Project Investigator(s): Maryam Moussavi, Sessional Instructor, Department of Zoology
Project Description
The project goal is to better assist students’ creation of logical arguments for their scientific writing. Worksheets and activities are being developed to assist with the initial set-up for the current scaffolded assignment, based on previous student feedback. I aim to evaluate the efficacy of these worksheets through student surveys, focus group discussions, and review / comparison of written assignments with those completed without the worksheets and activities. Final evaluation will allow the worksheets and activities to be refined leading to stronger final submissions of written work by students and a better overall understanding of scientific writing.
Research Questions
- What is the student perception on the effectiveness of the new worksheets and activities in preparing the foundation of their final submission?
- What is the efficacy of the final submissions based on the new worksheets and activities?
- Is there stronger retention of the processes and layout required for scientific writing?
Impact on teaching and learning at UBC
These worksheets and activities will direct students on how to better structure logical arguments and thereby how to best approach different sections of a journal-style article. As a result, these worksheets and activities could be tweaked to numerous other courses and projects requiring logic based thought and reasoning. The result would be better thought out experiments, submissions, and overall logic based thought processes. While initial thoughts would be for Biology undergraduate courses, the overall structure could be amended for many other departments, with the end product being individuals that are able to have more logical based thoughts / arguments.