Background POGIL is short for Process Oriented Guided Inquiry Learning. Its basic tenets are:
Instruction can teach content as well as process skills like analytical thinking and effective teamwork.
Students collaborate in teams and work through guided learning activities.
Leading questions are posed to students. By following a number of guided activities, students find answers to the questions and formulate validated conclusions.
The instructor serves as a facilitator, addressing individual and group needs, while students work in self-managed teams.
The POGIL project is supported by the National Science Foundation and the U.S. Department of Education, among other groups.
Purpose In UC Berkeley’s Chemistry 108 (Inorganic Synthesis Laboratory), students write lab reports that require references to chemical literature. To help students with this assignment, the Chemistry and Chemical Engineering Library provided a 3-hour instructional session that explained:
Types of chemical information resources including tertiary, secondary, and primary resources
When to use information resources in scientific writing
Preparing reference citations in ACS style
Searching by chemical structure, molecular formula, and name
Searching SciFinder, Gmelin, and Combined Chemical Dictionary
Learning about the history of a research topic/article and its later development via cited reference searches
Finding information resources at the Chemistry and Chemical Engineering Library
Availability of ChemDraw and bibliographic software to aid scientific writing
Methods A POGIL-inspired approach was taken for the Chemistry 108 library instruction.
A “libratory” manual was created with short, guided activities that help students understand information literacy concepts, recognize information research problems, and then resolve them through hands-on searching of databases.
Students worked in groups of 2 or 3 to search chemical information databases together.
After each short activity, our class engaged in a group discussion of the learning outcomes and any questions raised.
Results
Two classes were taught:
September 8, 2010 – 8 students (3 hours)
September 9, 2010 – 6 students (3 hours)
A “libratory” manual with guided activities and post-activity discussion notes was prepared.
For the one-hour student orientations at the Chemistry & Chemical Engineering Library:
I wrote a library guidebook explaining how to use the library and the reasons to do so. Additionally, the guide outlines the chemical information resources available – with flow charts for finding these sources.
Because details on library use is available via the guidebook, more class time was granted for an ice breaker game (human bingo) and a discussion on tips for academic success at Berkeley.
To reinforce student learning, an online library quiz was developed where participants had a chance of winning a $50 gift certificate to the Cal Student Store. This optional quiz had a 29% response rate.
Dates and attendance
August 18 – 34 Chemistry graduate students (1 hour)
August 20 – 18 Chemical Engineering graduate students (1 hour)
August 23 – 22 Chemistry and Chemical Engineering undergraduate transfer students (1 hour)
August 24 – 23 Chemistry graduate students (1 hour)
PURPOSE: To make online instructional videos for PubChem, a free database of the biological activities of small molecules developed by NCBI at the National Institutes of Health.
METHODS: Develop modular videos that address research problems and tasks in chemical informatics. This arrangement encourages remixing, reuse, and sharing that can be tailored to different learning needs. The videos are stored in and delivered through YouTube – a popular, video-sharing website that offers social media features for commenting, voting, and video sharing.
This pilot project demonstrates that online video development is not cost prohibitive when using software and services that are free, open source, readily available at academic libraries, or cost five dollars.
For details of why and how these videos were developed, please visit: