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Guiding Questions Rubric for Mercury

TIES Rubrics

Examining the Quality of Thinking

This module is designed to help you develop skill in examining a contaminant in a specific environment, Ramford County. We believe that if you are immersed in the problems and data of this specific situation, you will be well equipped to examine the effect of this, or any, contaminant in other situations. Therefore, we expect that your report will be specifically related to the Ramford County situation and use those data presented in the module. Your team reports should be organized by the issues identified in the rubric.

The problem requires analysis of data about the contaminant in the environment in terms of:

1.      Causes/sources

2.      Extent of the problem

3.      Exposure to humans and the environment

4.      Strategies for cleanup and/or remediation and related to extent of the problem

All teams consider these core issues and then each team takes a unique perspective of the problem to examine in depth:

The rubric is a guide to quality thinking. It describes a continuum of progress toward an exemplary response (4). It presupposes that language use and mechanics do not interfere with meaning. It is cumulative in the sense that a Level 2 response both describes the situation and states conclusions; a Level 4 response makes recommendations that are based on scientific explanations for the conclusions drawn about the situation. Enough data and sources are given in the module to support a Level 4 response. In general, the levels represent a continuum of understanding, moving from definition to application of the knowledge: 

1.      Describes the situation created by the contaminant

2.      States conclusions with evidence and citations* to support those conclusions

3.      Gives an explanation for the situation using logic, historical data, chemical analyses and data representations such as, graphs and charts to analyze and synthesize data to support a scientific explanation.

4.      Tells the significance of the effects and issues on the air, land, water and living things. Applies what is known about this specific situation to make recommendations and support them with data from Ramford County and analogous situations.

Citation = documentation of a source of information being used as evidence to support a conclusion or explanation, including author, publication, and context. Author and date should appear with the information in the text, and a full citation in a list of references at the end (APA style): http://www.ramapo.edu/content/campus.resources/potter/

For guidelines on plagiarism:

http:// www.indiana.edu/~wts/wts/plagiarism.html

All Teams are responsible for the first three questions: