SACSCOC Fifth Year Interim Report
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Assessment : 2013 - 2014 : Educational Programs :
Biology BA/BS
Biology BA/BS
1 Goal 2 Objectives 2 Indicators 2 Criteria 2 Findings 1 Action
| GOAL: Effectively Deliver A Core Curriculum |
| Objective |
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Students will demonstrate a mastery of the core fields in biology: Botany, Zoology, Cell Biology, Microbiology, Genetics, Ecology and Evolution. |
| Indicator |
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All graduating seniors will take an exiting Biology Assessment Exam (BAE), written by the Biology Faculty. We will analyze the BAE scores from the following areas: botany, zoology, cell biology, microbiology, genetics, evolution & ecology to evaluate whether students have a significant level of understanding of each of these fields. |
| Criterion |
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All Biology majors will be expected to score significantly better than a failing grade in all core areas: botany, zoology, cell biology, microbiology, genetics, evolution and ecology. |
| Finding |
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Twenty-seven (41%) graduating seniors took the Biology Assesment Exam. On average, students scored significantly greater than a failing grade (based a chi-square test against randomized answer choices) in all core areas. (Fig. 1). In general, questions with a high level of difficulty usually had a high frequency of incorrect answers. Questions of intermediate or low difficulty had a range of few wrong answer choices or a high number of incorrect answer choices (Fig. 2). |
Actions for Objective:
| Action |
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All Graduating seniors will be contacted by email and asked to take a biology exit exam that will test their comprehension of material from the basic core classes in biological sciences |
| GOAL: Effectively Deliver A Core Curriculum |
| Objective |
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| Students will demonstrate an understanding of the general nature of scientific knowledge and how scientific knowledge is gained (the scientific method). They also will be able to critically evaluate scientific data to draw informed conclusions. |
| Indicator |
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All graduating seniors will take the Biology Assessment Exam (BAE). We will use BAE exam scores from analytical questions to evaluate a student’s understanding of the scientific method and critical thinking. |
| Criterion |
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All Biology majors will be expected to score significantly better than failing on analytical questions related to the scientific method and critical thinking. |
| Finding |
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| We examined the number of questions missed for questions that required critical thinking and graphical interpretation. Both are seated within principles of the scientific method. We found a difference between questiosn requiring graphical interpretation; and questions not requiring interpretation of graphical data. Specifically, students missed more questions that required interpretation of graphs. We found no difference between questions requiring analytical calculation and those not requiring calculations. See Fig. 3 for Specifics. |
Actions for Objective:
There are no actions for this objective.
There are no actions for this objective.
| Previous Cycle's "Plan for Continuous Improvement" |
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We will develop a departmental assessment committee.
The goals of the committee this year will be: 1. establish sub committees within each core area. 2. review questions within each core area 3. balance the number of factual knowledge questions and critical thinking questions. 4. create a broader range of question difficulties that will aid in analysis. 5. plan a mechanism to increase test turnout. |
| Update on Previous Cycle's "Plan for Continuous Improvement" |
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The Department of Biological Sciences continues to review and this assessment and improve upon the questions asked to identify weaknesses in instruction. |
| Plan for Continuous Improvement |
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The Department of Biological Sciences now has 2 years of assessment exam data. Based on this we will begin comparing the two years. We also will continue to review quesions in core areas, expand upon the critical thinking component to the exam, and continue to promote the test to maximize turnout.
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