home
  : Instruments : Curriculum Development





























home reports instruments plans
search

Curriculum Development Instruments

Return to Instrument Table

Student Surveys

Instrument 6: Moro Cojo Chemistry Grading Rubric

Project: Teaching Scientific Inquiry Through Inter-disciplinary Problem-based Modules: Students as Partners in Ongoing Applied Research
California State University, Monterey Bay

Funding Source: NSF - Undergraduate Education (DUE)

Purpose: To "grade" a research project in an integrated science course.

Administered To: Undergraduate chemistry students

Topics Covered:

  • Content and Inquiry: Environmental: wetlands chemistry of soil and water

Format/Length: questions


Moro Cojo Chemistry Grading Rubric
ESSP 110, Spring 2002

Introduction: Introduction to the slough  
  • Location


  • Importance of Soulgh and wetlands in general as an endangered habitat including the kinds of services they provide.


  • Brief description of the research your gruop conducted (question, hypothesis, and what you found). Why do we care about wetland ecosystems?


  • Criteria: Completeness and Accuracy. Your reports must address the preceding in good depth, and as well as be factually correct.
/5


/20



/15
Methods:

A)  Brief description of how you did your analysis and the methods used.


/10
Chemistry:

Oh yes, the chemistry. You must describe the chemistry involved in the analyses you did. If you measured dissolved oxygen, you must detail the reactions involved such that the reader believes you understand what you did.
  • Criteria: Accuracy. Your description must be factually correct and convincing.


/10
Results:Graphs should include and be:

Average and standard deviation of your samples? Attach your standard deviations as error bars.

Correctly Labeled?

Correct Presentation of Data?

In addition to graphs, this section will include a written description of your what your graphs indicate.

Criteria: Accuracy, Useful. Your graphs must resent your data such that they illustrate what you found. They must be correctly labeled. Standard deviation must be attached to error bars.


/7

/7

/7

/7
Discussion: This is where you'll discuss the meaning of your data in the context of the slough. The minimum expectation is that you'll discuss the following:

Your results in some depth including your hypothesis and whether or not your data supported it.

A discussion of the meaning of your results. What may your results mean? Was there a lot of scatter in your data (large standard deviation). If so, what do you think contributed to this?

The relevance of what you measured in the context of the slough. For instance, how does DO have any bearing on the health of the slough?

What environmental factors/variables are likely to influence what you measured?

What kinds of processes may be influenced by what you measured?



/8

/8


/8


/8

/8
Required Extra Credit:
Compare your data to what other students have found in the past and in this class. You'll need to dig for these points. An excel spreadsheet will put in the class folder with Moro Cojo water quality data for this year and one season in the past. You may wish to compare your data with data from the same sites, for the past two years, or discuss the whole picture. If you did a unique project (and therefore have not previous data to compare yours to), you could compare dissolved oxygen, nitrate, and phosphate concentrations from sites 1, 2, and 3 over the course of a year, or two. You might wish to look for relationships between salinity (incoming tide) and concentration of some nutrient over time.

Whatever you decide-do it well. You'll want to graph and perform descriptive statistics (mean and standard deviation) on the data you wish to discuss. You'll want to delve into what the data mean with respect to the slough.
.../40
points possible

Products:
Each group will write one introduction, methods, and results section. Each of you will will submit your own discussion. You will submit both hard and electronic copies of your work. Save your reports in rich text format (one of the options under "save as"). Put at least one of your names in the title. Put the names of all individuals within the body of the report. Send electronic copies to the Firstclass inbox. Extra credit may be done on an individual or group basis, but make it clear who is to get credit for the work.

I strongly suggest that you turn in a draft. Products Due 5/14/02.