1) Number of participants?

12-24

2) Who was the audience for the class/workshop/activity?

Beginning/intermediate undergraduate economics students

3) Describe your experience planning with the instructor.

Since this is an established activity, I’ll discuss the plan with new professors who teach sections and ask if it fits what they’re looking for. Sometimes they don’t have a research paper, in which case I’ll modify that section of my powerpoint.

4) What were your goals for the class/workshop/activity?

Introduce JumboSearch, EconLit, and 2 data sources in Development Economics (World Development Indicators and Demographic and Health Surveys)

5) Describe the session(s) and the logistics of any hands-on activities.

The first half hour of class is an introduction to the librarian, research guide, how to pick a research topic.

The remainder of the time involves: breaking students into 3 groups (can be 4 if some of the students have done the activity before or if the class is large). Each group receives a worksheet covering one of the modules guiding them through how to use the resource and questions to ask.

After about 15-20 minutes of work, each group receives 5 minutes to present back to the group about what the source is and how to use it, as well as reflections on what worked well and what didn’t. Each group member is expected to present.

6) What went well? What might you do differently next time?

I continue to adjust the suggested topics to research – I want to make it more specific. Generally though, students are very engaged and get a sense of what it is like to actually use the resources, and do a good job presenting back. It covers a substantial amount of material in a way that seems to stick fairly well.

One of the challenges of being the social science data librarian is that often I’m in the position of needing to introduce basic research skills & information literacy, as well as data literacy skills at the same time.

I use variations of this lesson plan and activity in Economics 35, Development Economics, and some other classes.

The original jigsaw was passed to me by Erica, and I’ve adjusted it continuously since. It does a great job of (a) engaging students in hands-on practice, and (b) covering a wide range of material in a meaningful way.

The jumbosearch module convinced a faculty member who had been firmly anti-JumboSearch until that point that it had value.

I also keep a 4th worksheet on citation chasing and chaining for when students have done the others before.

I think variations of this could be used in a lot of circumstances, with the caveat that it takes time to build good instructions. I tried a version without clear step-by-steps for some census sources, and that did not go well.