(1058.pdf) THE LAB NOTEBOOK AS AN ASSESSMENT TOOL: A PROPOPOSAL FOR THE ZOOLOGY PRACTICALS AT THEUNIVERSITY OF VALENCIA, SPAIN

摘要

The laboratory sessions are an essential part in most science degrees, with a considerable load ofcontents and time allocated in each course. They also represent a relevant investment for theuniversities in terms of staff, time, space and financial support. Several learning outcomes areintended at these lab sessions, including laboratory skills (e.g., data handling), report writing,interpretation skills, or knowledge, understanding and use of principles involved and their applicationin different contexts. These skills should be assessed properly, and a variety of evaluation methods,such as written exams, oral tests and/or elaboration of laboratory notebooks, may be applied. There isa wide agreement that the elaboration of a lab notebook helps instructors to evaluate and getfeedback on students' performance. However, the evaluation can be time-consuming, inter alia, whenperformed in numerous groups or when the evaluation method is not standardized. The lab classes inthe Zoology course of the Biology degree at the University of Valencia (UV), Spain, represent over onethird of the students' face-to-face instruction load. Currently, lab classes are evaluated based only ona final exam at the end of the course because of the large number of students. However, we submitthat it is possible to get a more comprehensive assessment of each student's achievement using thelab notebook as an additional tool that evaluates communication skills, as well as conceptual andprocedural understanding. In this presentation we describe the guidelines to implement its use forzoology students at the UV. The lab notebook focus on activities that are related to the main types ofpracticals in Zoology at the UV, i.e., description of animal phyla, identification of taxa using keys, andfunctional interpretation of morphology. We provide rubrics for assessment of each of the three typesof activities. Each rubric includes a detailed description of each evaluable item (includingcommunication quality, and conceptual and procedural understanding) that each activity shouldcontain (e.g, in descriptions of animal phyla, performance will be assessed based on the quantity andquality of drawings, labels in drawings, etc.). Giving useful feedback about the lab notebook can bevery time-consuming and, therefore, rubrics (i) let students know beforehand what is expected fromthem, and (ii) allow assessment to be relatively quick and accountable at the end of the course. Inaddition, students must solve and deliver a quiz after each practical session. Answers are regularlyprovided so that students can also have feedback about their performance throughout the course.