ASSESSING PRACTICAL WORK IN THE UNDERGRADUATE TEACHING LABORATORIES - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

1 / 19
About This Presentation
Title:

ASSESSING PRACTICAL WORK IN THE UNDERGRADUATE TEACHING LABORATORIES

Description:

... mark scheme more transparent so students can see where they lost or gained marks. ... Easier to copy from a friend. Other assessment methods? ... – PowerPoint PPT presentation

Number of Views:25
Avg rating:3.0/5.0
Slides: 20
Provided by: Staf572
Category:

less

Transcript and Presenter's Notes

Title: ASSESSING PRACTICAL WORK IN THE UNDERGRADUATE TEACHING LABORATORIES


1
ASSESSING PRACTICAL WORK IN THE UNDERGRADUATE
TEACHING LABORATORIES
  • Phil King

2
Contents
  • Introduction
  • How we used to assess practical work
  • Why we changed the way we assess practical work
  • How we changed the way we assess practical work
  • Group Work
  • Summary
  • Questions

3
How we used to assess practical work
  • Traditional laboratory reports.
  • Mark out of 10 which includes the following
    components
  • product yield,
  • observations and equations,
  • quality of written report,
  • answers to questions.

4
Advantages of laboratory reports
  • Improves written communication skills
  • -writing in a scientific manner
  • -presenting experimental data.
  • Encourages students to think about the experiment
    they have carried out.
  • Prepares students for life in a research
    laboratory.

5
Disadvantages of laboratory reports
  • Very little formal training given to students
    about how to write an experimental report.
  • Little agreement between scientific branches and
    disciplines as to what a report should include.
  • Often just copy the experimental method in the
    manual.

6
Disadvantages of laboratory reports
  • A lot of work for the students.
  • Report writing is over-assessed (over the course
    of their three year degree the students have to
    write almost 100 reports).
  • A lot of work for staff (marking).
  • Large student numbers make it difficult to give
    informative feedback sufficiently quickly.
  • Written communication skills and answers to
    questions are often assessed more than practical
    skills.

7
How we assess practical work now
  • Laboratory classes are now assessed through a
    mixture of answer sheets and laboratory reports.
  • The writing of experimental reports is phased in
    over the three years of the degree course.
  • First year students mainly complete answer
    sheets.
  • Second year students have a more even mixture of
    answer sheets and written reports.
  • Third year students mainly produce full reports.

8
Designing answer sheets
  • Answer sheets have the same design for both first
    and second year laboratories.
  • Answer sheets have boxes for students to write
    their answers in.
  • Each box has a mark associated with it so the
    students have an idea of the mark scheme.
  • In each box the students are told exactly what
    information is required from them (i.e. yield
    calculation, observations, equations, answer to a
    question, etc.).

9
Designing answer sheets
  • At the end of the sheet the students are told
    which products they are required to hand in for
    marking and how many marks are assigned to the
    quality of the product.
  • If the experiment involves spectroscopy the
    students are told at the start of the script
    which spectra they need to attach to the answer
    sheet.

10
Designing answer sheets
  • For synthesis-based experiments a lot of the
    marks are assigned to product quality and yield
    (separate).
  • For spectroscopy-based experiments a lot of the
    marks are assigned to quality of spectra and
    interpretation of the spectroscopic data
    (separate).
  • Experiments that test observational skills have
    mark schemes weighted towards the students
    observations and their chemical interpretation.
  • Very few marks for answering theoretical
    questions.

11
What are we trying to assess?
  • First Year Undergraduate Teaching Laboratories
  • Basic practical skills
  • synthetic skills
  • observational skills
  • use of lab equipment/handling chemicals
  • Ability to carry out yield and mole calculations
  • Basic understanding of the experiment

12
What are we trying to assess?
  • Second Year Undergraduate Teaching Laboratories
  • Experiments more complicated so more demand on
    technical skills.
  • Students are often asked questions relating to
    the experimental procedure (reaction conditions,
    reagents, etc.) to test their understanding.
  • Students required to make a more detailed
    analysis of spectroscopic data.
  • Students asked to explain any differences between
    expected theoretical data and experimental
    results.

13
Advantages of answer sheets
  • Act as a guide for the students during the
    experiment (particularly in the first year).
  • Less time consuming for the students (allows them
    to focus on interpreting data rather than writing
    report).
  • Detailed marking scheme makes making easier
  • -speeds up feedback process
  • -increases consistency.

14
Advantages of answer sheets
  • Use of boxes with marks in makes mark scheme more
    transparent so students can see where they lost
    or gained marks.
  • Assigning marks to the boxes makes you think
    before you add unnecessary questions!
  • Writing full reports takes on more of a
    significance for the students as they dont do
    as many and are generally worth double marks
    (greater effort made).

15
Advantages of answer sheets
  • In synthetic experiments students much more
    focused on getting quality sample as worth a
    significant proportion of marks.
  • In spectroscopic experiments students more
    focused on getting quality spectra to gain higher
    marks.
  • Use of boxes allows the students to handle
    complicated data in a step-by-step fashion
    (particularly important when they are not used to
    handling experimental data).

16
Disadvantages of answer sheets
  • Can be seen as dumbing down.
  • Does not improve written communication skills.
  • Easier to copy from a friend.

17
Other assessment methods?
  • In groups discuss other methods of assessing
    teaching labs
  • Take into account all the factors that we have
    already discussed
  • What are the main advantages of your new
    assessment method?

18
Other assessment methods?
  • Group Assessment
  • poster
  • oral presentation
  • group written report
  • Peer Assessment

19
Summary
  • Writing of laboratory reports is over assessed.
  • Should be assessing the students practical skills
    (synthesis, data recording and interpretation,
    etc).
  • Have made a conscious effort to gradually phase
    in the writing of reports throughout the degree.
  • This is done through the use of answer sheets for
    the recording and interpretation of the
    experimental data.
  • Answers sheets are designed to reward those
    students with superior practical skills.
Write a Comment
User Comments (0)
About PowerShow.com