“I Wanna Just Google It and Find the Answer”: Student Information Searching in a Problem-Based Inorganic Chemistry Laboratory Experiment

Abstract

The development of expertise in chemical information literacy requires practicing these skills in the context of chemistry work. The integration of information literacy in problem-based learning is an instructional strategy that can be used to situate skill development in the chemistry classroom. This work describes a mixed-methods approach to investigate the information seeking behavior of upper-level students working collaboratively on a semester-long inorganic chemistry problem. Audio recordings were collected during problem solving sessions and analyzed to investigate the strategies students used to find outside information required to identify an unknown compound. These students had prior coursework in chemical information literacy, and an information literacy test was used to establish the baseline of their knowledge and skills, and its development through the course. Student written work was analyzed to determine the outcomes of students’ information searching processes. Finally, semistructured int...