Connecting students to knowledge
and its application
Southern Utah University
Lynn White, Ph.D.
Seek, Answer, Relate, Apply (SARA)
OVERVIEW
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To help you develop information literacy and communication skills, as well as spark your curiosity in the field of health psychology, you will complete a "SARA" project. You will research a question, prepare a well-designed 5-8 minute slide presentation to share the answer, and record the presentation. You will also create three multiple-choice questions based on your video. I will share this video and the associated quiz with your classmates. In return, you will watch their videos and take the quizzes they create. Complete details are below.
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Each student needs to watch 15 SARAs and take their associated quiz. If you watch and take more than this, I will count your best 15.
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THE DETAILS
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1. Choose a question: The list of SARA questions is linked to the tab below. To select a question and make it yours, go to the Canvas homepage, where I have hyperlinked a Google sheet. Write your name beside that question. Questions are assigned on a first-come, first-served basis, so don't delay. If your question is taken, you will need to choose another.
2. Answer the question. To answer your question, you will need to find and use a minimum of three articles, and at least two must be peer-reviewed. Note that you will earn more points if you go beyond the minimum. For help finding peer-reviewed sources and/or using boolean operators- watch the videos below.
To answer your SARA question, don't just tell us the "facts". Describe and summarize the evidence from your sources to support those facts.
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3. Relate what you learned to several specific facts/findings/theories (FFTs) in the class. For example, does the info you found contradict an FFT? Does the information you found provide an example or application of an FFT? Go beyond the obvious for top points. Talk about this on a slide with the title "Time to Relate"
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4. Apply what you learned. Using a slide with the title "Time to Apply", talk about how the information you found can be used to better your life and/or others. Be specific and insightful. Simply saying "this will make people healthier" is not adequate. Come up with your own ideas, not what others have stated in the literature or online. You may use AI to help you with this, however, you must read the section "Using AI for the SARA project" below.
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5. Put together a well-designed slideshow to share your SARA with your classmates. Use pleasing colors, graphics and/or photos, simple fonts (e.g. calibri, arial), and minimal text on a slide (use short but descriptive bullet points and not full sentences). If you have more than 3 bullet points on a slide, have them appear one at a time as you talk about them. You can create your slide show using PowerPoint, Canva, SlidesGo, or Google Slides (to name a few). To record a video of your presentation, I recommend Kaltura, but you can use ScreenCast-omatic. This is a free app for recording your screen. Of course, there are many other fine APPs.
6. Verify video and sound quality We must be able to see and hear your video! A common problem is the sound. If you use a mic built into your computer, this often results in barely audible sound. Either you will have to practically yell to be heard, or you can speak normally using an external mic. Fall/Spring students: The department has external microphones you can check out. Summer students: if you don't already have one, they can be purchased for less than $20. This might be a good investment.
7. Upload your video: to a shared Google folder located on the Canvas homepage. Make sure you save your recording using your name and short title of the presentation (e.g. Lynn W Pets and Well-being.mp4). Finally, copy the link to your video and paste it into the Canvas assignment called "Your SARA video presentation".
8. Create 3 multiple-choice questions and enter them into the Canvas assignment called "The three multiple choice questions you created".
Question #1 must ask students to identify what you said was the answer to your SARA question. Do NOT
provide them with these four options: yes, no, maybe, it depends. That is way too easy. :)
Question #2 must be about the evidence that was used to support the answer to your SARA question
Question #3 you get to choose, but it has to be relevant to the key information in your SARA presentation. In
other words, it cannot be about meaningless, trivial, or irrelevant information.
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Each question must have 4 options, labelled a. b. c. d. (not 1,2,3,4). The correct answers should not be easily
guessed.
Include the correct answer to each question in your Canvas submission to me. Do NOT include your questions
in your SARA video.
Please read and re-read your questions to make sure they are clear and well-phrased.
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9. Submit your video and 3 questions by the due date. Remember, drop your video into the shared Google folder and paste the link into Canvas (see step 7). Upload your 3 questions to Canvas (see step 8).
REFERENCE YOUR SOURCES
You need to tell people where you got your information from. Please put the full APA-formatted citation in the bottom corner of the slide where the source is used. The font size should be smaller than the main text but still easy to read. If the information on a slide comes from multiple sources, then include them all (assuming there aren't too many :). Remove any underlines and hyperlinks. If you do not know how to cite in APA format, you can upload the reference to ChatGPT, Google Gemini, or another AI platform and ask it to format it in APA 7th edition. However, you STILL need to check it for accuracy!
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One common error people make is with how they write DOIs. Specifically, they include the SUU library info in the DOI address. This is not correct because anyone outside of the SUU community will not be able to access the link. See the incorrect and correct ways to write DOIs below. Make sure to get them correct on your SARA slide :)
INCORRECT: https://doi-org.proxy.li.suu.edu:2443/10.1007/s00213-021-05994-6
CORRECT: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00213-021-05994-6
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You don't know the APA 7th ed. reference rules?
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When you submit your video to Canvas, you must also include a pdf or word doc of your APA-formatted reference list. I will be verifying that your DOIs work and that they are accurate!
Click on the tab "Help Referencing APA Style" - located below on this webpage. You can also use the Scribbr app. User beware! Scribbr isn't perfect. Journal article titles are not italicized, but the name of the journal is. For article titles, capitalize the first letter of the first word, personal pronouns, and places. If the title contains a colon, capitalize the first letter of the first word after the colon. For journal titles, capitalize the first letter of all key words. Do not capitalize words like an, of, the - unless they happen to be the first word of the title (e.g. The New England Journal of Medicine).
Using AI for the SARA project
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You may use AI on the SARA project to help you find articles. However, user beware. AI will sometimes fabricate sources (e.g., articles). Additionally, the summaries it provides for authentic articles are often wrong or misleading. You MUST read the articles you use, so you should catch this. Ultimately, you are responsible for the accuracy of the things you turn in.
You may also use AI to help you find new and creative uses for the information you learned in your SARA project (i.e., AI can be used to generate ideas for the "Time to Apply" slide). But caution is advised here, too. AI can come up with nonsensical, impractical, and sometimes even dangerous ideas! If you use these, your score for this part of the project will be very low. Blind and uncritical use of AI could result in a lower grade than what you would have received without it.
Not sure what your Slide Presentation should look like?
Check out the samples below.
Do you want to really ACE this project?
Check out the grading rubrics below and make sure you do what is in the rubrics!