Tested Studies in Laboratory Teaching, 2019, Volume 40
John Stewart
Abstract
As part of our Life Sciences Freshman Research Scholars program, we teach first-year students writing in a seminar class in their first semester. In the course, students learn literature citation skills, scientific paper reading comprehension, and technical writing style. We also reported on an Introductory Biology laboratory course in which mixed majors students write four manuscripts about their open inquiry investigations, each of which goes through TA-reviewed iterations. Students often struggle with finding literature, citing in a particular style, organizing their work, writing with the appropriate detail level, and knowing what information they need to include. In the workshop, participants engaged in a conversation about the difficulties and best practices of teaching students science writing skills.
