First Year Seminar: Intro to Library Research & Resources: Koepke FYS

For this team project, you will be creating outreach to fellow UWL first-year students focused on a specific topic related to group study technique OR (classroom) group work improvement technique. 

You will present FIVE strategies about your topic. The five strategies need to be presented to your peers in a way that is effective for the audience and topic. Your five strategies must be researched and evidence-support approaches (you will need reliable sources), practical for other students to apply, and group-focused techniques. 

You get to decide what the outreach effort will be: a TikTok video, a slidedeck on Instagram, a set of Tweets, an infographic for a poster board in the res halls, an advertisement on YouTube, etc. Really truly, you can get creative as long as you meet the criteria!

Here are some options for topics... but these are not the only options: 

• how to self- or practice test in a group

• how create a plan for group spaced practice

• how to teach each other for effective learning

• how to use a group charter/ things to consider

• how to hold a productive team meeting

• how to take or use team meeting notes

• how / why to use team 'roles' / what roles 

• using synchronous technology with groups

• using asynchronous technology with groups 

• how and when/when not to divide and conquer 

• knowing thyself for group creation (self awareness for group creation)

This assignment will help meet the following course objectives: 

• Participate effectively in class discussions and collaborative projects

• Employ strategies that contribute to successful group work in college

Example of a search using Murphy Library's search box

Other search examples to try along with the filters on the left side of the page:

TIPS

When searching online for reliable sources, always look for the following parts of any online webpage:

1. The url can tell you a bit about what kind of organization the website represents (.edu, .gov, .org, .com, etc)
2. The "about" page to determine who is behind the information on the site. You should be able to learn names, credentials, and experience of the people or the organization. 
3. When the webpage was last updated. Current information is important and you need to know whether the website is being updated.
4. The presence or absence of advertising can determine reliability.
5. The overall impression the site gives you from its visuals and language can tell you much about its purpose: to inform, to convince, to sell something, etc

Example search

Look at the results and try to find reliable sources. Which ones look reliable? Why did you pick the ones you did?

Edutopia is a site that helps to transform education so that all students can acquire and effectively apply the knowledge, attitudes, and skills necessary to thrive in their studies, careers, and adult lives. Edutopia strives to teach students find fact-based information, assess the quality of information, and to create and use information effectively. 

Khan Academy is an American non-profit educational organization created in 2008 by Sal Khan. Its goal is creating a set of online tools that help educate students. The organization produces short lessons in the form of videos. Its website also includes supplementary practice exercises and materials for educators. 

Science News  was founded in 1921 as an independent, nonprofit source of accurate information on the latest news of science, medicine and technology. Their mission is to empower people to evaluate the news and the world around them. It is published by the Society for Science, a nonprofit 501(c)(3) membership organization dedicated to public engagement in scientific research and education.

TED-Ed is TED’s (Technology, Engineering, Design) youth and education initiative. An award-winning site, TED-Ed’s mission is to celebrate and share the ideas of teachers and students around the world. Here you'll find a library of original animated videos, a place to create interactive lessons, gain literacy skills, and more. 

Here is an example of an article that could be used for this assignment and the important parts that college students doing research should become familiar with:

A good tip to remember when searching for relevant sources is to look at the References Cited at the end of the article, where the author(s) cites the sources they used to write the article. Read through these sources to see if you are interested in finding one or more of them. If you find one, copy/paste the title of the article (only the title!) into the library search box on the main page of the library. 

The pdf of the article used for this example is found below.