A VISION FOR ASSESSMENT IN SCIENCE

This forum seeks to bring together science and mathematics colleagues and their discipline groups to collectively identify our aspirations and challenges for assessment into the next decade. The disruptions associated with COVID-19 delivery and assessment, especially exams, have resulted in both compromise and innovation at an accelerated pace. What does best-practice in assessment look like in a post-COVID era? Do we expect to revert back to our assessment practices pre-COVID, or do we see ourselves on a new path? Are exams still fit for purpose, and if not, what are the alternatives we value? Do we trust technology and what it can deliver, or is it creating more problems than solutions? To what degree do issues with academic integrity push us in particular directions? Representatives from each of the national discipline groups are invited to share key conversations that are happening at their level, and individuals are strongly encouraged to attend, and share their perspectives. Most importantly, this forum will support the Assessment Working Group commissioned by the ACDS to identify our priorities as a community, and feed this back to the Deans of Science Faculties and Schools around the country

An online resource for evaluating teaching developed by a community of practice

BACKGROUND Education focused (EF) academic roles are increasing and, similar to our research counterparts, these roles come with the expectation to demonstrate impact. We formed a community of practice comprising education focused academics from six faculties at UNSW Sydney centred around evidence-based teaching: the Community of Education and Learning Evidence-based Scholarship (CELEBS). OUTCOMES UNSW Sydney introduced EF academic positions in 2017 and CELEBS formed at the inaugural retreat of EF academics that year. CELEBS is an interdisciplinary group spanning six faculties and comprising thirty members that share experiences related to educational evaluation at monthly meetings. To share their knowledge and expertise more widely, the CELEBS were awarded $124,000 in funding to develop an online resource. Members collaborated to produce an online resource. This resource contained twenty videos, and supporting materials detailing the context, impact, tools used in evaluation and recommended references. These resources showcase member experiences to provide ideas and methodologies for academics to plan the evaluation of their teaching. Members describe how evaluation may be used to provide evidence of impact for a variety of purposes including awards, promotion, online courses, or innovative change.The resource is available on the UNSW Sydney Teaching Gateway (https://teaching.unsw.edu.au/celebs) (Figure 2)

Using assessment audits to understand students’ learning obstacles

Undergraduate science students are given opportunities to link the descriptions of scientific phenomena presented in lectures to their own observations of similar scientific phenomena in practical classes so as to reinforce key concepts. Being able to conceptually move between the scientific phenomena and the abstracted figures or equations that represent those phenomena is a key skill. Developing this skill, and confidence with applying this skill, is the implicit objective of many undergraduate practical classes. However, students seem unable to adequately explain their observations, despite the implementation of many “how to” guides, and this is of concern, which is why we seek to identify some of the factors that seem to impede students from being able to correctly translate and explain scientific data. We audited 118 laboratory reports in from second year molecular biology students to assess students’ abilities to correctly record and calculate data, appropriately present data, and clearly explain the representation of their data. Each of these abilities were linked to criteria in the report marking scheme students had been provided and for the purpose of our audit, graded as to whether the students completed the task poorly or not at all (1), adequately with some errors (2), or correctly and clearly (3). The data showed that a high proportion of students could not complete these tasks correctly and confirms that students have difficulty moving between the phenomena they observe and its abstract presentation. Having identified and quantified where students are having difficulties, we will use this information to inform the design of an online learning module to improve the conceptual linkages between a) an observed scientific phenomenon, b) the experimental data c) how these data are presented and d) interpreted. We expect to be able to determine the efficacy of this approach by re-auditing laboratory reports, after the online module is in place

Localization Properties of Electronic States in Polaron Model of poly(dG)-poly(dC) and poly(dA)-poly(dT) DNA polymers

We numerically investigate localization properties of electronic states in a static model of poly(dG)-poly(dC) and poly(dA)-poly(dT) DNA polymers with realistic parameters obtained by quantum-chemical calculation. The randomness in the on-site energies caused by the electron-phonon coupling are completely correlated to the off-diagonal parts. In the single electron model, the effect of the hydrogen-bond stretchings, the twist angles between the base pairs and the finite system size effects on the energy dependence of the localization length and on the Lyapunov exponent are given. The localization length is reduced by the influence of the fluctuations in the hydrogen bond stretchings. It is also shown that the helical twist angle affects the localization length in the poly(dG)-poly(dC) DNA polymer more strongly than in the poly(dA)-poly(dT) one. Furthermore, we show resonance structures in the energy dependence of the localization length when the system size is relatively small.Comment: 6 pages, 6 figure

Exploring volatile general anesthetic binding to a closed membrane-bound bacterial voltage-gated sodium channel via computation.

Despite the clinical ubiquity of anesthesia, the molecular basis of anesthetic action is poorly understood. Amongst the many molecular targets proposed to contribute to anesthetic effects, the voltage gated sodium channels (VGSCs) should also be considered relevant, as they have been shown to be sensitive to all general anesthetics tested thus far. However, binding sites for VGSCs have not been identified. Moreover, the mechanism of inhibition is still largely unknown. The recently reported atomic structures of several members of the bacterial VGSC family offer the opportunity to shed light on the mechanism of action of anesthetics on these important ion channels. To this end, we have performed a molecular dynamics flooding simulation on a membrane-bound structural model of the archetypal bacterial VGSC, NaChBac in a closed pore conformation. This computation allowed us to identify binding sites and access pathways for the commonly used volatile general anesthetic, isoflurane. Three sites have been characterized with binding affinities in a physiologically relevant range. Interestingly, one of the most favorable sites is in the pore of the channel, suggesting that the binding sites of local and general anesthetics may overlap. Surprisingly, even though the activation gate of the channel is closed, and therefore the pore and the aqueous compartment at the intracellular side are disconnected, we observe binding of isoflurane in the central cavity. Several sampled association and dissociation events in the central cavity provide consistent support to the hypothesis that the fenestrations present in the membrane-embedded region of the channel act as the long-hypothesized hydrophobic drug access pathway

Quantitative Skills and Complexity: How can we Combat these Challenges and Equip Undergraduate Students to Think and Practice as Biologists?

Mapping the pedagogical process of learning in biology has shown that fieldwork and laboratory practicals require students to use quantitative skills in a high-level learning context. These tasks include creating graphical representations of data and performing statistical analyses, and are major areas of student disengagement and poor performance. Biology educators face a challenge: how to keep students engaged in mastering new techniques and methodology to develop the ‘thinking of a biologist’, while developing confidence using quantitative mathematical skills. Here we investigate the use of an online learning module in molecular biology to simplify this complex process of learning in biology. The module emphasised the links between the concept (gene regulation), experiments (growing Escherichia coli in the presence of different effector molecules and substrates) and the data recorded. An audit of student assignments and surveys before and after the introduction of the module indicated that students improved their data presentation skills. Results highlight the cognitive and practical complexity of the task. The usefulness of consolidating information by providing extra time using a blended approach to laboratory practicals is discussed. Finally, the relationship between the practical activity and threshold concepts, thinking dispositions and mindfulness is made to better understand how we can assist students to become quantitatively confident and competent in their practice as biologists