Keeping the Conversation Alive: Maintaining Students' Research Skills Throughout Their College Careers

Also appears in Proceedings of the American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition, Vancouver, BC, CanadaAt Drexel University the library teaches engineering students information research skills in their first and senior years. These students would benefit from a refresher in their middle college years to enhance their abilities in using library databases. Such an opportunity exists in the junior year when all engineering students are required to take “Technology in Historical Perspective” (HIST 285) a course offered by the Department of History and Politics in the College of Arts and Sciences. This course examines the interrelationship between technology and its economic, social, intellectual, and political context. Because it requires a research component, HIST 285 offers the humanities and social science librarian, engineering librarian, and history department faculty the chance to help Drexel’s engineering students refine and enhance their information seeking skills. Here we outline our program for integrating library research instruction, which will incorporate activities to promote engaged student learning and methods for assessing information competence, into the HIST 285 syllabus. By introducing students to a variety of resources including engineering and history databases, primary scientific literature, and patents, we can help students improve their research skills