The Design and Implementation of Integrated and Interdisciplinary Information Literacy Instruction for Science Majors

This poster was presented at the Science & Technology Section of the American Library Association Annual Conference in New Orleans, Louisiana, on June 24th, 2018. At Carnegie Mellon University (CMU), two interdisciplinary courses, EUREKA and PROPEL, were developed in 2015 with the aim of preparing Mellon College of Science (MCS) students for their futures as scientists at CMU and beyond. In 2017, we were invited to teach information literacy in both the lecture and recitation sections of the freshman year EUREKA class. We first used the ACRL Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education to develop course objectives. We then closely collaborated with faculty in MCS to develop lesson plans that included active learning exercises and had broad interdisciplinary scope. One of our primary challenges was keeping a large number of students (~300) engaged as we covered material that spanned scientific disciplines. We used the Socrative app to ensure student participation and incorporated a faculty panel discussion to break up the lecture format. In the recitation, we used a number of active learning exercises including an activity developed at CMU, Speed Databasing, that allows students to rapidly gain familiarity with a number of databases across disciplines. We are using a post-class EUREKA assessment from students and faculty to guide our design of lecture and recitation materials for the junior year PROPEL class. This poster will highlight our design of interdisciplinary information literacy lessons; the management challenges we faced in teaching a large class and numerous recitations; and how the feedback we received will inform future design of information literacy instruction for these courses.