Jon Monroe (monroejd at jmu.edu) wrote:
: I just finished teaching Plant Physiology (senior undergraduate level) and,
: as always, I had them do a lengthy independent investigation in the lab.
: Most groups had 3 students but one had 5. In the past I gave each group
: member the same grade (worth ~15% of the final grade) and let them work out
: for themselves how to deal with group members that don't pull their weight.
What's the final product that you're grading? Our plant phys lab consists
of groups of two (one of three) the entire quarter with a lab notebook
(with record-keeping graded as if this is a working lab) and four papers
(journal style, exact topic is their choice as long as it uses data from
the class). Papers and lab books are an individual's responsibility.
Getting the lab done efficiently rewards them by getting out early that
day (class is twice a week from 1 to 5:30 and often runs late). Several
of the labs have a "here's the basics, you modify the experiment to test
exactly what you want to test" format.
I won't pretend that it doesn't matter that the lab class is very small
and the physiology lecture class (which is very large) is held by
different profs from the lab course and in a different quarter.
-j
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Jeffrey A. Kirby jakirby at ucdavis.edu
