Previous Contents Next Issues in Science and Technology Librarianship Fall 2009 DOI:10.5062/F4S180FF URLs in this document have been updated. Links enclosed in {curly brackets} have been changed. If a replacement link was located, the new URL was added and the link is active; if a new site could not be identified, the broken link was removed. How to Read Scientific Research Articles: A Hands-On Classroom Exercise Roxanne Bogucka Science Instruction Librarian University of Texas Austin, Texas roxanne.bogucka@austin.utexas.edu Emily Wood Reference/Instruction Librarian Pierce College Fort Steilacoom Lakewood, Washington ewood@pierce.ctc.edu Copyright 2009, Roxanne Bogucka and Emily Wood. Used with permission. Abstract Undergraduate students are generally unfamiliar with scientific literature. Further, students experience frustration when they read research articles the way they read textbooks, from beginning to end. Using a team-based active learning exercise, an instruction librarian and colleagues at University of Texas at Austin introduce nutritional sciences students to a method for reading research papers. Librarians provide student-pairs with one section (introduction, methods, results, or discussion) of a scientific research article. Student-pairs read, discuss, and take notes, then join with pairs assigned the other sections of the article to compare their understanding of the research presented. The exercise reinforces students' critical evaluation skills by providing a productive reading strategy based on the purpose of each section of the research article. This paper describes the active learning exercise and discusses its implementation and