Eastern Nazarene College Biology Department BI-104L: Introduction to Ecology and Diversity Lab Laboratory Syllabus:  Portfolio Guidelines

Putting Together Your Lab Portfolio:

Most students have never completed a portfolio, or last used on in middle school.  A portfolio is a collection of your work, complete with reflection on what you have learned from each assignment.  These portfolios help you to reflect on what you have learned, and can also be useful for presenting your work to others, including future employers.

You will be creating a portfolio of the work you complete for this laboratory course.  IIn order to put your laboratory portfolio together, each student needs a 3-ring binder and some dividers.  At a minimum, the portfolio should be divided into the following sections (you can add more if you wish).  Before the first section, you should include a TABLE OF CONTENTS.

1. Lab syllabus
2. Reflective essays (KWL, final essay, skill summary)
   
3. Team lab reports
4. Team Powerpoint presentations
   
5. Assignments
6. Quizzes
7. Reading Material or Handouts
   

You do not need to include every lab assignment, but perhaps 2-3 per section that were meaningful to you, or where you showed improvement, or where you feel like you could have room for improvement.  For Sections 3-7, you should include a 1-2 page reflective essay on the kinds of assignments/assessments you included, what you learned from doing those assignments, and what of value you can take with you from doing these assignments as you move on in your career. 

It is strongly preferred that you use pre-made sections with numbered tabs.  However, if you get in a bind, you can use colored paper to create the sections.  Remember that you may want to use this portfolio later for graduate school or job interviews, so make it neat and attractive.


What kinds of artifacts should you include in your lab portfolio?

• K-W-L Assignment:  A 1-2 page introductory essay, stating what you already know about aquatic ecology, what think you know (but maybe are not sure about) and what you hope to learn in this lab course.
• A final, reflective essay (2-3 pages) on what you learned from this course, what you learned from doing the kinds of projects we did in lab, how this course has helped you view the world a little differently, and what you might take from this course, even if you are not going to study ecology for the rest of your life.
• A 1-page summary of the skills that you learned in this lab course.
• Photos of you working on your laboratory and field exercises/assignments along with your teammates.
• Copies of report(s) that you have written, maps you have prepared, presentations you have given, etc.
• A copy of the lab syllabus.
• Lab worksheets, field data sheets, reading assignments, notes, calculations, etc.
• Your journal (as a separate document).
• Copies of quizzes that you took during the semester (suggest one you are proud of, one you needed to improve on, and one where you showed improvement).

How will the portfolio be graded?

I will use the rubric below to grade each portfolio.  I want to stress that the portfolio should be neat, attractive, professional, and without spelling and grammatical errors.  It must also include all of the required elements.

Requirements	Exemplary (4 points)	Effective (3 points)	Acceptable (2 point)	Unsatisfactory (1 point)	Your Score
Completeness	Student has included all required artifacts in the portfolio	Student is missing 1-2 required artifacts	Student is missing 3-4 required artifacts	Students is missing 5 or more of the required artifacts
Performance	Student work demonstrates an exceptional knowledge of the course material and the required skills	Student work demonstrates a good knowledge of the course material and the required skills	Student work demonstrates an average or fair knowledge of the course material and the required skills	Student work demonstrates a poor knowledge of the course material and the required skills
Attractiveness and Creativity	Portfolio is well-organized, easy to read, very neat, and demonstrates exceptional creativity	Portfolio is organized, easy to read, neat, and creative	Portfolio is somewhat organized, easy to read, neat, and creative	Portfolio lacks organization, appears to be thrown together, is difficult to read, and is sloppy
Reflections on Artifacts	Paragraphs exist for every artifact, and each clearly describes the artifact and how it reveals the student’s capabilities	Paragraphs exist for most artifacts, and each adequately describes the artifact and how it reveals the student’s capabilities; few mistakes	Many paragraphs are missing, or do not explain connection of artifact to student’s capabilities, or are poorly written with many mistakes	Most or all paragraphs are missing; poorly written
Reflective Essays	Well written, easy to read, with exceptional assessment of student’s performance in the course, including strengths and weaknesses	Well written, easy to read, with accurate assessment of how the student performed in the course, including strengths and weaknesses	Somewhat well written with a superficial consideration of the student’s performance in the course.	Poorly written, lackluster effort to evaluate the student’s performance in the course, poor understanding of strengths and weaknesses
Spelling and Grammar	0-3 spelling, punctuation, and grammatical errors in each reflective essay.	4-6 spelling, punctuation, and grammatical errors in each reflective essay.	7-9 spelling, punctuation, and grammatical errors in written work in each reflective essay.	10 or more spelling, punctuation, and grammatical errors in each reflective essay.

Click on these links to find out more about the course:

Course Description	Course Requirements	Assignments
Tentative Schedule	Grading	Portfolio Guidelines
Course Syllabus	Environmental Science Home Page	Contact Professor Twining