspectives and Criteria for Chemical Information Instruction; J. Chem. Inf. Comput. Sci. 1990, 30, 177–181 . Somerville, A. N. Chemical Information Instruction of the Undergraduate: A Review and Analysis; J. Chem. Inf. Comput. Sci. 1985, 25, 314–323. Stevens, K. E.; Stevens, R. E. Use of the World-Wide Web in LowerDivision Chemistry Courses. J. Chem. Educ. 1996, 73, 923. This paper presents an intriguing strategy for engaging nonmajors and beginning students in the sort of timely, newsworthy chemical information that will encourage further study. Varveri, F. S. Information Retrieval in Chemistry. J. Chem. Educ. 1993, 70, 204–208. Varveri, F. S. Information Retrieval in Chemistry Across the Internet. In Using Computers in Chemistry and Chemical Education; Zielinski, T. J.; Swift, M. L., Eds.; American Chemical Society: Columbus, OH, 1997; pp 93–107.
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