Critically Reading Journal Articles: Focus on Figures

Abstract

This POGIL activity is intended to be the first in a series that is designed to teach graduate students (and advanced undergraduates) to critically read journal articles and address the "hidden curriculum" of scientific literacy. These activities are designed to prepare our students for their transition from being passive consumers to critical evaluators of research and foster the self-driven inquiry required at the doctoral level. Students work in teams to analyze authentic journal articles, moving through a learning cycle that treats figures as primary models. By the end of this activity, students will be able to identify and justify key figures within a paper and critically evaluate their effectiveness. Process-level objectives focus on defining the characteristics of high-quality scientific visualization and reflecting on team communication dynamics. By utilizing intentionally unstructured models, this activity serves as a catalyst for independent learning, ensuring students can both interpret complex data and communicate their own future findings with professional rigor.

Level: Graduate
Setting: Classroom
Activity Type: Learning Cycle
Discipline: Science
Course: Science
Keywords: science literacy, hidden curriculum, graph, visual, interpret, sense making