One my aims is to persuade the students that humans have a lousy ability to judge how the world really is. Beliefs, impressions and intuitions are often wrong. Science is a way to do better. Erroneous impression detection correction (as it were) usually starts with systematic data collection.
Even though I know this, I am constantly amazed by the importance of proper data. As the first blog period unfolded, I was impressed by what the students were posting. But now that I have systematically marked it all, I discover this impression was generated by the work of a few actively engaged students (joy). The majority weren’t engaged (the undead?).
Fails: 30 students, 10 of whom did nothing and 20 did not break a sweat.
Passes: D (did something good, but not nearly enough), 10; C, 5; C+, 5; B-, 7; B, 13, B+, 16; and A-, 9. I was pretty generous with some of the C’s and low B’s. I used 81% (B-) as a break point: those who did enough, however shallow, got above that. Those who did less than required but did something well got above that too. But to get a B+ or A required good to excellent frequency of participation, and some great entries and comments.
Some entries really were excellent. For example, robot intelligence, the power of playboy bunnies, sound, empathy, and Americans fake data, as well as those I mention below. Most of the participating students did a good job on making their posts attractive with good use of images, humor, juxtapositions and snappy titles. There were also some excellent comments (e.g. immortal robots, reverse SAD, spongebob, grades versus learning, sexy male voices, sneezing, video games bad, and science and theology). Most of the students with excellent blog entries were let down by the standard of their comments. As TA Suzanne says in her excellent guide ‘How to score well on comments‘, this is not Facebook.
How to get an A on the blog? (1) Pay attention to the rubric in the syllabus. That’s what I’m marking off. (2) Make sure you hit excellent on every criteria in the rubric. Participating enough is important; so too is producing excellent entries AND comments. (3) Check out the examples of good practice, including the examples I give above and below, as well as here, here and here. (4) Work towards a portfolio of excellent work. TA Cally has some great advice on how to choose topics. A portfolio worth an A+ would likely cover a range of entries, such as gee-whizz stuff (e.g. honeyguides, circle of death, planetary diamonds), a reaction to yourself or an experience (e.g. depression), some compare-and-contrast (e.g. pain in the unborn), science and the arts (e.g. Dr Who), or important discoveries and their implications (e.g. dark matter). It might be that you don’t want to cover that sort of diversity – that’s fine, but pick topics and material that allow you to tick the “conceptually sophisticated, engaged in a substantive way with the material” and “draw upon the material to make creative and substantive points that extend beyond the material” boxes in the rubric. Controversial topics (e.g. animal testing, the Bermuda Triangle) are very welcome, but for a good mark, consider more than one point of view.
But most important, blog. Like life, inaction leads to failure.