Abstract
Lewis, et al. (2010; 2011) described their design and use of Creative exercises (CEs), a student-centered assessment that aligns with a constructivist epistemology, in a college-level chemistry class. In this presentation, I describe the processes by which I integrated Creative exercises (CEs) into an introductory physical geology laboratory midterm exam, in which students rotate through stations to examine geologic specimens and use their observations to answer questions about specific properties they observe. I replaced several instructor-centered questions about thin sections with open-ended CEs to give the students control over the content of their answers. Additionally, as an extension to the CEs as described by Lewis, et al., I included a method based on semiotics and expert systems to consider both a relevance factor and a confidence factor to reflect the interpretation certainty for student observations (Parcell & Parcell, 2009). Finally, I present the results and findings from the midterm exam administered in two laboratory sections - one where students used physical petrographic microscopes and the other where students used a virtual petrographic microscope. Lewis, S. E., Shaw, J. L., & Freeman, K. A. (2010). Creative exercises in general chemistry: A student-centered assessment. Journal of College Science Teaching, 40(1), 48. Lewis, S. E., Shaw, J. L., & Freeman, K. A. (2011). Establishing open-ended assessments: investigating the validity of creative exercises. Chemistry Education Research and Practice, 12(2), 158-166. Parcell, W. C., & Parcell, L. M. (2009). Evaluating and communicating geologic reasoning with semiotics and certainty estimation. Journal of Geoscience Education, 57(5), 379-389.