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Student Content Assessments

Instrument 25: Laboratory Practical and Assessment

Project: Improving Student Understanding and Retention Through Investigative Laboratories in Biotechnology
Delaware Valley College

Funding Source: NSF - Undergraduate Education (DUE)

Purpose: To assess knowledge, application, and fundamental skills in the biotechnology laboratory

Administered To: Undergraduate students enrolled in the laboratory portion of the re-designed biotechnology course

Topics Covered:

  • Content Specific Assessment: Biotechnology laboratory practical

Format/Length: 7 open-ended questions

Appendix B: Laboratory Practical and Assessment
                   

The laboratory assessment emphasized explaining concepts and demonstrating lab skills and a basic knowledge of the equipment. In some cases, the student was asked to explain a technique to the instructor or to solve a problem while "thinking aloud", explaining what she is doing and why she is doing it. Our goal was to assess knowledge, application, and fundamental skills.
                   

A. Procedures for the Biotechnology Laboratory Final/Practical
The exam was given to evaluate general knowledge and skills acquired from the laboratory during this semester. Students were not told about the exam prior to taking it, therefore, it should more accurately assess their actual working knowledge, as opposed to what they memorized in order to pass the test. The test was not counted as part of their grade, it was strictly a formative evaluation tool.
                   
  1. Students were asked to make a serial dilution using micropipets.
  2. Students were asked to go to the spectrophotometer and determine how to correctly set the instrument to do a protein assay.
  3. Students were asked to identify the equipment needed to perform a Western blot.
  4. Students were asked to explain the results of an unsuccessful transformation, based on the growth results of plated bacteria.
  5. Students were asked to explain which lab procedure should be performed for a paternity test, as done in class.
  6. Students were asked to set up a submarine gel apparatus and name the type of gel used for nucleic acid separations.
  7. Students were asked to draw a restriction map of a plasmid, as given.
                   

B. Biotechnology Laboratory Final
(form distributed to students during the evaluation)
  1. Please make a final dilution of 1:20,000 using no more than 3 serial dilution steps. (Write down how you do this.)
  2. You set up a protein assay and need to read your samples on the spectrophotometer. Which instrument settings should you adjust before reading your assay?
  3. You need to do a Western blot. Name the 2 main pieces of lab equipment/apparatus you will need to use.



  4. You put a dog gene into a plasmid and attempted to put it into E. coli. What is this process called? Looking at the 2 plates, what can you say about the success of your attempt?



  5. You need to do a paternity test. What type of procedure should you do?



  6. How do you properly set up a horizontal electrophoresis apparatus? What type of gel should you run for nucleic acid analyses?
  7. You did a restriction digest of a 6000 bp plasmid and got the following results:
    SauI 2000 4000 SauI + BamHI 2000 2000 2000  
    BamHI 6000   SauI + EcoRI 500 1300 2000 2200
    EcoRI 2200 3800 BamHI + EcoRI   700 1500 3800
                   
    Draw a restriction map of this plasmid.