Evaluating Learning
Student Evaluation: Research and Writing
Projects | Exams and Quizzes
Course Evaluation
Student learning can be evaluated via standard assessments such as exams, term papers and quizzes. Student performance is not considered the only method for assessing the success of the Power of Water. The course itself is evaluated by students and instructors in order to determine whether or not it reaches SENCER goals for learning and engagement.
Student Evaluation:
Research and writing projects
A significant part of the POW student experience is a scaffolded series of assignments revolving around a water quality research experiment. To engage students in the practice of science, student teams design experiments to test hypotheses regarding the impacts of water quality changes. The experiments are designed after a discussion of the basics of experimental design (e.g., sample size, replication, etc.).
Identified by students as the "beer cup project," this effort requires the establishment of simple plant and invertebrate species in plastic drinking cup "microcosms." The water in those systems is then modified based on the experiment designed by students (within boundaries of safety and greenhouse facility, for the duration of the multi-week experiment.
After developing and carrying out this simple experiment, students spend a lab period "dissecting" a simple scientific paper (taken from Beta Beta Beta's Bios journal). Students then meet with an instructional librarian to learn about the process of finding appropriate scientific literature. Additionally, a lab period is dedicated to discussion and practice of appropriate quantitative techniques for analyzing and summarizing the results of the experiment.
At that point, students begin to prepare a scientific paper in stages, where each major section is submitted for review by the instructor and two anonymous peer reviewers. This iterative process engages students not only in writing for the discipline but, in the name of practicing science, it also involves students in critically evaluating their own work and the work of their peers. While the finished scientific paper is a notable accomplishment, it is the process of carrying out the research experiment and developing the paper that are most important, and the process does not end there.
The preparation of the finished paper is not the end of the process. Students then employ what they have learned in evaluating two local streams. Equipped with basic water quality sampling equipment, students don waders and immerse themselves in these stream systems and collect important data. These data are processed and students directly apply their experiences in the laboratory experiment to these real-world settings. The end product is not another scientific paper but rather a letter to the Town Manager of our Farmville community. Students draw on their experience as scientific researchers to comment on the "State of the Streams" in which they translate their laboratory experience to the applied question of surface water quality. Finally, student teams synthesize their views and present a team presentation to their peers in the final laboratory meeting. While students are repeatedly reminded of the caveats of a one-time visit to a local waterway, they are also reminded of the process: this is a means of engaging their local officials as scientifically educated citizens.
Exams and quizzes
The course is structured with a series of "Major Quizzes" in addition to mid-term and final exams. Major quizzes are given about every other week, and they have several important goals: 1) to provide students and the instructor with frequent feedback regarding their learning, their ability to synthesize material, and their progress in making connections both among course content and between science and civic issues, 2) to provide students with regular incentives to keep current with course material, and 3) to provide multiple assessment opportunities to build up to the higher stakes mid-term and final exams, which is particularly important because the quizzes and exams require students to do more than just regurgitate content and thus practice is critical.
The comprehensive final exam focuses on broad themes that reappear throughout the course and as such it provides students with multiple opportunities to link science concepts to important civic issues. Additionally, a take-home question due at the final exam period requires students to read a provocative scientific article ("Can the world afford to save the lives of 6 million children each year?"; The Lancet 365:2193-2200) and develop a letter to the editor of their hometown newspaper. In the letter they are required to incorporate important results of the analysis presented in the article and frame it in such a way that it will make sense to the average reader. Additionally, they must comment on the social and civic issues as they relate to people in their hometowns. The products of that exercise are fascinating and provide evidence that most students can make sense of the scientific and quantitative information in the article but have difficulty merging that with the realities of cultural, social, and economic constraints. That struggle is typical of "complex citizenship" and provides interesting closure to the semester.
Course Evaluation
The course uses the SENCER Student Assessment of Learning Gains instrument. Pre- and post-SALG results from the spring 2006 course showed gains in confidence and interest in the topics and content that were commensurate with SALG results from other SENCER courses.
