There are times when the instructor is just as nervous about the outcome of a test or a lab as the students are. Why? Seeing how well students did on these graded items is how instructors can tell how well they did conveying the material to their students.
I'm in one of those nervous periods right now. In my Microbiology course we've spent the semester doing a variety of labs which are designed to help someone determine which microbe they might be dealing with. Of course as we did the "warm-up" labs the students were given known microbes and knew what the correct answers were supposed to be. After each lab the students gave me lab reports in which they were supposed to tell me what the results were and whether or not these results agreed with what they knew about the bacteria.
Sounds simple, but in reality getting my students to see the connection between the tests they were doing and what's already know about the bacteria they were using was anything but. I tried many different techniques to help their understanding. I would go over the how and the why of each lab as we started them. I would go over what I wanted to see in the lab reports each week. I would write constructive comments as I graded the labs. Many of the students began to improve, but unfortunately there were/are quite a few of them who never quite grasped the why of these experiments.
About halfway through the semester I let them know about the final lab that they would have this semester - the dreaded "unknown lab." This is the monster of all microbiology labs. It's the lab in which the students have to take everything they've done in labs up to that point and put it all to use......on their own. I explained to them that during the final classes of the semester I would give them each a tube full of some, unknown bacteria. They would have all the media and reagents they needed at their disposal and they would be responsible for performing whatever tests they deemed necessary to tell me the identity of their unknown bacteria. They would have 3 lab periods in which to do this and (the scariest rule of all) they could not ask me or their classmates for any help whatsoever - their "only" guides would be their lab manual, the textbook, the lab handouts and the internet. At this point they all started taking lab seriously, but I could tell that there was still some difficulty in translating what we were doing on a week-to-week basis into what they'd be expected to do at the end of the semester.
I gave them hints and study guides right up until two days ago when the lab started. We're now on day 2 of 3 of the unknown lab and I'm terrified of the results. I know that some of my students will have done fabulously on this lab and I also know that while some won't get the right answer (I know which bacteria each student has) they will have gotten the wrong answer in a thoughtful and logical manner - meaning they understood, but went slightly astray somewhere. Sadly, I know that some will be completely off base and I feel like that is completely a reflection on my effectiveness during the semester.
Only one more week of suspense before I get these lab reports handed in and I get to see how well they did. Until then I'll be keeping my fingers crossed........
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