High expectations – transforming first year students into ethical scientists

 

Tanya Noel & Jennifer Petruniak

Tested Studies in Laboratory Teaching, 2009, Volume 30

Abstract

The described laboratory exercise was developed to help students begin to gain skills that they would need throughout the rest of the course, and in most cases, throughout their future studies. All of the BIOL 1010 laboratories were designed to reinforce science as a method and to promote effective communication. This laboratory was performed early in the course. This specific exercise was designed to give students hands-on experience searching the scientific literature, explore aspects of plagiarism via the “Turnitin” system (©iParadigms, LLC.), and format reference citations appropriately. In the lab, students set up accounts on turnitin.com, and submit material that is not original for part of the exercise on plagiarism. On their own time, they rework and resubmit the paragraph in their own words to TurnItIn.com for an originality report. Additionally, during the lab time, students perform a series of activities relating to searching for scientific literature in different ways, and will prepare a small set of References in the format used in this course.

Keywords:  ethics, ethical issues, citation searching

University of Toronto, Mississauga (2008)