“High
Stakes
Laboratory
Assessment”

















First
Year
UCM
Graduate
Student,
Organic
Chemistry




























Ivy
Price






May
2013




 How
do
we
support
student
learning
by
incentivizing
engagement
with
curriculum?
Most
would
 agree
by
graded
assignments
and
tests.
In
the
first
semester
Organic
lab
at
UC
Merced,
the
only
 accountability
our
students
are
given
in
meeting
the
course
outcomes
is
through
the
completion
of
 formal
lab
reports.
Formal
lab
reports
are
a
vital
component
of
a
student’s
journey
to
becoming
a
 scientist
and
a
professional,
teaching
them
how
to
write
like
a
scientist.
While
lab
reports
are
a
valuable
 form
of
assessment,
there
are
several
problems
with
how
they
have
been
traditionally
implemented.
 Since
the
labs
do
not
change
considerably
throughout
the
years,
many
students
may
be
tempted
to
 ‘pass
down’
their
lab
reports
to
future
Organic
students.
Setting
aside
academic
integrity
issues,
a
 pedagogical
challenge
is
students
merely
inserting
their
data
and
not
bothering
to
alter
any
of
the
 content.
This
misalignment
of
goal
and
outcome
requires
very
little
of
our
students.
While
frequent,
 low‐stake
assignments,
such
as
lab
reports,
are
important
towards
gaining
practice
of
laboratory
 concepts,
a
more
high
stakes
assessment
for
the
course
needs
to
be
implemented
in
order
to
keep
the
 students
accountable
to
the
material.

 I
came
to
the
assumption
of
the
need
for
a
high
stakes
assessment
for
the
lab
while
looking
over
 the
results
of
the
mid
semester
survey.
At
this
point
in
the
semester,
the
students
had
performed
a
 recrystallization
twice
and
an
extraction
once.
For
the
question
about
recrystallization,
87%
of
the
 students
were
correct,
while
for
the
question
about
extraction
only
28%
of
the
students
were
correct.
 This
information
shows
that
merely
writing
the
lab
report
for
the
extraction
lab
didn’t
nail
down
the
 concept.
Since
recrystallizations
had
been
performed
and
discussed
multiple
times,
it
would
be
expected
 that
most
students
would
understand
this
basic
method.
Repetition
of
the
physical
process
of
 performing
a
recrystallization
may
have
played
a
role
in
their
higher
performance
on
that
question.
It
is
 also
important
that
the
students
understand
concepts
that
are
only
covered
once
or
twice
during
the
 semester
and
clearly
lab
reports
are
not
the
way
to
keep
the
students
accountable
to
the
course
 learning
outcomes.

 
 For
the
current
semester,
I
have
proposed
the
implementation
of
laboratory
based
questions
on
 the
midterm
and
final
since
the
lab
portion
of
the
course
was
not
set
up
for
an
exam.
For
future
 semesters,
I
would
like
to
see
laboratory
midterms
and
a
lab
final
as
the
main
form
assessment
with
the
 formal
lab
reports
as
supplemental
forms
of
assessment.
I
believe
this
type
of
setup
would
actually
 make
the
students
learn
the
material
covered
in
the
lab.
This
semester,
Dr.
Jason
Hein
has
agreed
to
let
 me
put
a
few
laboratory
questions
on
a
midterm
and
the
final.
My
plan
is
to
put
one
question
about
 methodology
and
one
question
specific
to
synthesis
on
their
midterm.
I
want
to
see
how
many
actually
 grasp
the
basics
of
the
lab.
From
this,
I
think
it
would
be
an
accurate
form
of
analysis
as
to
how
well
our


students
are
grasping
the
laboratory
concepts
and
how
well
we
are
doing
as
educators.
I
predict
that
the
 students
will
dramatically
improve
in
their
understanding
of
laboratory
concepts
from
the
midterm
to
 the
final;
thus,
proving
that
a
more
high
stakes
assessment
of
the
laboratory
concepts
is
needed
in
order
 to
keep
the
students
incentivize
student
learning
of
the
course
outcomes.

 
 The
students
were
told
prior
to
the
third
test
to
expect
questions
from
the
lab
to
be
on
their
 next
test
and
they
were
given
a
wide
range
of
sample
questions
to
look
over.
[Appendix
A]
The
plan
is
to
 ask
the
students
conceptual
questions
about
certain
laboratory
methods,
such
as
recrystallization
and
 filtration,
which
were
repeated
in
several
experiments
throughout
the
semester.
These
methods
will
 also
carry
over
into
the
second
section
of
Organic,
so
it
is
very
important
that
students
grasp
these
basic
 concepts
so
that
they
will
not
have
to
waste
time
learning
them
later
on
when
other
concepts
will
be
 built
upon
these
basics.
Another
question
that
will
be
put
on
the
exam
is
about
different
forms
of
 chemical
analysis,
such
as
IR
spectra,
Paper
Chromatography,
or
melting
point.
These
types
of
questions
 will
require
the
students
to
learn
the
basics
of
each
form
of
analysis
and
to
apply
them.
The
goal
is
that
 the
students
will
perform
well
with
this
form
of
high
stakes
assessment
on
the
midterm
and
improve
 their
performance
on
the
laboratory
based
questions
on
the
final.

 
 On
the
midterm,
the
students
were
given
two
lab
based
questions.
[Appendix
B]
A
short
answer
 question
on
calculation
percent
yield
was
two
parts
and
worth
four
points
total.
The
class
average
was
 1.9/4.0.
Only
15
students
out
of
a
class
size
of
103
got
full
credit.
36
students
scored
a
2.5
or
greater
 which
indicates
that
many
students
were
still
having
trouble
with
a
basic
chemistry
calculation
that
 should
have
been
computed
on
almost
every
lab
report
turned
in
this
past
semester.
The
students
fared
 better
on
the
IR
spectroscopy
question
with
71.8%
of
the
class
obtaining
full
credit.


 The
students
showed
quite
an
improvement
from
the
midterm
to
the
final,
with
70.8%
of
the
 students
showing
full
understanding
of
IR
spectroscopy
and
81.9%
of
the
class
demonstrated
basic
 knowledge
of
IR.
[Appendix
C]
The
students
were
also
given
a
list
of
compounds
in
a
mixture
and
asked
 how
they
would
go
about
separating
and
isolating
the
different
compounds
if
they
were
in
a
lab
 situation.
It
was
multiple
choice
and
they
were
given
a
flow
chart
to
work
with.
40%
of
the
students
 answered
correctly
so
there
is
some
disconnect
here
between
what
was
done
in
lab
and
the
test.


 Maybe
a
better
way
to
incentivize
student
engagement
with
the
curriculum
is
to
align
important
 concepts
in
the
course
with
higher
stakes
assignments,
such
as
lab
midterms
and
finals.
The
results
of
 this
study
show
an
improvement
in
student
performance
of
lab
course
outcomes
after
being
tested
on
 them.
The
study
also
proves
that
lab
reports
alone
are
not
a
sufficient
means
of
student
evaluation
of
 course
outcomes.
We
look
forward
to
altering
the
curriculum
and
instating
laboratory
midterms
as
a
 means
of
incentivizing
student
engagement
with
the
course
outcomes.