Sample assessments
Non Majors' Biology Creative Project
Non majors are asked to complete a creative final project to demonstrate mastery of their choice of a subset of course learning outcomes. This project is assigned during the last month of the course and has three components–a proposal, a status update, and a final submission. The project supports culturally responsive teaching strategies by providing students with freedom to chose how they will demonstrate their mastery of course material while also providing an engaging way for non majors to interact with biology and science material, which is outside of their normal program interests.
Animal Behavior BioBlitz
This assessment is assigned during the last month of the course. It's used to assess students' understanding of the concepts learned during the course and their ability to apply the concepts in natural situations. Students are not required to correctly identify the behaviors. Instead they are required to demonstrate an understanding of the concept, the ability to critically think and observe animals in natural situations, apply the concepts to their observations, and explain their reasoning for determining that an animal's behavior is illustrative of a particular behavior or concept from the animal behavior field.
Conceptual Approaches to Biology for Majors II
This assessment was developed in collaboration with Dr. Christian Wright, Dr. Christofer Bang, and Anthony Basile. Students are assigned several arguments that increase in difficulty throughout the semester with the goal being to teach them to interpret and use data to form an argument while also challenging them to be critical of arguments they read in scientific papers and popular science articles. This argument is assigned as the first in the semester and asks them to inform a friend about the potential effectiveness of an Alzheimer's drug based on evidence from a scientific study and their understanding of enzymes. Students may work alone or as a group of up to 3. They receive feedback on their initial submission and have the opportunity to make improvements and resubmit the argument. assigned during the last month of the course. It's used to assess students' understanding of the concepts learned during the course and their ability to apply the concepts in natural situations. Students are not required to correctly identify the behaviors. Instead they are required to demonstrate an understanding of the concept, the ability to critically think and observe animals in natural situations, apply the concepts to their observations, and explain their reasoning for determining that an animal's behavior is illustrative of a particular behavior or concept from the animal behavior field.
Material
Traditional Exams
I also use traditional exams in my classes that are composed of multiple choice, true/false, and matching questions. I formulate questions for these exams so that they represent both lower and upper levels of Bloom's Taxonomy. Students are prepared these exams through practice in class and practice exams. Sample exams are available upon request.