Writing Abstracts

Zachary A. Musselman

Millsaps College

This activity has been reviewed by 2 review processes (view details)

This activity was selected for the On the Cutting Edge Reviewed Teaching Collection

This activity has received positive reviews in a peer review process involving five review categories. The five categories included in the process are
- Scientific Accuracy
- Alignment of Learning Goals, Activities, and Assessments
- Pedagogic Effectiveness
- Robustness (usability and dependability of all components)
- Completeness of the ActivitySheet web page
For more information about the peer review process itself, please see https://serc.carleton.edu/teachearth/activity_review.html.
This activity has benefited from input from faculty educators beyond the author through a review and suggestion process. This review took place as a part of a faculty professional development workshop where groups of faculty reviewed each others' activities and offered feedback and ideas for improvements. To learn more about the process On the Cutting Edge uses for activity review, see http://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/review.html.

Initial Publication Date: April 30, 2008 | Reviewed: November 3, 2013 (see revision history: 2 events)

Summary

This activity requires students to read a journal article with the title, abstract and keywords removed. After reading the article, they must submit a title, abstract and keywords.

Fluvial | College Upper (15-16)

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Context

Audience

Upper level undergraduate course in geomorphology

Skills and concepts that students must have mastered

Critical reading
Reading comprehension
Scientifc writing

How the activity is situated in the course

This activity is assigned three times during the semester, with the article relevant to the topics being discussed in lecture

Goals

Content/concepts goals for this activity

Goals include improving critical thought, reading comprehension, and scientific writing, organization and presentation.

Higher order thinking skills goals for this activity

Higher order skills include analysis of written presentation of theories and data, synthesis of ideas and critical evaluation of the scientific merit of specific research projects.

Other skills goals for this activity

Description of the activity/assignment

This activity requires students to read a journal article with the title, abstract and keywords removed. After reading the article, they must submit a title, abstract and keywords.
Designed for a geomorphology course
Has minimal/no quantitative component
Addresses student misconceptions

Determining whether students have met the goals

While reading their submissions, I look for highlights from each article. I try to determine if they understood what they read, sometimes this takes some revisions, but often the outcomes are worth while.

More information about assessment tools and techniques.