3.2.5. Evaluation of a Concept or Practice
Example 1 – Peer evaluation (Appendix B.9): The peer evaluation activity will be used in a new Aquatic Biodiversity Conservation course at the graduate level. This activity was developed as a lecture series summary and exam review activity to provide students with an opportunity to practice evaluation of peers’ conservation education interpretative displays. Students were provided with resources, examples, and rubrics to develop their own interpretive display on a topic that will be selected by each student, but related to material from the lecture series on freshwater river ecosystems. Next, students will be given instructions regarding evaluation. Finally, students will use a faculty-developed grading rubric to evaluate classmates’ interpretive displays on the merits of creativity, alignment of learning objectives with learning goal, scientific accuracy, and execution. This activity could be modified for any course (i.e., introductory, advanced undergraduate, graduate) where the learning objective is for students to develop original works and practice their evaluation skills.
Example 2 – Evaluate results of published literature (Appendix B.10) : The evaluate results of published literature activity has been used in a Wildlife Plant Identification lecture course at a split upper undergraduate/graduate level. This activity guides students through evaluating the results of published literature to determine if it supports a theory that has led to a common management practice. First, students are oriented to the learning objective for the activity in the assignment instructions: “Evaluate the results of the study to determine if it supports or does not support Aldo Leopold’s theory of using livestock as a wildlife habitat management land; to set back the seral stage of succession by consuming grasses, thus increase abundance of forbs” (Leopold, 1933). Next, students are asked several key questions to guide them in pulling pertinent facts from the manuscript that provide supporting evidence for their evaluation. Finally, students are asked an open-ended evaluation question: “Did the researchers of this manuscript find a treatment effect that would support Aldo Leopold’s theory of using cattle or livestock as a wildlife habitat management tool to set back the seral stage of succession?” This activity could be modified for any course (i.e., ecology, zoology, wildlife biology) where the learning objective is to evaluate the results of published literature to determine if it supports a concept or practice.