In my biochemistry course, I shared our working rubric with them.  I asked them to use all sections.  I gave them the following prompt for an assignment.  I let it be pretty open because I had never assigned it and wanted to see what they would do.  The prompt was:

Supplement Assignment

You will be responsible for researching a dietary supplement.  You must email Dr. Beres for approval of the supplement you select.  You may write a 5-page paper, do a 10-minute presentation, make a video, or use another format as long as it is cleared with Dr. Beres.  You should cover the supplement and its composition while outlining its intended biochemical purpose.  You must use multiple sources in your project.  As part of your project, you need to evaluate the reliability of the sources you select.  Ultimately, you will decide if the supplement is effective in its intended purpose.  You should also cover the marketing of the supplement.

I asked the students to provide a separate document on evaluating their sources based on the rubric.  I should have given a more structured format and asked specific questions as I received a range of responses.  I have attached their responses below.  Their general feeling was that the rubric would have been helpful earlier in their college career and that it was too wordy.

Qualitatively, I think it works well.  I had two students opt for a presentation.  Once finished they took questions from the class.  It was clear to me that based on the questions the class was asking that they had been working with our rubric.  They tore one of the students apart on her references due to a biased author, unqualified authors, poor study design, and unfair conclusion.  It was a lot of fun for me to just sit back and watch.  It turned into a fantastic discussion.

• Hayley J. Lam
• Hayley Orndorf
• Joan Sharp
• Justin Pruneski (He/Him)
• Lisa Cochrane Turnbull
• Nathaniel Beres
• Sam S Donovan
• Sarah Prescott
• Stacey Kiser
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