In our focus on material that must be covered in a content-rich course such as first-year chemistry, we often neglect the development of other essential skills such as reading, writing, and critical thinking. The primary research literature summary assignment described attempts to address this issue. The purpose of the assignment is to introduce first-year students to the primary scientific literature, including the ability to search and access hard-copy and electronic library resources. In addition, the assignment engages students towards more broadly contextualizing chemical theory covered during lectures. In our experience, we found the curriculum addition is neither a time burden to students in its preparation, nor to instructors in its assessment. These factors allow the exercise to be implemented in courses of any size.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.