Skip to Main Content
Ask Us!Toggle Chat Widget

Library Research Assignments for Basic and Applied Sciences: About

Rubric Terminology

Within the Communication portion of the rubric, the terms Clarity refers to the conciseness and understanding conveyed by the language, Mechanics is the formatting and punctuation concerns within the work, Development focuses on how well their work is developed and organized, and Collaboration is looking at how well the students work together for the assignment. In order to gauge how the students are working together, it is suggested to do a peer evaluation of each other’s work after the project is completed.

Inside the Research portion, Sources is the variety and quality of the sources that is reflected, Methodology is how they discuss the use of the sources and whether it is appropriate for the assignment, Argument looks at whether their work is organized around a singular topic which they are supporting with evidence, Reasoning looks at the quality and appropriateness of their reasoning often in respect to evaluating or decision making, and Informative looks at whether their presentation of the research is informative meaning they are presenting factual information rather than opinionated or argumentative research. Argument, Reasoning, and Informative are similar to each other in some ways, but the use of the term varies on assignments where the purpose of it might be argumentative versus exploratory versus informative.

Within the Curricular section, Terminology refers to whether they are utilizing terminology correctly and Concepts is whether they are connecting concepts appropriately through their discussion. There is also a blank space meant to input a specific curricular concern that you might be focusing on for that particular assignment.

Finally, in the integrative thinking section, making connections looks at whether students are being intentional about the information construction and whether they are explicit in the connections they are making between the assignment, course, their future courses, and their future professional lives as appropriate.

Scaffolding

Scaffolding Option 1

Single Source
Multiple Source Evaluation
Follow the Citations
Newscast Presentation
Group Research

Scaffolding Option 2

Single Source
Annotated Bib
Research Guide
Research Outline
Research Paper

Scaffolding Option 3

Scientist Biography
Disciplinary Copyright
Follow the Citations
Scholarship History
Scientific Topic Inquiry

Scaffolding Option 4

Single Source Evaluation
Literature Review
Newscast Presentation
Policy Paper
Group Research

Scaffolding Option 5

Source Evaluation
Abstract Project
Annotated Bibliography
Literature Review
Research Paper

The Assignments

Annotated Bibliographies
Students use research skills to research a topic, synthesize information from those sources, and create notes about how they might use those sources.

Article Abstract
Students research abstracts, how to write them, and practice writing their own.

Disciplinary Copyright Lawsuit
Students look at copyright and fair practices in relation to their discipline.

Follow Citations
For this project, students analyze the citations to research the discipline, find who publishes in it, and what they publish on in relation to a specific topic.

Group Research
Students work collaboratively in small groups in order to create a website or wiki on a topic.

Literature Review
Students look at the specific scholarship in relation to a specific narrow topic and how the students synthesize and organize the information from multiple scholars.

Multiple Source Comparison
This asks students to compare and evaluate multiple sources for credibility.

Policy Paper on a Legislative Issue
Students research a legislative issue within their discipline and use disciplinary information on that topic to decide whether it should be enacted or not.

Newscast Presentation
Students research a topic to produce a newscast section for the general public.

Process Research Guide
Students create a guide to research a specific topic.

Research Outline
Students outline their argument with specific quotes and evidence from their sources.

Research Paper
This is a traditional research paper.

Scholarship History
This looks at the discipline as a whole and asks students to form a conception of the fields’ scholars and development of recent scholarship.

Scientific Topic Inquiry
Students research a testable scientific topic, the process that’s needed, create a lab report from research they conduct, and then test their research by performing the experiment.

Scientist Biography
Students research the education and career of a scientist and create a biography and/or timeline for that scholar.

Single Source Evaluation
Students evaluate a single source’s information and credibility

Assignment Objectives 

Title of Assignment Copyright Synthesis & Organization Research Strategies Authority Evaluation of Sources Presentation of Research Citations Student Agency Collaboration*
Abstract Project   x       x      
Annotated Bibliographies   x   x x   x    
Disciplinary Copyright x     x          
Follow the Citations     x       x    
Group Research Project   x       x   x          x
Literature Review   x   x   x x    
Multi Source Comparison     x x x        
Newscast Presentation   X       x x  
Policy Paper     x x x  
Process Research Guide     x x  
Research Outline   x x            
Research Paper   x x x x  
Scholarship History Project   x x            
Scientific Inquiry     x x  
Scientist Biography   x x x  
Single Source Evaluation     x x x   x    

*Collaboration: all or most of the assignments can be altered for group work, but only the group project was created for group work throughout.