Specifications Grading Overview

The pass/fail grading of your assessments for LIFESCI 2L03 will be documented in the Avenue to Learn gradebook using a scale with 4 components:

A 2 and a 3 will mean the exact same thing for your final course letter grade. The feedback provided is meant to be constructive  and should be applicable to future assessments in this course and beyond. 3’s will be rare (if ever given at all), as usually there are always ways to improve. The role of your grading TAs is to shape you into high performers who will be an asset to any company or professional program you move on to after your undergraduate program.

You can also consider this scoring system in terms of time management. It would be amazing if students scored 3 across the board on every assignment, but when you are deep into week 7 of the semester, have 3 midterms to study for and 4 assignments to complete, it is perfectly ok to complete a piece of work that MEETS EXPECTATIONS (a 2) instead of pushing yourself to pull an all-nighter and spend an extra few hours on something just to make it EXCEED EXPECTATIONS (a 3). The course outcome will be the same. These notations are simply to indicate whether constructive feedback would be applicable to an assessment or whether no feedback was required.

Laboratories and Electronic Lab Notebooks (ELNs) Specification Guidelines:

• You attend your laboratory, arriving on time, behaving respectfully to your TA, laboratory staff, and classmates, and follow safety protocols
  • Unexplained absence from lab = 0
  • If your name appears on an ELN submitted during lab time and you were actually absent, all group members will receive a zero and FAIL that ELN. Only add the names of present group members to your ELN as you complete it together during the lab.
• The ELN is submitted at the end of the lab time (or in the case of a make-up lab, the ELN is submitted by the end of that make-up session).
• All fields in the ELN are completed (i.e. have text filled in, or have a file uploaded). There are no empty or unanswered fields.
• For written answers bullet points are completely acceptable. Answers should be brief and to the point, since you have limited time to complete the ELN.
  • Responses should show you have put some thought into the activities you completed. Inappropriate answers or responses that do not address the text prompt are not acceptable.
• For file upload fields, you have uploaded the file in the requested file type (i.e. .jpg/.jpeg for images captured with a microscope or graphs you have created in PowerPoint, or .pdf for raw data spreadsheets initially generated in Excel but saved as a .pdf file for upload).
  • Similarly to the text responses, the uploaded file matches the prompt. If an upload field asks for your raw data tables for the lab, all raw data tables would be present and filled in. If the upload field asks for a bar graph with standard error bars and a figure caption, you would ensure the image you upload includes all of these components.

Tutorials and Case Studies (CSs) Specification Guidelines:

• You attend your tutorial, arriving on time, behave respectfully to your TA and classmates and contribute to the group activity
  • Unexplained absence from tutorial and therefore no case study submission = 0
  • If your name appears on a case study (CS) submitted during tutorial time and you were actually absent, all group members will receive a zero and FAIL that case study. Only add the names of present group members to your case study as you complete it together during the tutorial.
  • If you are not actively contributing (i.e. texting or browsing the internet, refusing to assist with the research, distracting your group mates or other groups from completing the activity), you may be asked by your TA to complete the activity independently. You will receive one warning if you are being disruptive or not actively contributing to adjust your behaviour before being removed from the group.
• The CS is submitted at the end of the tutorial time (or in the case of a make-up tutorial, the CS is submitted by the end of that make-up session).
• All text response fields in the CS are completed. There are no empty or unanswered fields.
• For text responses within the CS, bullet points are completely acceptable.
  • You should be paraphrasing the information you are learning during the case study research – never copy and paste information from a website directly into the case study text field, always rewrite it in your own words.
  • When you do use websites or journal articles to answer case study question prompts, you can simply include a URL to that location you referred to. Due to the short duration of the case studies, we do not expect you to generate full APA 7 in-text citations or a bibliography.
  • Responses should show you have put some thought into the activities you completed. Inappropriate answers or responses that do not address the text prompt are not acceptable.