Teaching

Weekly quizzes have been a fundamental aspect of evaluating student performance in lab classes. In order to test student understanding of practical lab skills, it is often necessary to recreate the learning experience from the previous week. This, of course, is accomplished by open-ended questions on quizzes or practical evaluations. Often, quizzes would include examples of graphs and figures discussed in the previous lesson. For example, the objectives of a lesson on map projections included understanding longitude and latitude, reading and comparing different map projections. The quiz for that lesson asked the following:

2. Mark the location of 31.42°N, 81.29°W

3. What is the approximate distance that this map spans (in km) from west to east? Hint: Note the distance spanned by each grid.

Use the above contour map of the Santa Barbara Basin to answer the following questions. (Map from Bernhard et al. 2003, Limnology and Oceanography 48(2) 813-828)

4. Approximately what is the depth (in meters) of the asterisk? 

5. Suppose you want to sail to the deepest point in the Santa Barbara Basin. According to this map, approximately what latitude and longitude would you try to navigate your ship to? 

6. Draw a box around the steepest area of the basin. How are you able to identify this area? 

7. Which of the two maps on this quiz has a larger scale? The second map has no scale bar so how do you know? 

The students in the Marine Environment Series labs were also added to a course listserv. This listserv was used to alert students to changes or corrections to the lab and follow up and clarify some information from the previous week as students prepare for the quiz. An example of such a communication follows:

Hello and happy Labor Day! 

There are a few important things to remember for this Thursdays Lab... First, bring your lab book and a calculator (just a cheap, simple one). Remember, our course policy is not to allow cell phone calculators. Second, we will be using chemicals this week so wear the correct shoes to protect yourself. If you are not dressed appropriately, you may be asked to attend the makeup lab after you finish the quiz. Third, your homework assignment is due at the beginning of the lab. Bring in your the complete copy of the article you selected and reviewed. 

As for the quiz... 

You should be comfortable constructing a search argument if given a topic. This includes using operators (AND / OR), parentheses and truncation symbols. You should also understand how to read a library record. Can you determine what the source title (journal name), call number, volume and issue of an article you need? How do you know from the record if the journal is available as a full text file or in print form? Also, make sure you read over the Scientific Notation / Scientific Method chapter and understand major concepts. 

FYI... Many of you have asked about the horseshoe crabs in the back of the room. "Does the large horseshoe crab push at the side of the tank constantly?" (Yes, it seems so) or, "What good is a horseshoe crab, what do they do?" 

As with any extant organism, it lives because it can and it fills some position in a food web. But, more importantly for us humans, horseshoe crabs provide a crucial service for those who have ever received an injection (flu shot, tetanus, etc.). In a previous career, I worked in a biotech lab that used a product from horseshoe crab blood to perform tests for endotoxin contamination. Endotoxin is a molecule produced by some bacteria that can cause blood clots and death. 

This is an interesting story, and it is a commonly cited tale whenever anyone tries to justify preserving natural habitat. The argument is natural habitat improves species diversity - once and a while we find a molecule which provides a huge benefit to humans and the economy. 

The pharmaceutical company, Merck, provides a large portion of funding for cataloging tropical species (See http://www.inbio.ac.cr/en/default.html). 

Attached is a brief article. [Maury (2003) Blood of Ancient Mariner. The Ecologist] Also see this page... (http://www.horseshoecrab.org/) 

Good Luck and email me if you have questions! 

Matt First 

first@uga.edu

For the Marine Environment series, I requested from my students their current assessment of the course. My belief is that students have already developed some thought of the course at the midpoint and should be able to benefit from their suggestions and critiques. The comments on the evaluation were quickly summarized and returned back to the entire class. These evaluations allowed me to understand how I needed to improve and gave students a chance to voice their concerns and offer suggestions.

Matt First's Teaching Portfolio