Archived Assessment Report
| Program | Pre-Health Sciences Degree: Pre-Nursing |
| Assessment Reporter | [email protected] |
| Theme | Practicing Community |
| Review Year | 2024-2025 - Midpoint Report |
| Learning Outcome (or Gen Ed Essential Skill) | Focus Area |
|---|---|
| 1. Communicate clearly, concisely, and with purpose in oral and written form. | Do students demonstrate clear and concise oral and/or written scientific communication? |
| 7. Properly operate laboratory equipment to collect relevant and quality data. | Do students demonstrate proper operation of laboratory equipment including electronic balances and microscopes? |
| 8. Analyze relevant issues utilizing concepts and evidence from the social/behavioral sciences. | Are students able to utilize a Punnett square to generate data and examine results from a cross involving a genetic disease? |
| Learning Outcome (or Gen Ed Essential Skill) | Description of Assessment Tool | Population or Courses Assessed | Hypothetical Analysis/Target |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Communicate clearly, concisely, and with purpose in oral and written form. | Students will be measured on their ability to verbally communicate procedures and results with their lab partners during Osmosis lab (BIOL 1140L). Written communication will be measured via Gram-Staining lab reports (BIOL 2310L). A checklist and/or rubric will be used to track student data. | BIOL 1140L and BIOL 2310L | 75% or better of students should demonstrate successful oral and written communication skills. |
| 7. Properly operate laboratory equipment to collect relevant and quality data. | Students will be measured on their ability to use electronic balances and microscopes successfully during the Osmosis lab (BIOL 1140L) and demonstrate proper gram-staining technique in Microbiology lab (BIOL 2310L) | BIOL 1140L and BIOL 2310L | 75% or better of students should demonstrate successful usage of laboratory equipment. |
| 8. Analyze relevant issues utilizing concepts and evidence from the social/behavioral sciences. | During the final lab practical, students will complete and properly analyze the results from a Punnett square on Huntington's disease. | BIOL 1140L | 75% or better of students should demonstrate the ability to work and analyze the results from the Punnett Square. |
| Learning Outcome (or Gen Ed Essential Skill) | Summary of Results | Reflection on Focus Area | Intepretation of Results |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Communicate clearly, concisely, and with purpose in oral and written form. | BIOL 1140L results: Three sections of 1140L were assessed, totaling 52 students. A rubric & check-marks (points) were used to evaluate 4 areas of communication/social responsibility. • Overall - 43/52 students, or 83%, received 75% (our benchmark) or better of all possible points for this lab activity. Breakdown: • "student talks with peers to plan experiment" - 43/52 or 83% received a point for this measure • "Records mass of egg before and after soak using correct units" - 42/52 or 81% received a point • "Records egg mass & reports visible changes in notebook" - 47/52 or 90% received a point • Performs microscope steps to correctly view a slide - 44/52 or 84% received a point for this. | BIOL 1140L results: The majority of our students demonstrated a strong ability to communicate with their peers in experiment planning, as well as the ability to record accurate data for future analysis. | BIOL 1140 results: While the majority of our students demonstrate good oral and written communication skills, it was observed (anecdotally) that there is a small group of students that do not engage with their peers during a group activity. Another subset did not record any data from the experiment. It is noted that only three sections of Bio lab were assessed, for a total of only 52 students. |
| 8. Analyze relevant issues utilizing concepts and evidence from the social/behavioral sciences. | 79 students across 6 sections of BIOL 1140L were assessed. Overall, 80% of students were able to successfully complete and analyze this Punnett square. | The results support the hypothesis that at least 75% of our students will be able to work and analyze this problem. | The results indicated 80% of students were able to successfully complete and analyze this Punnett square. Interestingly, there were no big differences in students abilities to complete the three parts of the problem (solving the Punnett square, interpreting the results, and analyzing the results - 81, 77 and 82% respectively). It is possible that there are students who simply are unable to answer any of the three parts, thus accounting for the 20% who were unable to successfully complete the problem, but the data don't actually suggest this. When we break it down by student scores, we see that ~70% of students received 3 out of 3 points, but ~90% of students received 2 out of 3 points. This suggests that students are likely only missing one of the components. |
| Learning Outcome (or Gen Ed Essential Skill) | Description of Assessment Tool | Population of Courses Assessed |
|---|
| Learning Outcome (or Gen Ed Essential Skill) | Summary of Second Round Results | Intepretation of Results, Pre- and Post-Change | Follow up questions, possible next steps |
|---|
Describe any change in student achievement observed as part of this assessment process, and what led to those changes.
Describe long-term changes in the program(s) that the assessment process led to, and what motivated those changes?
What did you learn about the teaching and learning of "Practicing Community" in your programs?
Describe any external factors affecting the program or affecting assessment of the program.