The Molecular Biology Capstone Assessment: A Concept Assessment for Upper-Division Molecular Biology Students

Abstract

This article describes the development of the Molecular Biology Capstone Assessment, a multiple-true/false concept assessment targeted to upper-division students. This assessment is intended to help pinpoint areas of conceptual difficulty among graduating majors in order to facilitate curricular change at the departmental level.

The PULSE Vision & Change Rubrics, Version 1.0: A Valid and Equitable Tool to Measure Transformation of Life Sciences Departments at All Institution Types

“…A fully transformed curriculum would include features that are highly likely to enhance the student experience and transform student learning. Aspects of the rubrics that are typically associated with practices that enhance the student experience were given higher weights, such as elements of the Assessment rubric (Momsen et al , 2013; Brame and Biel, 2015; Couch et al ., 2015) and the Faculty Practice/Faculty Support rubric (D’Avanzo, 2013; Smith et al ., 2013; Wieman and Gilbert, 2014; Eddy et al ., 2015). Other components of the rubrics, such as elements of the Infrastructure rubric, although important, are not as critical to fully drive the enhancement of student experiences.…”

“…It is not only essential to provide engaging opportunities for students, but also important to assess whether or not those opportunities are indeed enhancing student learning (Momsen et al , 2013; Freeman et al ., 2014; Wieman, 2014; Brame and Biel, 2015; Couch et al ., 2015). Our weighting scheme was designed to acknowledge departments that embrace these practices and to reward more fully transformed departments with higher overall scores.…”

A framework for understanding the characteristics of complexity in biology

“…However, other aspects of gene regulation and epigenetics are more difficult for students to understand and relate to familiar concepts of the transcription and translation. For example, of advanced molecular biology students who understand the impact of transcription factors, 30 % are unable to reason about methylation or the regulation of transcription factors by environmental cues (Couch et al 2015). After our literature search, we gained little insight on student tendencies toward simplistic explanations of gene expression by ignoring differential gene regulation in organisms or epigenetics.…”

“…A framework of generalizable dimensions of complexity may give instructors ideas for how to illustrate complexity more accurately or to include "exceptions to the rule" that play an important role in the fabric of living systems. There are volumes of literature on students' lack of general knowledge about genes, alleles, chromosomes, and proteins (Couch et al 2015;Garvin-Doxas & Klymkowsky 2008;Smith et al 2008;Tsui & Treagust 2010). Focusing on one particular dimension within a biology concept, such as how the manifestations of gene expression are "conditional" or "universal," may direct and simplify how we approach research questions about how students reason about gene expression.…”

Learning and Doing: An Interview with Bill Wood

“…There's a lot of demand for accountability by various stakeholders-employers, funding agencies, university administrators, and so on-who want to know what students know and can do when they graduate. One approach would be to develop broader concept assessments that test recent graduates on their conceptual understanding of biology in general (e.g., Smith et al 2008;Couch et al 2015). But these assessments must be designed to test large numbers of students, and so they currently consist of mostly multiple-choice questions, which can provide only limited information about what students know and can do.…”