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GRADING CRITERIA

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You will be graded on the basis of three types of assignments: Exams, Lab Notebooks, and Lab Reports.

Exams will be based on both lecture and laboratory material. In Genetic Engineering, there is really no difference between lecture and lab. The exams are designed to test your understanding of laboratory procedures and your ability to integrate practical techniques into a broader theoretical background.

Your lab notebooks will be graded on how well you document your work and keep records. I will not be evaluating the work and the interpretations.

The lab report is the vehicle by which you will describe the work, present the experimental results, and express your interpretation of the experiment.

Grading of Lab Notebooks:

Notebooks will be graded according to following criteria:

5 points		Title page complete and up to date
5 points		Title and date for each entry
20 points		Data complete and up to date
10 points		Clear statements of purpose and conclusion
20 points		Clarity of entries
60 points		Total
To satisfy the Lab Notebook portion of the Writing Requirement, you must earn a 70% on the combined Notebook grades

Grading of Lab Reports

Reports will be graded according to three criteria:

Data:	20 points	Did you obtain the correct experimental results? This is a purely technical grade and no assumption is made about whether or not you understood the project.
Interpretation:	20 points	How well did you analyze and understand each part of the project?
Writing:	20 points	Did you follow the appropriate format for the paper? How good was your use of grammar and language?
	60 points	Total
To satisfy the Lab Report portion of the Writing Requirement, you must earn a 70% on the writing portion of the lab report

Computing The Final Grade

There will be two midterm exams, each being worth 200 points. The final will serve as an additional, third midterm. It will not be comprehensive.

There will be four formal laboratory reports. The second report will contain about half of the work you do during the quarter and will be worth twice the number of points (120) as the first. The third and fourth lab reports will be informal. In addition to laboratory reports, there will be one problem set on plasmid mapping, which will equal 35 points.

Your notebooks will be collected unannounced twice during the quarter. Each will be equal to 25 points.