Writing improvement in physical science

When I took over and redesigned SC 130 Physical Science in 2007 I had two focuses. The dual focuses were to put mathematics and writing into the core of the course. By building laboratories around mathematical models and having students write up the results of those laboratories in reports marked for content, grammar, vocabulary, organization, and cohesion, both goals were simultaneously achieved. A previous report looked at improvement in mathematical graphical analysis skills, this report looks at the improvement in writing.

The course includes 15 laboratories. Odd numbered laboratories include a full write-up with grammar, vocabulary, organization, and cohesion being marked. The exception is that laboratory 15 is not turned-in, so laboratory 14 is done as a full write-up laboratory. All errors of grammar and vocabulary are marked on all full-write ups. Re-committing the same errors leads to lower subsequent scores, providing incentive for the students to find and remedy errors in their writing mechanics.

Grammar, vocabulary, organization, and cohesion are scored using the following rubric.

[G] Grammar and Syntax [-2 if text sections too short to judge grammar properly]
5	No errors of grammar or word order. Correct use of tense.
4	Some errors of grammar or word order but communication not impaired.
3	Fairly frequent errors of grammar or word order; occasional re-reading necessary for full comprehension.
2	Frequent errors of grammar or word order; efforts of interpretation sometimes required on reader's part.
1	Very frequent errors of grammar or word order; reader often has to rely on own interpretation.
0	Errors of grammar or word order so severe as to make comprehension virtually impossible.
[V] Vocabulary [-2 if text sections too short - taken as evidence of vocabulary limitations]
5	Appropriate terms used consistently, clear command of vocabulary with a focus on correct usage of physical science vocabulary, no misspelled words.
4	Occasionally uses inappropriate terms or relies on circumlocution; expression of ideas not impaired; or a few misspelled words.
3	Uses wrong or inappropriate words fairly frequently; expression of ideas may be limited because of inadequate vocabulary, or many misspelled words.
2	Limited vocabulary and frequent errors clearly hinder expression of ideas.
1	Vocabulary so limited and so frequently misused that reader must often rely on own interpretation.
0	Vocabulary limitations so extreme as to make comprehension virtually impossible.
[O] Organization
5	All sections present in the proper order. Material exceptionally well organized. Conclusion well structured with introductory and concluding phrases.
4	One section out of sequence or omitted. Material well organized; structure could occasionally be clearer but communication not impaired.
3	Multiple sections out of sequence, some lack of organization; re-reading required for clarification of ideas. For example, tables and graphs printed from a spreadsheet and then stapled to the back of a lab write-up printed from a word processing program.
2	Multiple sections omitted. Little or no attempt at connectivity, though reader can deduce some organization.
1	Individual ideas may be clear, but very difficult to deduce connection between them.
0	Lack of organization so severe that communication is seriously impaired.
[C] Cohesion [0 if text too short to judge cohesion]
5	Consistent choices in cohesive structures. Ideas flow logically. Conclusion remains on topic. Connector words assist the reader.
4	Occasional lack of consistency in choice of cohesive structures and vocabulary but overall ease of communication not impaired.
3	Patchy, with some cohesive structures or vocabulary items noticeably inappropriate to general style. Ideas tend to be disconnected from each other. Reads more like an outline than a coherent essay, or written as a list of answers to questions without connector words and phrases generating a choppy, disjoint style
2	Cohesive structures or vocabulary items sometimes not only inappropriate but also misused; little sense of ease of communication. Connector words and phrases confuse and mislead the reader, but sense can be made of the conclusion.
1	Communication often impaired by completely inappropriate or misused cohesive structures or vocabulary items making it difficult to make scientific sense of the conclusion.
0	A 'hodgepodge' of half-learned misused cohesive structures and vocabulary items rendering communication almost impossible.

The total possible is 20 points. On the first laboratory the median score was 14, the average was 13.89. On laboratory 14, the last full write-up laboratory of the course, the median score was 20 and the mean was 18.35. Both increases were statistically significant.

The chart depicts the box plot for laboratory one (used as the writing pre-assessment) and laboratory fourteen (used as the writing post-assessment). The one low outlier in the post-assessment was a student who did not successfully pass the course.

Of note is that some students start off scoring a 20 at term start and maintain strong grammar, vocabulary, organization, and cohesion skills throughout the term.

The rubric is use is related to a rubric used for marking the college entrance essay and thus the scores and their underlying meaning in terms of student writing ability is fairly well understood at the college. Scores above a 16 are proficient writers with only occasional errors. 85% of the students scored a 17 or higher on the last laboratory.

When sliced by metric, improvements were seen in the medians and means (averages) for each metric.

All four averages were lifted with the strongest increase seen for cohesion - the appropriate use of connector words, logical flow and sequencing to their discussion of results, consistency in tone and style.

The mechanics of writing were improved during this sixteen week course. As one student once asked rhetorically, "What is this, Expository Writing III?" The students can write a laboratory report replete with tables and inserted graphs, and then communicate the results of analyzing their data in a coherent and grammatically correct manner.

Numeric information in graphic forms skills pre-post assessment

The second general education program learning outcome which SC 130 Physical Science addresses is "3.2 Students will be able to present and interpret numeric information in graphic forms." The twenty-eight students in physical science spring 2013 were given six questions which focused on this outcome as skills pre-assessment at the start of the term. The same six questions were included on the final examination.


Note that every student in the course has had a mathematics course at the college, with 22 of the 28 having had MS 100 College Algebra or a higher level of mathematics.


A box plot of student scores out of six possible for the pre-assessment and post-assessment shows a strong improvement in performance.

From the pre-assessment to the post-assessment the median rose from two to four out of six possible, the mean rose from 2.19 to 4.54 out of six possible. Both the difference in the medians and the difference in the means is statistically significant.

The six questions focused on reading and mathematically interpreting xy scattergraphs, plotting data pairs, calculating slopes and intercepts. Although 22 of the students had completed college level algebra or higher, on the pre-assessment eight students could not correctly plot (x,y) data pairs. The 20 students who could correctly plot pairs represented the strongest performance on any of the six items.

On the chart the left side of the bar is the number of students answering that item correctly on the pre-assessment. The right side of the bar is the number of students answering that item correctly on the post-assessment. The number of students answering an item correctly increased for all six items, although the increase in the number answering correctly was small for calculating the y-intercept.

For many majors at the college MS 100 College Algebra is the terminal mathematics course. Twenty-two students either completed MS 100 or a higher course, yet their only significantly retained skill was plotting (x, y) points on a graph. Whether SC 130 Physical Science provided sufficient reinforcement of  these concepts for retention is unknown. The hope is that the concrete systems that underlay the physical science xy scattergraphs will provide the cognitive hooks to which students can attach and connect this knowledge set.

Engrade term end anatomy of student grade

At the end of the term many students want to know how they earned the grade that they received in a course. Engrade provides detailed information on a student's marks in the Grade Details view.

The Grades Detail view, however, does not includes scores from Engrade quizzes. These can be viewed however by clicking on the "Print" button in the upper right corner.

The print tab also provides a venue to do a more detailed forensic analysis of a student's grade. While the Grade Details view cannot be copied and pasted in a meaningful way into a spreadsheet, carefully selecting the table below the second row in the print tab does generate a table that can be copied and pasted into a spreadsheet for further analysis.

In the spreadsheet above I have re-ordered the data by date. The data being used is for a different student than the first two images. An additional column that reflects the actual possible was added. Note that if a grade is left blank (null) in Engrade, then Engrade does not count that assignment in the total possible. This is not reflected in the print tab table, thus a column has to be added and manually massaged to reflect the actual total possible the student faced.

If one wants an assignment that was not done to count against the student, then one has to enter an "M" for missing. If the assignment was done so poorly that the actual score was a zero, then enter the number zero. M and zero (0) are effectively the same thing to Engrade in calculational terms, but the two have very different meanings to the student.

With that additional column reflecting the actual total possible, then a cumulative average can be generated using a pair of SUM functions and mixed addressing, for example in row four:
=SUM(C$2:C4)/SUM(E$2:E4).

Plotting this shows the trajectory of the student's cumulative average during the term.

For a course based in points, the cumulative grade trajectory can help a student understand how they performed during the course of 16 week term. Physical science includes homework, quizzes, tests, laboratory reports, results from a hide and seek quest, and other dissimilar activities. While marking purely on student learning outcomes attained would generate binary competent/not competent results, the course remains sufficiently complex as to make it difficult to value all assignments in this manner. A point based system is familiar to the students and a fairly well understood system within academia.

I once ran a course purely on student learning outcomes. "Students will be able to do..." Binary. Either the capability was evidence or the capability was not. The whole course was binary, a student had to attain all of the course learning outcomes to pass. And that is all that there was: pass or fail. A or F. 4.0 or 0.0. No shades of gray. I remember how upset students got late in the term when they failed to attain a particular student learning outcome. "I had straight A's every week for the past 12 week, why do I have an F this week? How is that possible?" "Well," I would respond, "You didn't achieve the student learning outcome for this section of the material." From hero to zero in a single student learning outcome.

Students tend to think in terms of a body of work accumulated, and points reflect this well. Points, however, can generate their own tyranny - that of the inertia of a grade late in the term. In the following chart the above line chart is replotted with the radius of the circle proportional to the cumulative points at that point in the term. The chart is the same chart, but the data points convey the growing inertia of the mass of points gained.

This chart may assist in conveying the difficulty of moving a point-based grade late in the term, a forensic picture of how the student collapsed academically after midterm and failed to recover before irrecoverable damage was done to their average.

Twitter fades into irrelevance as bots eat its own users

A bot has suspended my Twitter account without citing a specific reason. The account does not appear to have been compromised. Unable to access the original statistics, I cannot determine if there was some issue related to the ratio of followers to following. I received a automated email, two actually, that provided no further information. I thought about it a while and realized that I really do not use Twitter. My primary social media vehicle remains FaceBook, with Google+ a distant second in terms of social media connectivity. I happen to tweet only because my blogs tweet, which may be the heart of the issue: I tweet without logging in. Which means Twitter cannot advertise to me. I suspect that is at the core of why I was suspended, a tweets to log in ratio that was too high. Either way, Twitter has remained irrelevant to my connectivity and continues to be irrelevant, so no big loss.

While I know Twitter is cited as being important in the Arab spring, I still have trouble understanding what the core usefulness of Twitter is from a business model perspective. There is no compelling reason for me log in, as there is for my email and FaceBook. I log into email and FaceBook essentially daily, I log into Twitter once a month at best. If my experience is not atypical, then Twitter certainly has a limited future ahead of it. Another Hi5, Bebo, Mebo, site that will fade into obscurity even while it continues to exist in the dark and dusty corners of cyberspace. Skip tweeting me, drop me a note via email or post to my wall in FaceBook, my tweeting days are done.

Post-script: Twitter autobotics would send two separate emails noting the matter was closed unless I responded to the emails to re-open the issue. I responded to both noting my ambivalence toward Twitter as a media for moving the information I care about. Without any further useful explanation I found that my account had been un-suspended. My ratio of followers to following was about two-to-one, while not the "1:1" ideal of a "balanced" network, my position as a faculty member means students may choose to follow me even when I opt not to follow them back. Their reasons for following me may relate to my courses, my reasons for following them would be less clear and possible misconstrued.

I did some judicious following and now at 95:51 my ratio is a slightly slimmer 1.86. I still wish I knew what botamatic rule I tripped over. Maybe they were just checking to see if I still had a digital pulse.

Engrade student reactions and comments

 This term marked the first term in which I have utilized an on line, student accessible grade book and course support package. The web site I used, Engrade.com, is a market leader and free for faculty and students. I ended the term by asking the students to write up their reactions to, comments about, and recommendations for future use of Engrade.com. Seventy-seven students were surveyed in my MS 150 Statistics and SC 130 Physical science course. The students have been using Engrade since the second week of class this spring term.

The comments that the seventy-seven students made fell into ten broad categories. The students found engrade to be informative, felt that all faculty should use engrade, facilitated communication between students and faculty, was easy to use, helped students track missing work, encouraged students to work harder, made on line work submission easier, facilitated inter-student communication, was of benefit to shy students, and provided well liked on line quiz capabilities.

Seventy-six of seventy-seven students surveyed liked Engrade. The one student who did not like Engrade had difficulty remembering their password and apparently had difficulties understanding how to recover a forgotten password. I worked with a couple students during the term on forgotten password recovery, there is a straight forward process for accomplishing this particular task. There is nothing that I do in my classes that would achieve the same 99% level of positive response, that is an overwhelmingly positive reaction.

The chart above is based on the table below. RF is the relative frequency, SE is the standard error.

Description	n	RF	SE
Keeps me informed, useful, helpful, provides detailed information on grade	42	55%	6%
Every instructor/class should use Engrade	35	45%	6%
Improves communication with instructor, best way to communicate with instructor	18	23%	5%
Easy to use	12	16%	4%
Easy to track missing work	12	16%	4%
Makes me study hard, encourages me to strive	7	9%	3%
Permits on line submission of work	7	9%	3%
Allows me to get updated without having to meet with instructor face-to-face, avoids my having to feel embarrassed when I ask about my grade, I can know my grade without asking	7	9%	3%
Allows me communicate with classmates, ask them questions, work together on projects	6	8%	3%
I like on line quizzes	3	4%	2%

Note that due to the nature of the survey, an open free-writing exercise, all responses were unprompted and spontaneous. Outside of Engrade being informative and useful, the lead desire of the students was to see all faculty using Engrade. That is a very significant result for an unprompted survey. 45% of the students spontaneously expressed the desire to see all faculty use Engrade. If asked as a direct question, the response rate would likely have been higher.

Of interest to me was also the 23% who cited improved student-teacher communications due to Engrade. Communication is at the heart of the educational process, anything I do that facilitates better communication with my students is going to pay dividends in learning achieved. Academically weak students are particularly unlikely to seek out their instructor and ask about their grade. With 9% citing Engrade as encouraging them to work harder in a course, there is the possibility that Engrade can help an academically weak student realize that they are falling behind and provide the impetus for them to work hard in the course. 16% noted that Engrade helped them keep track of missing work, work that in many cases students were then able to make up and did so without direct prompting from me.

Engrade is more than a way to track grades. Engrade permits the setting up of turn-ins, tracking of on line submissions, individualized assignment feedback, discussions, quizzes, wikis, and other course support features. The comments of the students suggest that the use of Engrade is tantamount to a pedagogical change. A selection of student comments is included at the end of this note in order to better convey the richness of the students' comments.

For more information on Engrade, see also:
http://danaleeling.blogspot.com/2013/01/engrade-beginnings.html
http://danaleeling.blogspot.com/2013/03/engrade-quizzes-student-screens.html
http://danaleeling.blogspot.com/2013/04/student-engagement.html

For those faculty at the college who want to try Engrade, I am more than happy and willing to assist in whatever way I can. This is a technology that has made a real difference for the students and myself.

Selection of student reactions, comments:

"Engrade is very useful and helpful for me. It helps me to see my current grade and whenever I miss class, I can just look in my engrade if there is homework due for the next meeting. I can also communicate with my instructor and classmates through engrade. It is a very good site for students and instructors. I'm very glad to have an engrade account. I just hope that my other instructors from my other classes would also make their engrade account so I can see what's my grade and not have to ask them all the time. After every quiz or test we have, I check my engrade after a few days and see what I got. I'm the type of student who's always eager to see what I got from my tests/quizzes. Engrade explains how I got the grade I have because all of the grades are there already. So far, so good..."

"Well, first of all, I would say that it is "Awesome" It is very accessible and private. It is also fun to work with. It is fast and available at all times. Whenever I feel like to see what are my weaknesses in class, I don't have to talk to my teacher face to face (for those who are shy). I am able to give comments to my teacher and also see the comments of my classmates. To me I recommend that all teachers use this site because it is accessible, fun and private for a student and a teacher."

"Engrade really helps me and I enjoy using engrade. The reason I like about the usage of engrade is that is already provides some materials that you may want to use or to know through out a semester. First, engrade show the calendar for a semester you are taking a course, it provides all the assignments in a semester, shows grading details, you can also chat or send messages, it shows your attendance, stuffs you turned in or not, shows the discussions, quizzes, reading list, you can also comment online. Second, you can view your profile anytime you want to."

"There is nothing bad about the engrade I could tell. The engrade helped me know my grades a lot. It also helped me understand where I was or what my grades are. The engrade gave me more challenge everytime when I saw my grades going down and also sometimes if I got lost on any assignment or tests. The most important thing to say is that the engrade was the best sites and very useful."

"I think engrade is the best of all compare to Jupiter grade. It is easier to log in that the Jupiter grade. It has more features and easier to work with. [sic] I don't have any troubles and problems when using engrade. I will recommend that you continue to use it throughout your career. I like the quizzes on line but the thing I dislike is it doesn't let us go back and review or see our mistakes from the quiz."

"Engrade is a good place for storing grades and homeworks, I enjoy it. I am surprised the first time I logged in, because it is more easy to log in than Jupiter grades and easy to understand. I have no recommendations for engrade for it is already complete. Another reason why I know engrade is the best is because I get notes or assignments whenever I am late or absent for my class. I don't have to waste my time walking to Dana's office for notes and homework."

"This is my first term to use Engrade and I like the fact that engrade show me my grade and also I can check all of my missing works and not going to see my instructors. I also show me the number how many did I get it right on each assignments. I also like it because sometimes my instructor upload our quiz on Engrade. Se we the student just log in and take our quiz on Engrade. Also, if other of my class have access to Engrade then I can check all of my grade when I logged in. Engrade is better that the COM MyShark because Engrade can should the number of correct you have for each assignment and MyShark can only show your grade (A, B, C, D, F)"

"Engrade is good. The only thing I dislike from that is the quiz part. I can't tell if we have a quiz or not. Quizzes need to be more subtle. Other than that, I think Engradeis perfect. It grades and gives you a grade you can see anytime and see how you got that grade."

"I like Engrade. This my first time to use Engrade and it is helpful. I encourage instructors to continue using Engrade."

"Engrade is amazing! It keeps students informed and up-to-date with their grades, assignments, attendance and so much more. With Engrade, student can know how they are doing in class without having to go to the teacher's office. Engrade is free and can help save. You don't have to buy blank papers to turn in assignments, just submit it online. So, yeah, Engrade is amazing."

"My comments about having the engrade.com is good for me because I'm looking for my grades trying to work on it and look to the one that I'm weak in it and try my best so I can try my best so I can't improve my grades. It is really good for the students to have this kind of site or thing that they can log in and see their grades and try to work on what they weak in. by looking at the grades in the engrade.com it encourage me to try my best so I'm trying my on improving my grades in engrade.com. I really love to log in and see how I am going on the engrade and promise to myself to improve my grade before the final exam in order to pass the MS 150."

"Engrade is a site which most people are using today because it was easier. Especially the parents of students to see how their children are doing, what their grades are and If whether their children are attending classes or not. Engrade makes it easier for the teachers too. The teachers will just insert the students' grade in engrade and the site will do the calculation. All I know about engrade is that it was fair, easy, and fast. So there is nothing I want to do to change how it works. I will just leave it the way it is. I like engrade and I enjoy seeing how I'm doing if whether I'm doing good or not. By watching my grades in engrade makes me want to improve more. "

"Based on my own observation, I found Engrade very helpful and compelling. I can look up my grades in engrade. Not only that but, through engrade I was able to check out my quizzes and assignments and now the grades I earn from it. I would now my grade average and work hard to make it better. It is a good thing engrade was able to show our grades, in this I would now my grade average and know how I'm doing in the class. It is also helpful because whenever I missed class, the homework can be found in engrade. I would look it up, find the homework, do it, and turn it in, then another new grade in engrade. I really like engrade for it helps a lot. It makes it easier for me. Not only that but, I don't feel lost when there is engrade. Engrade shows me what to do. It also shows my status in both Ethnobotany and Statistics. I wish every classes use engrade. I wish to see my grades, like every day and know how I did in those classes so far. Thanks to engrade."

"According to the use of Engrade I sometimes like it and sometime don't like it. When I first log in to engrade it seems to be interesting but whe I re-enter my password and it didn't work I really started to hate working on engrade. Maybe because I don't know much about computer. I don't like it when I got lost and don't know how to open it but I like working on it to learn more of it."

"Engrade is AWESOME! I know its been introduced to all of the faculty here, but only this class actually uses it. It so convenient, I get pretty much everything I need (e.g. assignments, notifications, grate status, etc.) I hope by next semester all the instructors are going to make use of it."

"Engrade is great! It keeps the student updated on their grades. It also help student to keep up with my assignment if they missed the class. And other helpful thing about engrade is that students can easily get their grade from it whenever they need it. Especially when they need their grades for things like scholarship application. They won't need to wait till the office people post the grades. I would recommend all instructors to have engrade."

"It is the best way to communicate with my instructor. Sometime I did not attend class but my instructor send me what we did in class for that day. So engrade was a very good website for a student and a instructor because you can message your instructor and tell him your problems in engrade. Engrade also show your grade what you get in that class. Engrade can also use it for hand out. Which mean that your instructor can send out your handout in engrade. Sometimes you can just print out your handout."

"I strongly believe that engrade is a very good place for students to do work, see grades, and send messages to teacher. It is very fast and easy because students get to check their current grades and decide whether to pull up grades or not to bother the grades if they have good grades. It is a very interesting site because not only you get to see grades but also teachers post quizzes for students to take."

"I find engrade very helpful. Mr. Leeling did a great job updating us in engrade everyday. There for us to catch up with what ever quizzes or homeworks we missed. For us students to stay focused knowing whether we are falling with our grades or rising. I would really recommend him to keep it up and update daily at all cost."

"I got nothing to say about engrade. I really like it, because it helpful. So I suggest that all classes at national campus should be using engrade. I have NO COMMENTS!"

"I like engrade because it give me the information on how I am working in class. It shows my grade right away, so I can know that I'm failing and work harder to earn a passing grade. Engrade is very useful."

"For me, engrade is really helpful to me during those classes. Engrade is a really big help for me because I can know my grade currently and other thing is I can see my grade very time, everywhere but not just looking at my grade but also assignments. I can just sit home and print out my homeworks from engrade and that is really save time. engrade makes it easier for us, students, to look at our grades, look at our assignments, and do some discussions between us and the instructor. Engrade is like a classroom and a teacher to me! So I recommend to COM to keep this kind of help still and recommend to instructors to use it because it is not for fun but a good connection between students and teachers!"

Ethnobotanical gardening last day of class

The last day of SC/SS 115 Ethnobotany is spent in the ethnobotanical garden. I always enjoy this class. I tend to wander around cleaning up around the plants while the students ask questions in preparation for the final examination. Above I clean around the Cymbopogon citratus.

Most of the questions concern the Latin binomial for the plants in the garden. Above Joey whacks weeds with a machete.

Some of the questions concern local names for the plants. I am fairly capable in Pohnpeian and Kosraean, but as for the Chuukese and Yapese names, well there I tend to be rather weak.

Jasper is a one man grass-leveling machine.

I did not have the camera, so many of the pictures I found in the camera after class were FaceBook poses. Virginia Fredrick and Sallyann Andrew.

Falcataria moluccana on the far left, Gardenia jasminoides left center. Terson, Joey, Jasper, Chenniva behind me.

Cheryl and Karmi

Another FaceBook pose in between the Gardenia Jasminoides.

Liked and disliked laboratories

Laboratories are at the core of the SC 130 Physical Science. While in-class tests and quizzes provide information on academic achievement, how the students react affectively to these laboratories is also important in the course design.

The course is not listed as a requirement by any major at the college, thus the course most frequently serves students taking the course to satisfy their general education science with laboratory requirement. The students are not planning a career in science and likely contain a larger percentage of students for whom science is not attractive as a subject of study. A goal of mine is to open up the thinking of the students. My best hope is that through the course the students will come to have an interest in science, see that even simple topics can be interesting, and gain an appreciation of how science is done.

As an affective learning domain study, students were asked to choose their favorite laboratory and provide comments on why that laboratory was their favorite. The students were also asked to choose their least favorite laboratory and explain why they disliked that laboratory.

Twenty-eight students of the twenty-nine students in the course were present on the day of the survey and completed the anonymous survey.

The laboratories this past term were:

Laboratory one: Density of soap
Laboratory two: Velocity of a rolling ball in the gym parking lot
Laboratory three: Acceleration of gravity by dropping a ball in lab
Laboratory four: Momentum of marbles on a ruler track
Laboratory five: Force, stretching an elastic band using a cup of marbles.
Laboratory six: Heat, the conduction of heat by materials connecting two Styrofoam cups.
Laboratory seven: Earth, latitude and longitude, meters per minute
Laboratory eight: Clouds, drawing a cloud
Laboratory nine: Sound:, clapping wood blocks to determine the speed of sound
Laboratory ten: The colors of light via RGB, HSL, X11, and HTML.
Laboratory eleven: Apparent depth, pennies underwater.
Laboratory twelve: Electrical conductivity, circuits and Ohms law
Laboratory thirteen: Chemistry, acid and base detection using flowers
Laboratory fourteen is a laboratory practical examination and is not included in this survey.
Laboratory fifteen is a term wrap up laboratory designed to go beyond the usual science/math box. Not included in this survey.

The terms are coded in the data table further below in the following manner.
93: Fall 2009
a1: Spring 2010
a2: Summer 2010
a3: Fall 2010
b1: Spring 2011
b3: Fall 2011. Survey not compiled.
c1: Spring 2012
c3: Fall 2012. Survey not compiled.
d1: Spring 2013

The survey results were compiled and are reported below. The laboratories are listed on the left side, the terms across the second row. All net is the sum of the like votes minus the sum of the dislike votes. The second to last column, d1 net, is the spring 2013 likes minus the dislikes, the last column, rng (range), is the sum of the likes and dislikes. The larger the range, the greater the dichotomous spit in the voting.

	Like								Dislike								all	d1
Lab	93	a1	a2	a3	b1	c1	c2	d1	93	a1	a2	a3	b1	c1	c2	d1	net	net	rng
1	1	2		1	2	2	1	4	1		2	1	2		2		5	4	4
2	1		1		1	2					2		1	1			1	0	0
3		2			1				1	1		1		2		1	-3	-1	1
4				1	1	1				1		3	3	4	1		-9	0	0
5		1							1		1	2	1			1	-5	-1	1
6	1		2											2		1	0	-1	1
7	11	6	3	7	1	4	7	7	9	8	2	6	2	2	2	1	14	6	8
8	6	4	7	8	8	3		5	6	7	4	1	7	3	9	9	-5	-4	14
9			2		2	5	2		4	2	7	5	6	2	1	2	-18	-2	2
10	7	3		5	7	2		3	1	2	2	2	4	2		1	13	2	4
11		3		2		2			1	1	1	4				1	-1	-1	1
12	2	3	2	2		1	2		5	1	4	5	3	3		3	-12	-3	3
13	1	10	10	6	12	7	3	7	4	3		1	2	3		4	39	3	11

Spring 2013 laboratory seven and thirteen tied for the most favored laboratories with seven likes a piece. On aggregate laboratory thirteen remains the most favored with a net of 39 more likes than dislikes. As laboratory 13 immediately precedes the survey, this may bias the results. The students, however, seem to truly enjoy working with test tubes and mixing chemicals.

Spring 2013 eight received the strongest negative rating with nine students listing eight as their most disliked laboratory. The disliked laboratory votes add only to 24 as four students said that they had no disliked laboratories.

In the affective domain, the proof is in the details and the individual comments by students provide this insight. The comments are gathered together with multiple responses collected under a single laboratory listing.

Laboratory one: Density of soap was the first laboratory in college and I understood it clearly. It was my first, a new experience. I enjoyed it because I learned something new that day. I was surprised by the soap when it floats.

Laboratory three: I disliked because I didn't know how to calculate the time between the falling object when it reaches the surface.

Laboratory five: I disliked because until we were doing the lab, I still don't understand it.

Laboratory six: I disliked this because I did not get it.

Laboratory seven: I liked because I learned how to use the GPS and that was my first time to use it. I learned something new - how to use a GPS. It was fun walking around the campus looking for Dana - using a GPS. That was seriously cool. I I ever get lost or someone needed to find someone/something, I can help. So, yeah, the lab was practical, helpful, and fun. It was an adventure. I really don't know how to use a GPS, therefore I got the chance to experiment the usefulness of a using a GPS. Lab seven is my favorite because I finally got the chance to learn how to use an atucal GPS and got the chance to see how it works. I like to use the GPS and find coordinates. It gave me a lot of exercise and it was the first time I used a GPS.
     I disliked because it's hard for me to read a GPS.

Laboratory eight: I liked because I do it myself on hard draft. I just sat somewhere outside the class and drew it down in which I could view the sky. Easiest and most enjoyable. When I was in high school they didn't teach me the name those clouds. In addition, I didn't know how to draw any kind of cloud but now I can draw clouds. I learned the cloud names. I liked this lab because it was just drawing and no full write-up. Too easy.
     I disliked because I am not good at drawing. I don't like drawing. It was very hard for me to draw my laboratory that I turned in. Drawing is my weakness. I don't draw.I think I am the worst drawer in the class. I failed it and it was supposed to be the easiest.

Laboratory nine: I disliked because I had difficulties synchronizing claps with its echo. I disliked it because I did not turn it in.

Laboratory ten: I like lab ten because I learned to make colors or how the colors are made. I also like it as I was learning the degrees of how colors were made. One thing that I also like about it is that we write why we like the color we like and why we dislike the color we dislike. I can able to find color using the notepad on computer and can identified the names of some of the colors. I like the laboratory report that we did because it was different from the rest.

Laboratory eleven: Lab eleven was my least favorite because it was confusing at first and got to complicated to understand.

Laboratory twelve: I disliked because I never learned anything from it. It is the most hardest report or lab among all of the rest. It have some stuffs that needed to be connected to conduct heat and produce light. Its hard. I don't know how to draw a electrical conductivity and the all the circuits. I wasn't able to make it and I didn't understand.

Laboratory thirteen: I liked because I was surprised when we did the experiment, it was fun when we were working together finding whether they are acid, neutral, or base. I really enjoyed the one we did yesterday which was the 13th, laboratory thirteen. I get to see how colors change. It is very awesome because first what I believe that were acidic turned out base. Also I get to experience the fun and mixing it together and looking at the colors it will turn into. I enjoyed how the color of the flower changes when you add either acid or bases. It make me think that I am a real scientist and getting to know whether the chemicals are bases, acids, and neutral is cool. I am very much interested in the elements and the numerous ways they can bond and many forms or chemicals they form. I wish we had a little bit longer time to study the elements. Very interesting and surprising. Laboratory thirteen is my favorite because it really catches my attention and I really concentrate and pay attention to all what we were doing. It is amazing and knowing that different acid and base can change color of a neutral color of a flower when you boil.
     I disliked because I hate chemistry. I didn't understand those things which one are base, which one are acid. I did not learn much of chemistry and it can be dangerous too. I never understand the periodic table of elements, I don't even know how and when to use it.

Comments that note a laboratory was interesting or fun directly support my own goals in the course. Once something is interesting and fun, the student becomes a self-driven learner. And learning only really occurs when a person wants to learn. If I can generate the desire, then the learning can follow.