h02: Summarize research paper

ready?	assigned	due
true	Fri 04/24 12:30PM	Fri 05/01 12:30PM

READING ASSIGNMENT

The goals of this assignment are:

• Identify the main takeways of a research paper
• Critically evaluate the methodology of a reserach paper
• Reflect on our current UT program

For this homework we ask that you select one of the papers from the list of CS Ed related papers available at this link https://ucsb-teaching-cs.github.io/s20/info/papers/ on the course web site.

Please enter your name in the following sheet if you want to work on a specific paper - this helps us ensure that we don’t have many students working on the same paper: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1gkhNKJxcCMPRUjaesxRUSe6INkXHkJmoxZem5tNcSaQ/edit?usp=sharing

1. (100 pts) Write a short essay that weaves in the answers to the following questions:

• What is the research question that the paper is investigating?

• What are the key findings of the paper?

• How did the researchers measure these outcomes? (If they didn’t adequately measure, and only described in general terms their anecdotal experiences, note this.)

• How do you think we can apply this research to the course you are tutoring, or more generally in our undergradaute program at UCSB?

Writing guidelines

This is a writing assignment, so we emphasize on producing a coherent and well structured piece. Below are some guidelines on what I am looking for in your essay:

• Clearly identify the main findings
  • There is a lot of information in a research paper. In conveying your finding you will need to distill the main takeaways of the paper
  • Figure out what is new and interesting about the work.
• Describe the findings and methodology at the right level of abstraction
  • We have not specified “how many pages” or “how many words”, because we don’t want you to aim for that. Write just enough to answer the questions below, and no more. If that’s 1 page, fine. If it’s three pages fine. Make it as short as possible, and no shorter. Less than one page is probably too short and up to three pages.
• Make clear arguments
  • Connect the research finding with an actual practice that we are doing in our program
  • Provide supporting data from the paper when critiquing results
• Be original
  • Organize your essay in whatever way you like (except not by simply repeating the questions and answering each one in a paragraph; make it a coherent essay.)
  • Don’t just copy/paste from the paper or the abstract. Where you use exact wording, be sure to use “quotation marks”, but do this sparingly, only where using the exact wording of the original source is really necessary to convey the idea.
  • Summarize and critically reflect on the results of the paper.
  • Include personal accounts and reflection where appropriate.
• Make it engaging
  • As a tutor you have the opportunity to really engage students. This requires a willingness on your part to be engaging. Try to bring it into your writing.

Submission instructions: Type out your essay. Include your name, perm and email on the top left corner. Clearly write the title of the paper and authors and include the paper as a reference at the end of your essay. Then upload a pdf to gradescrope to h02.