CL-1: Field-tested Learning Assessment Guide (FLAG): CATs: Portfolios

Classroom Assessment Techniques
Portfolios

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Teaching Goals

Develop ability to communicate scientific conceptions accurately

Develop ability to write effectively using graphics as support

Develop ability to relate principle concepts to real-world applications

Develop ability to cite sources and references appropriately

Develop ability to synthesize and integrate information and ideas

Develop ability to be reflective and effectively conduct self-assessment

Develop ability to think creatively and critically

Suggestions for Use
Portfolios are most appropriate when students need to integrate a number of complex ideas, procedures, and relationships. Portfolios can more much of the responsibility of assessment from the instructor to the student if the learner is instructed to demonstrate and provide evidence that he or she has mastered a given set of learning objectives. The most useful portfolios are composed of student solutions to multifaceted tasks. Such tasks are typically complex, somewhat undefined, engaging problems that require students to apply, synthesize, and evaluate various problem-solving approaches.

Figure 1 - Illustrative Course Learning Objectives

List of Course Learning Objectives for Introductory Environmental Geology

The size of the human population, and the causes for change in its size in various areas of the world.
The source, use, pollution and cleanup of the worlds water resources.
The origin and evolution of soils, and the way soils are affected by agriculture.
Current and alternative sources of food.
The origin, advantages and disadvantages of current sources of energy.
The origin, operation and potential for alternative sources of energy.
The causes of extinction and the processes which control the rate of extinction.
Factors which control the use of land by people.
The geologic processes which cause earthquakes, and the potential for predicting and preventing such events.
The origin, extraction and importance of ores.
The composition, management and recycle potential for solid & hazardous waste material.
The origin, evolution and productivity of coastal areas.
The impact of human activities on coastal areas.
The origin, effect and remediation of atmospheric pollution.
How humans affect the earth's environment.

List of Course Learning Objectives for First Semester Algebra-based College Physics

Understand the nature of scientific knowledge and the various disciplines of science.
Appreciate the historical and practical uses of units and measures.
Convert numerical quantities from one system of units to another and within a given system.
Describe the various concepts and units used to describe motion.
Solve one-dimensional problems related to the acceleration of objects due to gravity.
Diagram and describe quantitatively the motion of a projectile.
Appropriately apply vectors qualitatively to describe physical situations.
Use vectors to quantitatively solve problems relating to motion.
Create a free-body diagram to represent the total force on an object (including friction).
State and apply the laws of motion developed by Isaac Newton.
Solve problems related to static equilibrium and rotational equilibrium.
Apply the Law of Universal Gravitation to objects moving in circles.
Calculate the work done on an object and its relationship to energy.
Quantitatively and qualitatively describe systems in which energy is conserved.
Identify the various sources of energy and power.
Solve problems related to impulse and the Conservation of Momentum.
Apply principles of fluid dynamics to describe phenomena in nature.
Distinguish between heat and temperature.
Identify the ways that heat can be transferred between two points.
Explain the distinguishing characteristics of solids, liquids, and gases.
State the laws of thermodynamics and their importance to technology.
Solve problems relating to periodic (cyclical) motion.
Describe the properties of sound waves with respect to pitch, volume, and intensity.
Apply the Doppler Effect to physical situations quantitatively and qualitatively.