Biology Commons^™

Toward Building Science Literacy, Kathryn Rafferty

UNLV Best Teaching Practices Expo

Reading scientific literature is a critical science competency that proves difficult to “teach.” Students enter our classes with varying science vocabularies, and many suffer imposter syndrome when reading technical reports because they do not yet identify as capable scientists. The “Science Literacy” assignment guides students to develop and expand strategies to read science articles. Over the semester, students read 5 to 6 articles ranging from peer-reviewed manuscripts to popular science magazines to science blogs about sequencing Ozzy Osbourne's DNA. In Canvas Discussion boards, they a guiding set of questions and then respond to their peers. This assignment is a low-stakes …