Tutor Notes - General

Transcription

1 Tutor Notes - General ESB tutorials aim to develop skills in reading and writing but also to encourage students to become aware of how knowledge is developed, constructed and disputed in biology and so to become engaged and critical. It is also a forum to get to know your first year advisees and help them with their studies in general. All ESB related material can be downloaded from the Tutorials webpage under the Staff File Store (or you may provide your own material, following the guidelines below): The basic idea is that you choose a topic for the discussion and writing activities that span the semester A tutorials as detailed on the following pages. Your chosen topic needs to meet the following criteria: It covers a broad area of biology, is topical and controversial (ideally with published arguments for and against). It has a recent popular science article (New Scientist or similar). The popular science piece you choose is related to a recent research paper. The intranet Tutorials webpage contains a default topic that has been used before (Snowball Earth), and several other folders with alternative ideas (e.g. Genes and Behaviour, Flu, etc). You can of course choose your own topic, so long as it meets the criteria above, which essentially means finding a science journalisms article (for the first tutorial) and an original research article (for the second tutorial) that are directly related to each other. You will need to enter marks for tutorial assignments using your control panel. A marking scheme for each tutorial exercise can be found on the tutorials intranet page. Semester A exercises are as follows: Tutorial Week Topic Assignment Assessment number 1 3 Reading and writing Article summary 1 biology 2 5 Engaging with an Title, abstract, 2 academic text keywords 3 9 Citing sources and None plagiarism 4 11 In-class writing In-class writing 3 exercise exercise Researching sources Annotated bibliography 4 Please note the 4 th assessment is set in semester A (week 11) but will be handed in and marked by the 1 st tutorial of semester B.

2 Tutorial 1 (Week 3) Objectives: Encourage thinking about the nature and purposes of the discipline of biology. Encourage students to raise questions. Give students practice in reading into your chosen discussion topic and practice writing a summary. Before you start You will need to have copies of you chosen journalistic article for each of your students (for those that chose to do the default option of Snowball Earth, this will be the New Scientist article (12 April 2003) by Gabriella Walker). 1. Introduction Explain the purposes of the work. During semester A you will be exploring a topic in biology (e.g. the Snowball Earth controversy) through a variety of reading, writing and discussion activities. The aim is to get students thinking about how knowledge is developed and disputed in biology, and to develop their skills in reading and writing in the discipline. Explain that the work will require their active participation in class. This may include sharing written work with one another. Let them know that they will be doing short pieces for assessment and eventually a 1000 word essay (next semester). Emphasise that essay writing is important as this is a major component of the exam assessment, from second year on. Emphasise that they will be assessed for attendance and punctuality. If they miss a tutorial the relevant assignment will be marked down by one grade. Tell them that if they re more than 10 minutes late for a tutorial they will not be admitted and will be counted as absent. Tell them to get an A4 loose-leaf folder as a workbook, to be brought to every tutorial. The workbook is the place where they will do in-class writing, record information, explore ideas and try out drafts. They can use it too to reflect at any time on the processes they are going through on the course. 2. First Writing Task About 5 mins freewriting in workbooks on questions: What is the purpose of Biology? What do Biologists do?. It s a good idea if the tutor does this too. 3. Paired discussion In pairs, students discuss the ideas they ve come up with. (5 mins) 4. Group discussion Manage group discussion of the questions, perhaps writing up list of purposes/activities on a board. Include reading and writing as activities

3 that biologists do! And consider the reasons that they do these things. This discussion should help to provide a rationale for the advisorials. 5. Second Writing Task More freewriting What I know about the topic under discussion (e.g. for Snowball Earth: What I know about how complex life began on earth (2-5 mins). 6. Set homework Introduce the homework reading The journalistic article that you have chosen. The students task is to summarise in no more than 250 words the article and the controversies surrounding the topic. Suggested deadline: Friday, 23 October, prior to Tutorial 2 on Wednesday, 28 October 2009 ***It is a good idea if the tutor also attempts this summary exercise***

4 Tutorial 2 (Week 5) Objectives: Reflect on process of summarising. Discuss debates around the chosen topic. Raise awareness of how points of view are signalled in text. Engaging with an academic text. Before you start You will need to have the following materials available for students: Copies of a research paper related to your journalistic article. For Snowball Earth this is Rasmussen et al. (2002) Science 296, You need to remove the title and abstract (provided for Rasmussen et al.). Your own students summaries, marked, to be handed back. 1. Hand back summaries Let students re-read their own summaries and look at any feedback or comments you have made. 2. Group discussion Group discussion of summaries. Also discussion of what the text actually said about the topic. Correct any factual inaccuracies or misunderstandings in your students work at this point. You might try listing points that are well-established with the topic and points that are controversial. 3. Reading an academic paper Hand out the research paper, and have everyone read just the first paragraph What sort of space are the authors trying to create for themselves? What do you think they are going to be saying? How might it relate to the topic under discussion? 4. Explain the homework task Students will have to read the paper and do three tasks: 1. Invent a suitable title. 2. Provide five key words (that describe the key elements and would be useful in computer searching for the paper). 3. Write a short paragraph on what the authors of the paper are claiming. Again, hand in the Friday before the next tutorial so marked work can be returned.

5 Tutorial 3 (Week 9) Objectives: Raise awareness of role and value of keywords. When and how to cite references. Plagiarism. Before you start You will need to have the following materials available: A list of titles suggested by the group in the last homework A list of selected keywords suggested by the students for homework Material for plagiarism exercise (supplied). 1. Discussion of titles Read out the titles suggested by the group and have the students write them in their workbooks. Have them vote on which they think is the most suitable. In-group discussion, justify the result. Tell them the actual title and discuss its merits or otherwise. 2. Thinking about keywords Have the students write down in their workbooks a list of keywords, selected by you from their homework assignments. Students work in pairs to select the best five. Ask one group to put forward their selection; ask others to agree or disagree and say why. 3. Discussion on the functions of citations and keywords Ask students: how could they find out more about the topic under discussion? 1) Lead them back to the two texts they have read and show how they contain pointers in the form of references to other work/discussion on the topic. 2) Point to the role of keywords in literature searching (which they will do in a library exercise to be held in Week 12). 4. Thinking about citations and plagiarism Explain how important it is to correctly cite all source material, and that if sections of text are quoted word-for-word, then it must be in quotation marks otherwise it is plagiarism. Remind the students about the penalties for plagiarism (can be found in the First Year Handbook and on SBCS intranet: Two example essays with their respective reports from the Turnitin plagiarism detection software are provided. You can give each essay to your students to read, then show them the reports, or just show them the reports (depending on time). One essay scored 11%, and you will see that only parts of sentences are picked up, and (I think) that this is within acceptable limits. However it demonstrates the sensitivity of the software

6 very well. The second essay is a clear-cut plagiarism offence and scored 61%, with large chunks of text pasted word-for-word. 6. Homework None, but tell the students to be prepared to write briefly on an aspect of the topic in the next tutorial (see next section). They may wish to go through any literature you have been looking at.

7 Tutorial 4 (Week 11) Objectives: To carry out a second brief writing assessment exercise. To prepare the students for the library database exercise in Week 12. Before you start Nothing is needed. 1. In-class writing task. Rationale: 1. To provide the ESB tutor with feedback on how well the students have picked up a key idea from the previous weeks work and how well they can communicate this. 2. To provide students feedback on their understanding of the course and on their writing. 3. The piece should, therefore, be marked and given a grade as part of ESB. 4. In addition, the piece will act as a second diagnostic writing task (to that given in Week 1). It can be used to reinforce the request that identified students attend the LLU course on grammar, writing and syntax in Semester 2 and to identify others not picked up in the Week 1 diagnosis. Any recommendations for students to attend should be forwarded to Peter Skorupski. Task (in the tutorial): Adapt to your respective topic as follows: In lines give an explanation of x (where x is a key concept or process covered in the ESB tutorials to date, or maybe also in related core courses e.g. genes). Use an example. 2. Explain the homework task Students must attend library session in Week 12 (they will have been informed about this) that will introduce them into using databases such as Web of Knowledge. They will then search for range of texts related to the subject under discussion and surrounding controversies. Remind them again about the discussion on keywords from the last tutorial, as this is how they will find their source material. They can start this activity in the library session and then continue afterwards in their own time if necessary. There are two pieces to be handed in: 1) a short annotated bibliography of 4 texts, correctly referenced according to the Harvard system (remind students what they have

8 learnt about referencing conventions in week 10 lecture). The bibliography may be drawn from a variety of sources; however, it should contain at least one original paper from a scientific journal (all 4 references may be from the primary literature if desired). Annotations should be words long and should explain how the piece contributes to the topic under discussion. (Warn the students that they cannot simply past in text from the abstract.) 2) a brief account (up to 200 words) of the library search they did. It should include the keywords they used, along with a rationale for choosing these particular ones and an evaluation of how well they worked. To be handed in at the beginning of Week 2 in Semester B, for marking and return at the first tutorial in Semester B, Week 3.