I have done some
research into copyright and creative commons in order to find out more details
about the topic in order to create some standards for what I want to see in my
classroom. The style in which my
students do their citations is very important.
Typically throughout middle and high school students will cite their
work in MLA format, occasionally APA. Modern
Language Association (MLA) format is very common because, as one of the newer
formats, it contains ways to cite more modern types of works as the name
suggests (“Writing,” n. d.). American Psychological Asscociation (APA) is
designed for use in the psychology field (“Citation Styles,” n.d). However it is a common style for teachers to
choose because it is a very general guide that works for many types of
writing. Unlike MLA and another common
style, Chicago, it does not contain very good information for citing newer
media forms (“Writing,” n.d.). Some
common styles for scientific writing include American Chemical Society and
Vancouver style. Vancouver style is
typically used for biological sciences and also in the field of medicine. It has many qualities that would definitely
be useful in Chemistry, such as “features specific to citing medical research
and the results of experiments in the field,” (“Writing,” n.d.). I would definitely be fine with students
using this style of citations, but my preferred style would be ACS because it
“is intended to help [format] essays on the subject of chemistry,” (“Writing,”
n.d.). While this style is never used
outside the field of Chemistry, I think it is my job as a chemistry teacher to
expose them to all parts of the field.
Especially in classes like AP Chemistry where the students clearly have
a passion for the topic and might one day go into the chemical industry, it is
beneficial for them to be exposed to what they will be using in real life. For more introductory chemistry classes I
would only require the use of Vancouver style because it is a little simpler to
use.
In my science
class citing student’s sources will be a very important part of what they
learn. Typically when writing in a
science class the students will utilize the Internet to research facts and
other scientist’s research. The use of
citations is there to “give credit where credit is due” (Allen, 2000). As high school students, the ideas they find
on the Internet will clearly not be their own.
If their paper’s are posted to our class blog (or some other site) the
citations need to be there so other people who read then can see who to credit
for the research, and that credit for the compilation of the paper and all new
ideas in the paper should be given to the student. Science is a field which “moves forward only
by building upon the work of others,” which is what my students will be doing
with their background research and then application of the topic (Allen, 2000).
I will require
citations every time my students use a direct quote, paraphrase, or summarize
someone else’s ideas. It is also
important to note that someone at some point discovered almost everything in
Chemistry, so it is not necessary to cite information considered “common
knowledge,” such as atomic numbers and molecular mass (Sadorra et al. n.d.). While everyone knows to cite direct
quotations, I want to emphasize to my students that paraphrasing and
summarizing is also equally important to cite.
Every idea that you found somewhere else and that isn’t from your own
mind should be cited to acknowledge to person(s) you got the idea from (Allen,
2000). In science it really doesn’t make
sense to constantly quote research articles because the language is so dense
and often contains unnecessary information.
Some form on summarizing or paraphrasing is always necessary and it will
be fairly obvious when a student does not cite their work. This is only the beginning of citation in
science, but these are some of the major points that I feel will directly
effect my future teaching.
