So what have we learned this week? The data logs of CV have been analyzed. Comparison between the logs of CV and MB is underway. CV had the 3rd highest score on the pre test but the 3rd lowest on the post test. It is easy to see, almost by inspection, why this student did not perform very well on the post test. CV tended to skip over explanatory text and either not answer essay questions or answer them very superficially. CV spent 102 minutes interacting with BioLogica activities, less than 1/3 the 331 minutes spent by MB, the student who scored highest on both the pre and the post tests.

The table below contains excerpts from the summaries of the data logs for these students organized by activity.


Activity
MB (highest, highest)
CV (3rd highest, 3rd lowest)
Introduction
Genotype determines phenotype.

Total time: 42 minutes to completion
Noticed traits and chromosome differences (including XX XY)
Correctly answered questions
Knew most of these things
Learned that "it is not possible for some dragons to acquire some traits."
Wanted to know
"What are genotype and phenotype exactly?"
Total time: 8 minutes in 2 sessions, incomplete
Noticed traits, but not chromosome differences

Rules: Alleles and dominance

Total time: 2 hours 11 minutes in one session
Traits
Chose correct alleles from traits correctly first time.
Dominant/recessive text: 1 min.
Incompletely dominant text: 50 sec.
Predicted phenotypes from genotypes correctly first time through.
Dominance = "… the trait dominates and appears in most creatures of that species. Dominant traits appear in three quarters of the population of that species."
Recessive = "Recessive traits are usually beaten out by dominant traits, some examples of recessive traits are being left handed and having blue eyes in humans."
Incomplete dominance = "An incompetely dominant triat is an exception because it is dominant but not on a regular basis." Heterozygous/homozygous difference = "Heterozygous combinations are combinations of two in the same, homozygous combinations are combinations of two different genes."
Multiple choice questions: 8 points out of 9
Wants to know:
"what exacly an incompletely dominant trait is"
Firebreathing
Didn't comment on XX XY difference between male and female.
male/female differencestext: ~10 sec,
sex chromosomes/sex-linked/autosomal text: ~1 min. Examined Romeo's chromosomes and correctly chose fire and color as sex-linked. spent ~1 minute checking out the firebreathing rule, then correctly answered all sex & firebreathing challenges. did not answer firebreathing allele combination question. had some difficulty choosing combos, chose female combos for male dragon, etc. 5 of the 8 were correct first time. Responses to essay questions: "The x and y chromosomes determine the sex of the dragon."
[Misconceptions about sex-linked traits. will he be able to reason with this understanding later?] "Some traits are considered sex-linked traits because they are only available to some sexes so the other sex can't get those traits." "Sex-linked traits are only available to one sex, autosomal traits are available to both sexes." "Fire breathing is a recessive trait because it is a sex-linked trait" all 5 multiple choice questions correct.
Knew "some traits were linked by the sex of the organism but I didn't know exactly how.
Learned "a lot of things about the x and y chromosomes in males and females."
Total time: 29 minutes in 4 sessions
3 sessions in firebreathing. Completed traits
Firebreathing
didn't notice male/female differences in chromosomes, described traits instead.
Male/female chromosome text: 13 sec.
Sex chromosomes text: 45 sec.
Eventually able to predict phenotype from genotype correctly first time. Had difficulty in terms of times and number of attempts) identifying possible allele combinations from phenotypes.
Traits
Able to identify possible alleles from traits, and to predict traits from genotype.
Dominant/recessive text: 3 sec
Incompletely dominant text: 1 sec
Dominant = 'it stays forever"
Recessive = 'it stay for a littel time"
incompletely dominant = "it stay for less time"
heterozygous/homozygous difference = "dont care"
multiple choice questions: 4 points out of 9, mostly partial credit
little reflection: knew "nothin at all" , learned "lots", questions "none?"


Now that we've analyzed a few logs, we've learned that not all of the relevant events are logged. We've also learned more about what we would like the data logs to contain:

We expect that such enhancements will enable us to automatically generate reports that are not only useful for research purposes but also for teachers' assessment activities.

Pre and post test data are still being entered and analyzed. Stay tuned…

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