Cultivating Students’ Analytical Abilities in an Advanced Cell Biology Course

Many undergraduates have limited experience reading scientific primary literature, although the ability to read and evaluate this form of information is crucial for their success in graduate school, medical school, or in the scientific work force. For those students who do gain exposure to primary literature, their early encounters can often be bewildering and humbling. When reading articles on cellular and molecular biology, students confront a highly technical language that is quite different from what they have experienced in textbooks and popular reviews. They are often unsure how to approach reading these articles, let alone how to understand the information contained in them. I have found that when instructors provide