A Multistep Science Literacy Training Framework in an Introductory Biology Classroom: Teaching How to Find, Evaluate, Comprehend, and Cite Scientific Evidence

Today’s undergraduates are tomorrow’s decision makers. Many of these decisions in biological sciences can influence whether the vaccines for the next pandemic will be effective, whether the mitigation efforts will have any impact on climate change, or whether we can produce enough food for the rapidly increasing human population while fighting the next pest outbreak. These informed decisions will need to be made by scientifically literate humans, including health professionals, politicians, and media personalities, who are currently undergraduates in our courses. Students in introductory biology classes can build a strong science literacy foundation by learning how to find, evaluate, read, discuss, and cite scientific evidence. An interconnected, multistep framework that uses library guides, active learning methods, group discussions, and collaborative learning is being used for nearly a decade in Investigative Biology and has been shown to significantly improve students’ perceived science literacy and science communication skills. In this article, we share basic guidelines about how to implement this framework in one long laboratory session or in consecutive lectures. The flow of the proposed exercises has been tested and adjusted based on students’ feedback and the authors’ experiences, and a wide variety of resources are being shared to help the successful implementation of this framework in courses that would like to train the next generation of science-literate biologists.