Department of Biology
Chair: Gary Martin
10/3/2000

DEPARTMENTAL EDUCATIONAL GOALS AND ASSESSMENT STRATEGIES FOR STUDENT LEARNING

I. Departmental mission statement:

The mission of this department is to encourage and develop in students lifelong learning skills that will carry over into their professional lives. To this end, we believe that student-faculty collaboration, as well as independent learning, is key to effective instruction. These approaches emphasize and foster development of independent observation, critical inquiry, problem solving, and communication skills. While we strive to offer students a broad exposure to biology, our curriculum is bound together by the theme of evolution. Evolution is the organizing principle that provides the unifying conceptual framework necessary for understanding the diversity and complexity of biological systems.

II. Principal pedagogical goals of our program:

This document outlines our program's educational goals as they apply to our majors and for students fulfilling general education requirements in our department. Other goals which we deem integral to an excellent program, including professional achievement, intra-departmental and cross-disciplinary goals, are implicit in our mission statement but are not addressed in this document.

A. Principal goals for our non-major students:

1. Students will be able to develop a working knowledge of fundamental biological principles and thereby enhance their understanding and appreciation of science.

2. Students will improve their problem-solving and communication skills and enhance their higher-order reasoning abilities.

3. Students will increase their ability to critically evaluate scientific information (especially certain, course-specific biological topics) presented in the popular media.

4. Students will experience for themselves how science is done and thereby enhance their understanding and appreciation of science and the scientific process.

B. In addition to those goals stated above, we identify four principal goals for our majors:

1. Our Biology students will be able to articulate major concepts in the realm of biology, and be conversant with a large base of knowledge gleaned from course work in biology as well as supporting studies in Chemistry, Mathematics, Physics, and the Core program.

2. Biology majors will be able to analyze, evaluate, and apply the results of biological investigations (whether laboratory or field projects) and be able to design and execute a research project.

3. Using both oral and written modes of expression, students will be able to communicate biological concepts and research results in an incisive and persuasive manner and in accordance with the format of a scientific presentation.

4. Biology majors will be able to investigate and utilize the primary literature and be able to interpret and cite it appropriately in written reports and oral presentations.

III. Assessing and measuring our effectiveness in meeting our goals:

A. Baseline and final measures of student knowledge will be assessed by a departmental general assessment examination.

1. For our non-major course (Biology 105), the general assessment will be administered at the beginning and the end of the semester. The instructor(s) of this course will develop the exam with input from other departmental faculty and assistance from the Center of Teaching and Learning. Both cognitive and affective outcomes will be assessed.

2. For our Biology majors, the general assessment exam will be administered during the students' first laboratory period of their first Biology class (either Biology 115 or Biology 120) and then re-administered during their senior year as part of the Senior Comprehensives. The general assessment exam for our Biology majors will contain 100 multiple-choice questions covering the entire spectrum of the three traditional sub-disciplines of our field as represented in required 100- and 200-level courses; faculty from each of the three sub-disciplines will develop the questions which will be patterned after the GRE, MCAT, and DAT exams.

B. Analysis of student performance on the general assessment examinations will be used to signal areas of strength and weakness in curriculum design and departmental teaching effectiveness.

C. Goals II.B.2-4 will also be analyzed by looking at the results of the senior comprehensive course, which requires these skills.

D. Student writing will be assessed by the instructor in individual courses in accordance with the department's writing requirements.

IV. On-going Assessment and Program Evaluation

A. Assessment analysis tools will be developed by a faculty member and maintained on the departmental shared drive. These tools will include Excel spreadsheets and graphs, set up to allow comparison between years. We request support for the faculty member who will develop these assessment analysis tools, as it will mean a significant amount of effort on his or her part.

B. Data will be entered into the assessment spreadsheets as collected. Tracking the assessment results will be a departmental duty, assigned on a rotating basis.

C. Results of the tests given to our non-major and introductory students will be discussed at the first faculty meeting following the exams. Strengths and weaknesses of the class as well as the spread in background preparation will be discussed.

D. The last faculty meeting each year will be dedicated to a discussion of test results from our graduating majors and how this information may indicate needs for changes to our curriculum.

E. In addition, at the same faculty meeting, the final scores in the Senior Comprehensive Course will be examined. Both overall scores and their spread will be examined to ensure that Goals II.B.2-4 are being met.

V. Timetable

A. The assessment exams will be developed during the 2000-2001 academic year, with further discussion during the summer of 2001 as needed. Funds are requested for purchasing materials needed to develop these exams.

B. The Biology majors' assessment exams will be administered to students in Bio 115 and Bio 120 in the Fall Semester of 2001. The exam will also be given to graduating seniors in the Spring Semester of 2002. Although the results from the seniors will be less valuable because we do not have comparable assessment data to measure their gain, they will serve as a basis for interpreting future years' scores and identifying potential curricular strengths and weakness

C. The non-majors' exam will be given to each non-major class, beginning in the Fall Semester of 2001.

V. Departmental discussion of program effectiveness, assessment methods, and stated goals:

A. The results from our assessment measures will be examined critically and used as the basis for on-going evaluations of the effectiveness of our educational program in Biology. For example, the general assessment exam given to our majors will help us understand the background preparation of our entering students, provide a measure of student learning, signal areas that may require curricular or instructional modification, and provide a rich database of information for across-year analysis of our program.

B. Faculty discussion of assessment results will provide a continual feedback mechanism that will drive curriculum reform and it will allow us to examine our assessment strategies, enhance our teaching effectiveness, and, if necessary, modify our educational goals.