Laboratory Exams

For complete details on this assignment, download the entire Course Description & Policies handout as a PDF.

There will be four lab exams (100 pts each) testing the identification of organisms, their key morphological structures, and the physiological and ecological functions of those structures. For each exam, 25-30 stations will be set up. Each station will have 2-4 questions requiring a short answer (1-4 words or 1-2 sentences). Students will rotate among stations, spending 2 minutes at each; students will not be able to return to a previous station. This portion of the exam is entirely closed book.

Students will then have the opportunity to refer to their lab notebook for 10 minutes:

The primary reason for allowing students the option to use their personal lab notebook is so they can check the spelling of taxonomic names; 10 min is plenty of time to do that, especially if one’s notebook is neatly written and organized (see p. 7). There is an obvious additional benefit to referring to one’s notebook: the notebook can be used to correct more than just spelling errors! In biology (and economics) most benefits are at least partially counteracted by costs. Dr. Hentschel will impose such a cost-benefit scheme associated with the option to use one’s personal notebook for 10 min: if a student elects to use his/her personal notebook for 10 minutes, any incorrectly spelled words will be graded as wrong answers! The choice of whether or not to use one’s notebook for 10 min (and have spelling count during the grading) is the responsibility of each student and reflects his/her individual preference.

To ensure that each student makes a careful and informed decision, a 3-step process will occur at the end of the exam:

1) All students will have 3 min to review or edit their answers on the exam (closed book).

2) Each student will sign a contract (Appendix I) declaring whether they want to use their notebook for 10 min, considering the benefit-cost trade off associated with spelling.

3a) Students who do not elect to use their notebook will hand in their exams and leave the room for 10 min. Their exams will be graded with some leniency for minor spelling errors (Dr. Hentschel will use the “sounds like” standard described in Appendix I).

3b) Students who do elect to use their notebook will have 10 min to use their personal lab notebook in any way they find helpful. Their exams will be graded without any leniency for incorrect spellings (a misspelled word is a wrong answer).

After the 10 min period, everyone will take a 5 min break before Dr. Hentschel and the students discuss the correct answers for each of the 25-30 stations.