Three Quarter Plackett-Burman Designs for Estimating All Main Effects and Two-Factor Interactions

Plackett-Burman designs and three quarter fractional factorial designs are both well established in the statistical literature yet have never been combined and studied. Plackett-Burman designs are often non-regular and are thus subject to complex aliasing. However, Plackett-Burman designs have the advantage of run-size efficiency (over the usual 2^(k) factorials) and taking three quarters of a Plackett-Burman design further improves this benefit. By considering projections of these designs, we constructed a catalog of designs of resolution V and ranked by D-efficiency

Models of classroom assessment for course-based research experiences

Course-based research pedagogy involves positioning students as contributors to authentic research projects as part of an engaging educational experience that promotes their learning and persistence in science. To develop a model for assessing and grading students engaged in this type of learning experience, the assessment aims and practices of a community of experienced course-based research instructors were collected and analyzed. This approach defines four aims of course-based research assessment—(1) Assessing Laboratory Work and Scientific Thinking; (2) Evaluating Mastery of Concepts, Quantitative Thinking and Skills; (3) Appraising Forms of Scientific Communication; and (4) Metacognition of Learning—along with a set of practices for each aim. These aims and practices of assessment were then integrated with previously developed models of course-based research instruction to reveal an assessment program in which instructors provide extensive feedback to support productive student engagement in research while grading those aspects of research that are necessary for the student to succeed. Assessment conducted in this way delicately balances the need to facilitate students’ ongoing research with the requirement of a final grade without undercutting the important aims of a CRE education