News Release

MADISON, WI, FEBRUARY 4, 2008 -- Many undergraduates have trouble finding, validating, and using online scientific resources, particularly as they tend to be novices immersed in learning scientific procedure and what represents scientific literature. A teacher and a librarian established a partnership and developed a tutorial to help mitigate these problems in a senior-level plant sciences seminar.

William Berzonsky, Associate Professor, and Katherine Richardson, Agricultural Sciences Librarian, North Dakota State University, present an article in the 2008 Journal of Natural Resources and Life Sciences Education.

They identified a need to help students in this area and implemented a yearly tutorial designed to teach undergraduate students how to search for and validate online scientific literature. It is difficult for most undergraduates to sift through the growing amount of online information and determine what information is actually based on scientific research and experimentation. Over several years, the tutorial was presented as a "hands on" computer library learning session, with instruction on using appropriate search engines and sites to identify valid peer-reviewed scientific literature.

According to Berzonsky, "Faculty can work with librarians to create their own assignments similar to the ones in our study."

Results of student surveys conducted over several years demonstrated that they learned these skills. Because there is a trend favoring the use of electronic scientific information and its availability continues to expand, these students will be well-equipped with the skills to use the information in their professional scientific careers.

Berzonsky suggests, "To help teach these important skills at an earlier stage, I also recommend using this approach in lower-level plant science courses and even in other undergraduate scientific curricula and disciplines."