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Undergraduate physics and astronomy students are expected to engage with scientific literature as they begin their research careers, yet reading comprehension skills are rarely explicitly taught in major courses. We seek to determine the efficacy of a reading assignment designed to improve undergraduate astronomy (or related) majors’ perceived ability to engage with research literature by using accessible summaries of current research written by experts in the field. During the 2022–2023 academic year, faculty members from six institutions incorporated reading assignments using accessible summaries from Astrobites into their undergraduate astronomy major courses, surveyed their students before and after the activities, and participated in follow-up interviews with our research team. Quantitative and qualitative survey data from 52 students show that students’ perceptions of their abilities to understand jargon and identify the main takeaways of a paper significantly improved with the use of the tested assignment template. Additionally, students reported increased confidence in their abilities within astronomy after exposure to these assignments, and instructors having valued a ready-to-use resource for incorporating reading comprehension into their pedagogy. This exploratory case study, using Astrobites-based assignments, suggests that incorporating current research into the undergraduate classroom through accessible literature summaries may increase students’ confidence and ability to engage with research literature, thereby assisting in their preparation for participation in research careers. 

Abstract Theoretical models and observations suggest that the abundances of molecular ions in protoplanetary disks should be highly sensitive to the variable ionization conditions set by the young central star. We present a search for temporal flux variability of HCO⁺J= 1–0, which was observed as a part of the Molecules with Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) at Planet-forming Scales ALMA Large Program. We split out and imaged the line and continuum data for each individual day the five sources were observed (HD 163296, AS 209, GM Aur, MWC 480, and IM Lup, with between three and six unique visits per source). Significant enhancement (>3σ) was not observed, but we find variations in the spectral profiles in all five disks. Variations in AS 209, GM Aur, and HD 163296 are tentatively attributed to variations in HCO⁺flux, while variations in IM Lup and MWC 480 are most likely introduced by differences in theuvcoverage, which impact the amount of recovered flux during imaging. The tentative detections and low degree of variability are consistent with expectations of X-ray flare-driven HCO⁺variability, which requires relatively large flares to enhance the HCO⁺rotational emission at significant (>20%) levels. These findings also demonstrate the need for dedicated monitoring campaigns with high signal-to-noise ratios to fully characterize X-ray flare-driven chemistry.