Regular form of assessment:

• Instructions: Every week we will workshop the drafts of the group and individual projects. Students have one week to incorporate suggestions and changes developed during the workshop sessions. These changes must be recorded as a journal, and be presented as second drafts of the assignments. The journal must describe the activities during the revision process, and the rationale for the decisions to incorporate (or not) the discussions from the workshop The completion of the journal and incorporation of changes and suggestions throughout the semester account for 15 % of the final grade.
• Goals: stimulate group discussion and the appreciation of the peer review process. Develop a collaborative environment between students and teacher.
• Objectives: to keep the students updated with the weekly assignments, and crate a routine of activities that allow the completion of the final project.
• Rubric: Journals will be graded based on completion and detail of the peer review process, including description of the revision process and justification for the students decisions to incorporate (or not) the discussions from the workshop. Second drafts will be graded based on the incorporation of changes.

In-class assessment

• instructions: During the semester you will have the opportunity to give a group scientific presentation to show the class the development and outcomes of a scientific project. The group will be assorted by the instructor, according the responses to a form developed to evaluate the students learning profiles.
• Objectives: contextualize the research topic and explain the rationale behind the project using concise language, detail the methods used and present
• Goals: Get used to public speaking, and to leading discussions.
• Rubric for presentation can be found here.

Major form of evaluation:

• Instructions: The final project for this course will consist of writing a research proposal. This proposal will be written in many steps and drafts along the semester, and be produced in small groups of 3-4 students. Every week one of the following activities will be covered, and significant class time will be devoted to discussion, student presentation, and workshopping. Each week students or work-groups will be contributing to and leading discussions of the material we have read. the students will be required to upload each step of the development of the project on BBL weekly. Ideally this course will meet twice a week and the assignments must be submitted by the end of the day of the first class, and will be workshopped at the second class (students will have 20 minutes in class after the regular class time). The first step will be the evaluation of the scientific method, and students will have to read and watch videos available on BBL (for example: How Science Works, available on Youtube); proposal of topic; development of bibliographical research on theory, on methods and on results; re-evaluation of the topic and central question based on the current relevance of the research design, and question; and final research project proposal.
• Goals: Integrate the theory, methods, and practice of data analysis.
• Objectives: explore all the phases to develop a scientific project, be familiar to the scientific method, data gathering, analysis, data presentation, and scientific writing.
• Rubrics for the final project (scientific manuscript) can be found here.