2004 KAP Biology Workshop
Goal: Develop background sheets that will faciliate use of primary literature
in KAP courses. These pages can be used in conjunction with our existing online
tutorial. Click here
to view the tutorial.
Step 1: Find an appropriate research article.
I recommend that you start by searching at Highwire
Library of the Sciences and Medicine. If you enter a keyword on the front
page, you will see a list of articles. Some articles will be tagged "free".
These are articles that you can access at no charge. Depending on the number
and quality of articles that you find, you may need to refine your search. Choose
"ADV SEARCH" on the menu bar to access a more detailed search menu.
Click "High-wire hosted journals" - this will limit your serach to
jounrals that have some free online content. When you find an article, access
and print it out as a "PDF" file.
Search tips:
- From the front page, click "advanced search".
- Type a key word into one of the text boxes. The "abstract / title"
box is a good one to use, because it will search both abstracts and titles
but not the full text of the articles. Thus, you are likely to get articles
that focus on your topic.
- If you use multiple words, click "all" or phrase". "All"
will search for all of the words and only return papers with all the words.
"Phrase" will only return papers that have the words in the exact
order you input. For example, to search for articles on low carbohydrate diets
(Atkins), I input "low carbohydrate" and then clicked phrase.
- Limit the search to recent years - for example from 1995 to the present.
Most of the free online articles are from recent years.
- Click search.
- Look for articles with the box "this article is free". Look for
primary research articles, not reviews or news items. Click "PDF"
and print out the article.
A list of sample articles is here.
Step 2: Develop a template for the background sheets.
- What information would your students need in order to read and understand
this article?
- What information or tools would you need in order to use this article in
your course?
Step 3: Develop the background sheets.
Resources: