Gen Z + Scientific Information Literacy —> A Catalyst for Change

In the last decade, the traditional college-aged population (ages 18–22) has shifted from Millennials to Gen Z. This generational shift has necessitated pedagogical change, as discovered w/the changing response to a long-used lesson on scientific information literacy. The lesson, which had been used since 2013, specified a pre-class assignment of reading three different types of scientific articles & an in-class discussion about various aspects of the articles, led by the sciences research instruction librarian. Up until about 2018/2019, students had readily responded to the in-class discussion questions w/answers from their pre-class work. However, at that time, & especially upon the return to in-person instruction in Fall 2021, it became noticeable that students were less & less willing to speak up during the in-class discussion, & the discussion was taking more & more class time as the sciences research instruction librarian tried to draw responses from the students. Additionally, a change in the campus’s LMS starting in Fall 2023 resulted in many students not receiving the pre-class assignment, requiring on-the-fly in-class lesson plan readjustments. Consequently, the sciences research instruction librarian decided to revamp the lesson plan for Spring 2024, eliminating the pre-class assignment & changing the in-class discussion time into small-group student presentations of half a dozen different types of science-related articles. The results were very encouraging, w/students readily participating & the exercise being accomplished in a timely manner, leaving an appropriate amount of time for the other class objectives.