Dear Carrie
How should I award points for the IPC labs in World Geography?
We are ABSOLUTELY LOVING the whole Heart of Dakota World Geography program!!! The individual subject and grading record pages are WONDERFUL!!! These sheets are among several of the reasons Heart of Dakota is making us positively feel we can accomplish high school.
This question pertains to the IPC LABS portion of science: Integrated Physics & Chemistry with Lab. How many points are suggested to award per IPC labs? Any suggestions? Thanks, Carrie!
Sincerely,
“Ms. Please Help Me with How to Award Credit for IPC Labs in World Geography”
Dear “Ms. Please Help Me with How to Award Credit for IPC Labs in World Geography,”
I am so blessed to hear that you are loving our World Geography program! You made my day! As far as the labs go, there are quite a few different ways you could look at calculating the grades for the IPC labs. You could just count up the number of total questions in the procedure and in the results section of the lab and give points to each. The points could vary depending on how much work the question involved. More involved results could get more points. That would allow some points for performing the procedure and balance it with the points given for the actual results.
Or, for IPC labs, you could give a single point per step and question, depending on your goals.
Or, you could just give a single point per each step in the procedure and each question in the results section, making procedure and results points more equal. It just depends on your goals for your student. I do think that both the procedure and the results need to be a part of the grade though. Then, you could calculate the grade for the lab based on the total points earned by the student for that lab after you correct your student’s work and turn it into a percentage. For example, if the student earns 23 out of 25 points, then you would turn that into a percentage. Each lab would then have a percentage score. All 35 labs percentage scores could then be averaged together to get a total IPC labs score.
Keep in mind, this is just one possible way to go though. You could not use percentages for each lab and instead use points for all of the labs and calculate total points for all labs completed and then turn that into a percentage instead if desired.
Or, you could just correct each IPC lab as you go, focusing on lab completion, performance, and effort.
Or, you could be much less structured and just correct each lab as you go (not giving each lab a specific grade) and focus more on lab completion, performance, and effort as guideposts. Then, at the end of the quarter or semester, you could look back over the completed/corrected labs and award a quarterly or semester grade for the labs based on the overall work in that area. Often, the grade is readily apparent when looking back at the sum total of the lab work. The only drawback is that with this method the student may not be as aware of how he/she is performing. So, if you go this route it would be important to consult with the student after each lab to help the student correct any errors and add as needed to any responses to equal better performance.
Blessings,
Carrie
