Final Assessment Analysis

 

Some of you may wish to know how the class performed on the final Take Home Assessment.

Below are the results of my analysis of the question scores with the color coded column giving the average class score on the question.  I’ve followed the image with some comments on the red (low scoring) questions, as well as what you wrote about the Best and Worst aspects of the class.

• Learning after Graduation – It’s almost certain that you’re going to need to go on learning throughout your career as an engineer.  Many of you chose answers that indicated your thought there wouldn’t be much later learning.
• Heat Transfer Calculation – this was the same basic question as in Lab #1
• Nested IF Function – This was admittedly a difficult question, but it was directly based on the hydrology lab.  Learning to use this kind of logic will almost certainly be beneficial in your engineering career.
• Gas Concentrations – A key result of the IAQ lab was that you cannot have all things – low ozone and low CO2 merely by ventilating.
• Revit Type – Revit is BIM software.  When I Googled the word Revit the first entry stated that as I did in class.
• EER – EER is a ration of BTU/Watt-Hour – It’s a measure of efficiency of an air conditioning system.  it is NOT dimensionless as it is used. 
• Kinetic Energy Calculation – The trick here was to refer to Prof. Dasaro’s lab, where the weight had to be converted into mass to perform the calculation.
• Member Weight Calculation – It’s surprising that so many had difficulty with this one.  You needed to calculate the volume and multiply by the density, being sure to watch the units of volume to work in either in^3 or ft^3.

Short Essay on Best and Worst Aspect of CAEE-201

As the bright green number shows, most of you were very specific and wrote clearly.  As in past there were comments on many aspects of the course.  Only one person out of 113 chose to focus primarily on the negative aspects – everyone else focused on the positive ones, sometimes with a negative comment as well.  Here are some key ones:

• Most Positive Aspects – In order by number of comments Received
• Site Visits – Tacony-Palmyra Bridge & DAC (70 mentions total)
• Variety of lectures & Labs & Speakers (55 mentions total)
• Clarifying your major focus, including graduate study (36 mentions total)
• Discussions (15 mentions total)
• Overall structure of course and TA and Prof. help (18 mentions total)
• Worst Aspects – the total was only about 10% of the number of positive and not nearly so emphatic
• Discussions – about the same number as made positive comments (this has been true every year – 18 mentions)
• A variety of comments about the labs and grading (15 mentions total)
• Two people stated firmly that 10:00AM is too early for the lecture

Take Home Assessment Results + Final Grade Calculation

Take Home Assessment Grade Calculation

The results of the take home assessment are now posted on the website.  The row that shows is called “TakeHomeAdjusted.”  As the name indicates, the score you see is an adjusted score.  It is the “raw” score adjusted upward by ten points out of 100 total. 

I arrived at this adjustment by a several step process:

• First I reviewed the class grades on all the questions to be sure that there weren’t any errors in the questions causing everyone to miss points.  I found no such problems although the calculation problems (based directly on the labs of the term) caused a number of people difficulties.
• I then decided to add the same amount (10 points) to everyone’s score so that the highest scoring individual (not an outlier) received 100%

 

Final Grade Calculation

The final grade for the course (labeled “Cumulative Grade” in what you see) takes into account the dropping of the lowest discussion and the lowest lab score as well as three “free” attendance misses. 

It may change somewhat between now (Thursday noon) and when I submit the grades because it leaves out of the calculation any items that are not yet graded.  The graders expect to finish all the grading by this evening and will check that all the items submitted have been graded, so the grade should be the stable grade that I’ll submit by Friday.

About the Final Assessment

Where Do I Find It?

• Click on the “Quizzes and Exams” menu item in the course website in BbLearn

When It’s Available

• Opens – Midnight Friday Morning 12/7
• Closes – 11:59 Sunday Evening 12/9

How Much Does It Count?

• 18% of the total grade

What is on it?

• 75% Multiple Choice + True/False + Multiple Answers (more than one answer per question possible)
• 20% – Calculation Questions based on the labs
  • The description and logic for calculating the answer are the same, but each student will see different numbers
• 5% – 200 words or more on the Best or Worst (or Both) Aspects of CAEE-201 – graded on being specific, not on your opinions.

May I take It More than Once?

• Yes, you may take it up to three times – each time you have 2-1/2 hours
• You may not save and resume during one instance of the test.
• Each time you take it the numbers for the calculations and the order of the questions will probably be different.
• You should assume that will grade the last time that you take the assessment.

LCA Lab–Concrete

Question:

I have a question about question 1 and 2 for the LCA lab. Which concrete pavement are we supposed to choose for question 1 and question 2? Table 3 has two different options, but both are porous pavements. Thank you.

 

Response

You are right to question the material choice.  The value for the curb material would be closest: “Concrete Curb with openings”  It would have the same density as standard concrete paving.