Improving Undergraduate Astronomy Students’ Skills with Research Literature via Accessible Summaries: An Exploratory Case Study with Astrobites-based Reading Assignments

作     者：Lewis, Briley L. Waggoner, Abygail R. Clarke, Emma Crisp, Alison L. Dodici, Mark Doskoch, Graham M. Foley, Michael M. Golant, Ryan Grayson, Skylar Hegde, Sahil Cuestas, Nathalie Korhonen Law, Charles J. Lefever, R.R. Mishra, Ishan Popinchalk, Mark Sagynbayeva, Sabina Wong, Samantha L. Yan, Wei Ingraham Dixie, Kaitlyn L. Supriya, K. 

作者机构：Department of Physics University of California Santa Barbara Santa BarbaraCA93108 United States Department of Physics and Astronomy University of California Los Angeles Los AngelesCA90095 United States University of Virginia CharlottesvilleVA22904 United States University of Wisconsin MadisonWI53706 United States McWilliams Center for Comsology Department of Physics Carnegie Mellon University PittsburghPA15213 United States Department of Astronomy The Ohio State University ColumbusOH43210 United States David A. Dunlap Department of Astronomy & Astrophysics University of Toronto TorontoONM5S 3H4 Canada Department of Physics and Astronomy West Virginia University MorgantownWV26506 United States Center for Astrophysics — Harvard & Smithsonian CambridgeMA0213 United States Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences Harvard University CambridgeMA02138 United States Department of Astronomy Columbia University New YorkNY10027 United States School of Earth and Space Exploration Arizona State University TempeAZ85281 United States Department of Physics and Astronomy Northwestern University 2145 Sheridan Road EvanstonIL60208 United States  Northwestern University 1800 Sherman Avenue EvanstonIL60201 United States Department of Astronomy University of Virginia CharlottesvilleVA22904 United States Zentrum für Astronomie der Universität Heidelberg Astronomisches Rechen-Institut Heidelberg69120 Germany Jet Propulsion Laboratory California Institute of Technology La Cañada FlintridgeCA91011 United States Department of Astrophysics American Museum of Natural History New YorkNY10024 United States Department of Physics and Astronomy Stony Brook University Stony BrookNY11794 United States Center for Computational Astrophysics Flatiron Institute New YorkNY10010 United States Physics Department McGill University MontrealQCH3A 2T8 Canada Department of Mathematics Computer Science and Physics Wartburg College WaverlyIA50677 United States Center for Teaching and Learning University of Massachusetts Amherst AmherstMA01003 United States  University of California Los Angeles Los AngelesCA90095 United States 

出 版 物：《arXiv》 (arXiv)

年 卷 期：2023年

核心收录：

主　　题：Students 

摘      要：Undergraduate physics and astronomy students are expected to engage with scientific literature as they begin their research careers, but reading comprehension skills are rarely explicitly taught in major courses. We seek to determine the efficacy of a reading assignment designed to improve undergraduate astronomy (or related) majors’ perceived ability to engage with research literature by using accessible summaries of current research written by experts in the field. During the 2022-2023 academic year, faculty members from six institutions incorporated reading assignments using accessible summaries from Astrobites into their undergraduate astronomy major courses, surveyed their students before and after the activities, and participated in follow-up interviews with our research team. Quantitative and qualitative survey data from 52 students show that students’ perceptions of their abilities with jargon and identifying main takeaways of a paper significantly improved with use of the tested assignment template. Additionally, students report increased confidence of their abilities within astronomy after exposure to these assignments, and instructors valued a ready-to-use resource to incorporate reading comprehension in their pedagogy. This exploratory case study with Astrobites-based assignments suggests that incorporating current research in the undergraduate classroom through accessible literature summaries may increase students’ confidence and ability to engage with research literature, assisting in their preparation for participation in research careers. © 2023, CC BY.