Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2017

Abstract

A questionnaire was also developed to solicit faculty perceptions of the laboratory programs. The primary focus of the questions for the faculty was on the efficacy of the laboratory program, their perceptions of its effectiveness, and their satisfaction with the laboratory report format. This questionnaire was given to several scientists from outside institutions, and an outside evaluator reviewed the activity modules and visited the campus to perform a holistic external assessment of the project. Responses from these evaluators were very positive. For example, the outside evaluators were asked to assess the activities on 12 factors such as clarity of writing, organization, ability to engage student interest, ability to improve student understanding, challenge, and relevance on a 1-5 scale (5 = highest score). For each of the 4 modules, the average score on each factor was between 4 and 5 on each of these statements with only 3 exceptions. These exceptions had an average score of 3.7 and were somewhat expected (e.g., the first module that deals with basic math concepts in science rated at 3.7 for “helping the students to understand their personal impact on the environment”). The table below shows the average scores from the evaluators to each statement for each module (M1-M4).

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