Self and unit evaluation #1

REGARDING YOUR OWN PERFORMANCE

1. What were the three aspects of the assignments I've submitted that I am most proud of?
I am most proud of my genetics lab, my second compendium review, and my ethical issue paper. I felt with these assignments that the material really started to all come together and my thoughts while writing the assignments were flowing a little bit more freely.

2. What two aspects of my submitted assignments do I believe could have used some improvement?
I believe that the two assignments that could of needed improvement were my first compendium review and the microscope lab. I felt like I had a lot of incomplete thoughts and had a harder time adjusting to the bulk of the first assignments. But, they were stepping stones to improving my later assignments.

3. What do I believe my overall grade should be for this unit?
I believe that my overall grade should be an A for the unit, because I felt like I really tried to aim for the highest grade possibility in my assignments.

4. How could I perform better in the next unit?
I can perform better in the next unit by reading all of the material starting with the PowerPoint, book, and then web links. This would of given me a better idea of what I really need to focus on in the material.

REGARDING THE UNIT (adapted from Stephen Brookfield, University of St. Thomas "Critical Incident Questionnaire")

At what moment during this unit did you feel most engaged with the course?
I felt most engaged with the course after I had finished my genetics lab. I really enjoyed making the genotypes of the offspring match the parent dragon and see what the end results would be. Also, the punnet square was a nice hands-on understanding of how inheritance occurs and to actually see the changes from the parents to the offspring made genetics easier for me to understand.

At what moment unit did you feel most distanced from the course?
The moment I felt most distanced from the course was the genetics quiz. I had taken it before I had done my second compendium review and the cell lab project, and let me say, I blew it. A lot of the questions I just guessed the answer, and afterwards, I felt like I hadn't covered the material thoroughly enough.

What action that anyone (teacher or student) took during this unit that find most affirming and helpful?
The action taken by the teacher, that I found most affirming and helpful, was that he clearly layed out each step that he wanted the class to take in order to successfully understand and complete each assignment. It made it less stressful knowing that I could follow a layout provided by the teacher, and not feel like I was completely at a loss in regards of what to do.

What action that anyone (teacher or student) took during this unit did you find most puzzling or confusing?
The action that I took during this unit that I found confusing was the process of copying labs into the paint program and then uploading them into my blog. I was having the hardest time transferring the labs into paint while I was at home, but at the school, it worked perfectly fine. I still haven't figured out the reason behind the malfunction.

What about this unit surprised you the most? (This could be something about your own reactions to the course, something that someone did, or anything else that occurs to you.)
The thing that surprised me the most about the unit is how much I actually retained, genetics especially. I had taken a regular biology class a couple years earlier, and when we started talking about cellular metabolism, it was like the teacher was talking in a foreign language. But now, I can easily visualize the process of replication, transcription, and translation and actually know what is happening.