UofL Libraries: BIOL 404/405/406: Undergraduate Research: Library Workshop

Welcome!

Pre-workshop survey
Please fill out this brief survey at the beginning of class.

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Follow Along

Activity: Down the Wikipedia Rabbit Hole

Directions: Spend 3 minutes browsing Wikipedia. Make a note (or keep the tab up) of where you started and where you ended up!

Do you use Wikipedia? Is it a credible/reliable/trustworthy source? How have you been taught to evaluate sources? If you're curious, check out the Wikipedia Five Pillars and an article Talk page. And just for fun, check out the Instagram account Depths of Wikipedia.
Where do you go to search for information? Is it different for your personal life versus academic research?
Recently, a friend of mine shared an Instagram post from @jerrynews about a U.S. Air Force general's response to the recent "UFO sightings." What can you find out about this publication? How are other news outlets covering the story? We call this lateral reading.

Research Questions and Keywords

How has climate change affected local ecosystems?
What are the physiological differences between frogs and toads?
How has climate change affected the sexual signaling of Mexican spadefoot toads (Spea multiplicata).

Example: (“climate change” OR temperature OR rainfall) AND (“sexual signaling” OR mating) AND (toads OR Anura)

Directions: Take a few minutes to think about your own research question(s) and keywords.

Screenshot of Academic Search Complete.

Infographic made in Canva by Tessa Withorn.

AI Summarizers

Use these tools to help extract key points. This is not a substitute for doing the work, you'll still need to synthesize, analyze, and summarize in your own words.