Biology Department - Practice Rubric

Student:          Date:

Course:          Instructor:       Assignment:

Factor

4

3

2

1

n/a

Access the Literature


Effectively identifies & uses literature to understand the research topic


Can identify some sources & understands their relevance to the research topic with some guidance


Identifies few sources & is unable to understand the connection between the literature & their research topic without frequent guidance


Unable to develop an understanding of previous work & how it relates to the research topic


This factor is not relevant to the assignment

Identify Questions & Generate Hypotheses


Insightfully recognizes interesting questions & generates testable hypotheses


Recognizes obvious questions & often generates testable hypotheses


Often does not recognize questions, or recognizes trivial questions, & struggles to generate testable hypotheses


Cannot identify research questions & fails to generate testable hypotheses


This factor is not relevant to the assignment

Study Design & Data Collection


Study design generates data that provide clear & interesting answers to the question(s)


Study design generates relevant data; inferences may be weak or open to question in places


Study design generates data that are difficult to interpret &/or are marginally relevant to the proposed hypotheses & questions


Study design is faulty; data are not meaningful & do not address proposed hypotheses & questions


This factor is not relevant to the assignment

Data Interpretation


Independently & correctly interprets data & uses statistical inference where applicable


Correctly interprets data & uses statistical inference with guidance


Struggles to interpret data or use statistical inference even with guidance


Unable to draw correct inferences from data; no understanding of statistical inference


This factor is not relevant to the assignment

Communicate Findings


Effectively communicates all aspects of the project, including questions, importance, approaches, results & interpretation


Satisfactory communication of most aspects of the project; come components communicated unclearly


Failed to communicate all aspects of the project; aspects addressed were confusing or incomplete


Communication fails to address most aspects of the project; demonstrates a clear lack of understanding


This factor is not relevant to the assignment

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