Description
Each Friday, you will receive by email a question relating to course material. You will submit a response to this question by Tuesday at 5pm on Gradescope. I will return your submission to you before the next analysis is assigned. The question will almost certainly require outside reading or information acquisition; it will definitely require you to practice thinking in the higher levels of Bloom’s taxonomy. Submissions will be scored as per the below guidelines, using a specifications grading approach. See me in office for clarification of scores or comments. You should indicate how long you spent working on the WA at the top of each submission.
You should consider these analyses as a miniature research paper, it should follow the same structure and logic as peer-reviewed articles. This guide from Elsevier has some suggestions for organizing and writing journal articles you may want to look over. This is an advanced course and your submissions for these assignments should reflect your expertise as an upper-year expert in life sciences. Any assertions or assumptions in your writing need to be backed up by citations.
Grading
The weekly analysis submissions will be scored using an approach called specifications grading. The specifications are listed below. To earn credit for a submission, all specifications must be met. Some commentary will be provided, although you may always consult me for guidance on improvement or different approaches. During the course of the class, you may re-submit via email a weekly analysis answer, within one week, with the original version included (in the same file as your revised answer) and indicating that you are cashing in a token.
I will distribute at least 12 weekly analysis questions (at least one per week) with some weeks having several questions that can be answered. Note that you are being given many more opportunities to pass assignments than you strictly need in order to get an A in the course. In this way, you will be able to best regulate your effort and focus on topics of particular interest to you.
Grading scale
6 passing submissions 40%
5 passing submissions 33%
4 passing submissions 27%
3 passing submissions 20%
2 or fewer passing submissions 0%
Specifications for a passing submission
Incorporates concepts from class.
Takes a position.
Supports arguments with data or logic.
Identifies constraints, limitations, or alternate perspectives.
Represents a complete, organized, logical response.
Demonstrates Bloom’s taxonomy levels of analysis, synthesis, or evaluation.
Incorporates the primary or secondary literature external to that examined in class.
Is professional in the communication approach, including grammatical and language choices.
Follows the course submission guidelines. see the Course Administrative Info section in the syllabus