For the past two years I’ve been writing a blog on research presented in Ecology and Conservation Biology (fredsingerecology.com). My goal is for students to learn about scientific discovery in a variety of contexts, and I structure each post accordingly. The first paragraph gives background information, including a discussion of why the question is interesting, which may include some information on how the researcher got interested in the question. The bulk of the post discusses methods (in an abbreviated form) in enough detail so students can understand and interpret the data, which are usually figures taken directly from the journal. I conclude with a brief discussion of why these data are important, and what questions remain unanswered.
Each post averages about 800 words + 2 or 3 figures, and takes about 15-20 minutes to read carefully. I have a page with suggestions of how to use the blog in the classroom, and also a table of contents that puts each post into a category (e.g. behavior, populations, ecosystems, disease, etc. – 12 categories in all), so you and your students can easily find posts dealing with a particular subdiscipline. I hope you enjoy it and use it regularly in your classes!
