A Rubric for Assessing a Student's Ability To Use the Light Microscope

• Published in: The American biology teacher Vol. 69; no. 4; pp. 211 - 214
• Main Author: Fitch, Greg K.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Reston National Association of Biology Teachers 01-04-2007; University of California Press; University of California Press Books Division
• Subjects: Biology; Blood cells; Concept Mapping; Crystals; Fibers; Guidelines; Laboratory Equipment; Laboratory Manuals; Learning; Measures (Individuals); Meetings; Methods; Microscope slides; Microscopes; Optical focus; Optical microscopes; Outcomes of education; Rating of; Rubrics (Education); Science education; Science Instruction; Sciences education; Scoring Rubrics; Skill Development; Skills; Student evaluation; Student evaluation of teacher performance; Student Satisfaction; Students; Study and teaching; Teachers; Tests; Thinking Skills; Writing instruction; Written communication; United States
• ISSN: 0002-7685; 1938-4211
• DOI: 10.1662/0002-7685%282007%2969%5B211%3AARFAAS%5D2.0.CO%3B2

All teachers do assessments. Biology teachers, by grading exams, quizzes, papers, and lab reports, assess mostly "knowledge." An important part of being a modern biologist, however, is the ability to perform certain technical or manual skills (known in the trade as "techniques") such as running gels, pipetting, recording from excitable cells with microelectrodes, performing tissue culture, and the like. In this article, the author describes a rubric intended to help measure a student's ability to use the compound light microscope. The rubric is designed simply to assess the ability to use a compound, binocular, light microscope. The mechanics of administering the assessment and scoring the student's performance are also discussed. (Contains 2 figures.)