Contemporary Issues in Science Core Student Learning Outcome Assessment Report

Contemporary Issues in Science Core Student Learning Outcome Assessment Report

Course Title:ANTY 212CS Bones, Apes and Ancestors

Author of Report:Dr. Sara Waller

Outcome Being Assessed:

• Explain how science contributes to analyzing complex problems in the contemporary world.
• Describe the scientific method, the kinds of questions asked by scientists and the methods used to explore those questions.
• Demonstrate critical thinking, writing and oral communication skills.

Semester and YearSpring, 2015

Course Enrollment:58

Number of Course Sections:1

Number of Assignments Assessed:10

Assessment Team: Dr. Paul Gannon, Dr. Jack Brookshire

Method of Selecting Student Work:Instructor, Dr. Jack Fischer, was asked to submit a random sample of 10 papers from his

Method of Ensuring Inter-rater Reliability: Normalized rubric

Description of Assessment Reports:Research papers from the Spring 2015, in which students are required to write two research papers, one which cover aspects of primate studies (the topic of the first half of the semester), and the second some aspect of paleoanthropology. In order to get an assessment of early and later examples of writing, the first five are papers that examine one or another aspect of primate studies, the last five papers have to do with paleoanthropology.

Notes about Scoring:

Rubric Used:Assessment evaluations were consistent, there were no scores that showed a greater difference then one point, with the exception on one paper that the assessment team differed by two points (both scores were well within in the desired outcome range).

LearningOutcome1:Explain how science contributes to analyzing complex problems in the contemporary world.

LearningOutcome2: Describe the scientific method, the kinds of questions asked by scientists and the methods used to explore those questions.

LearningOutcome3: Demonstrate critical thinking, writing and oral communication skills.

Results:

Average score for learning outcome 1 = 4.75, demonstrating a clear developing relationship on how science contributes to complex scientific problems. There were no scores below 4, demonstrating a clear pattern of student’s ability to express their ideas with precision and clarity with good examples of ideas being very well presented. All papers evaluated provided evidence on how science is utilized.

Average score for learning outcome 2 = 4.35, demonstrating a well-developed ability to demonstrate scientific method as it pertained to the research topic. There were no scores below 4.Students were clear in describing the scientific method used in the articles reviewed, as well as demonstrating a clear and well-developed understanding of the kinds of questions asked by scientists and the methods used to explore those questions.

Average score for learning outcome 3 = 4.4, the score for demonstrating critical thinking was more varied, with a low of 4 and a high of 6. All papers clearly demonstrated the outcome goal, however some students were able to better demonstrate the ability to utilize critical thinking to formulate a conclusion. This is often a challenge to students and something that might be considered in the curriculum to assist students in developing these skills more thoroughly.

Recommendations:

This assessment is based on the review of student work from only one course. The CS steering committee in conjunction with the Core Curriculum Committee is working to collect more data from more CS courses so that data more reflective of the diverse CS offerings are represented. A new CS assessment plan is in development and should help to streamline data collection and result in more meaningful assessment to inform the curriculum.