Pop quizzes may be given at the beginning of a lab period to
encourage students to read the lab protocols and Web pages ahead of time and
come to class prepared to do the lab. They will typically consist of five,
short-answer questions that are worth two points each, and are based on the
contents of the lab protocol and Web page for that day’s lab. These might
include questions such as
“What is the name of the piece of equipment we will be using?”
or
“Define xxx,”
where xxx is some important term with which
students must be familiar. Since the reason for these pop quizzes is to see
if students are arriving on time and are prepared for class, if a pop quiz is
missed, including the situation in which a student arrives 15 min. late for
class when everyone else has just turned in their finished quizzes, it
cannot be made up.
Field-hike quizzes will be on the days noted in the schedule
for the semester. They will consist of going out on a “regular” hike and
noting any new organisms we see, and also answering questions about any
organisms we see that should be familiar from previous hikes. These quizzes
are fill-in-the-blank, and typically include 25 questions at two point each,
for a total of 50 points. The questions asked about a particular organism
will depend on what has previously been discussed about that organism, and
might include such things as
“What is it?”
and/or
“In what plant family is it?”
or
“For what is it used?”
or
“How are its leaves arranged?”
Anything we saw (or heard) on a previous hike during the current semester and
that we happen to
see again is “fair game.” Because these quizzes will be based on whatever
we happen to see when we’re there, it is pretty-much impossible to administer
a one-on-one, make-up, quiz hike, so the policy is that if missed, these
cannot be made up.
If it is raining, the instructor may choose to do one of three possible things, instead: a) shift labs around and re-schedule the field-hike quiz, b) collect plant material and bring it indoors for a “show-n-tell” quiz, or c) project photos of some of the organisms we’ve seen and ask questions about those photos.
In winter, when it’s too cold to go outside and all the plants are under snow and not visible, the regularly-scheduled quizzes will cover the indoor labs, instead. In that case, a particular quiz will cover the labs that have been done since the last big midterm (or if it is the first quiz, since the beginning of the semester). These will consist of 25 questions that are worth two points each, for a total of 50 points. These questions will be fill-in-the-blank, and will include not only concepts from the protocols and Web pages, but also questions based on what was done in those labs and the results that were obtained (Do you understand what was done and why, and what did you learn from doing that lab?).
These will be worth 200 points each, and will cover material from the labs that have been done since the last such “big” test. Each will be divided into two sections: there will be a 100-point closed-notebook section and a 100-point open-notebook section. The first test that is missed may be made up before the next lab period, but if there are any hands-on and/or demo questions that cannot saved from the original test date and re-set-up at a later date, students who make up the test late will forfeit the points on those questions. Only one, late, make-up test is allowed, and all subsequently-missed tests will be given a score of zero (0) points.
The closed-notebook section will include about 20 Greek and
Latin wordstems (found in the protocols and Web pages, and/or given verbally)
to be translated into English — for example,
“Tell what ‘bios’ is in English.”,
about ten definitions of key terminology — for example,
“Define ‘accuracy’.”,
and a variety of short-answer essay-type questions that could range from
something such as
“Draw a 250-mL beaker with all lines correctly indicated.”
to
“Use a pH meter to determine the pH of this solution.”
to
“Calculate the average of the numbers 1.00, 1.02, and 1.05.”
to
“Explain why water forms a meniscus in a glass container.”
On the subsequent, open-notebook portion, students will be
allowed to use lab protocols which are permanently bound into their
protocol book and items which are a permanent part (written in or mounted
with contact paper) of their lab notebook, but not a bunch of loose
papers that, “...but I didn’t get time to put them in, yet.” This portion
of the test will include a section of questions to test the completeness
and correctness of the information in your cumulative lists — for example,
“What is the common name for
Asimina triloba?”,
where you would not be expected to memorize that information, but would be
expected to find it in your lab notebook. There may be some
fill-in-the-blank questions covering such things as
“Identify this piece of equiment
used in xxx lab.”,
or
“Name this microscope part. ”,
etc. There will be more
short-answer essay-type questions, which could range from questions such as
“If 100 mL of dH2O was
found to weigh 33.62 g and 100 mL of JunkPop was found to weigh 34.63 g, how
many teaspoons of sugar are in one can of that soft drink?”
to
“Explain how and why the energy
‘budgets’ of Ragweed and Goldenrod are different.”
to
“Draw and label the face of a
sphygmomanometer.”
to
“Make a buccal smear and get a
representative group of cells in focus at 400×.”
While, in general, these will not be a regular part of lab, it is possible/probable, on a day when microscopes have been used, that the “microscope police” will come around after everyone has left to grade students on how their microscopes were put away. Additionally, if it is noticed that numerous students have developed the habit of rushing through labs, not doing a thorough job, and not really spending the time needed to really focus on the job at hand, and/or if many students decide to skip a particular hike just because they “don’t feel like it,” then it is entirely possible that a surprise, end-of-class, pop quiz might be given to those students who are still present in class. If that happens, that quiz would typically be very short and would be the sort of question(s) that should be very easy for anyone who has been paying attention to answer. Since the purpose of these quizzes is to encourage students to stay for the whole class period and be engaged in that day’s lab activity, if missed, they cannot be made up.