Appendix A
Holistic Assessment of Critical Thinking Expressed in Writing Essay Directions:
Read the passages below and write an essay that addresses the following: What is the position in each passage?
What evidence or reasons are given in support of each position? Which position is more convincing and why?
Your essay should be formatted as follows: Word Processed; Two Pages/500 word minimum; Double-spaced; 12 pt font.
Passage 1. Pro: Alcoholic Beverage Advertising Should Be Restricted
Alcohol-industry representatives often cite the incompleteness of the research record on alcohol advertising as proof that alcohol promotion has no impact on consumption. However, to clarify the impact of promotional efforts—efforts on which the industry spends $2 billion annually—independent researchers have begun to frame questions and pursue studies on the relationship between alcohol advertising and behavior and health. Although more research is needed, there is strong scientific evidence that the effects of alcohol advertising, like the effects of tobacco advertising, are not limited to brand selection by adults. Research conducted by Joel W. Grube and Lawrence Wallack suggests that awareness of TV beer commercials leads to favorable beliefs about drinking in children 10 to 12 years old and increases their intention to drink as adults. Henry Saffer compared motor-vehicle deaths with quarterly measures for broadcast advertising in 75 media markets over a three-year period. He concluded that a ban on broadcast alcohol advertising would save 2,000 to 3,000 people annually from death due to alcohol-related motor-vehicle crashes.
Source Citation:
Leiber, Laurie. "Alcoholic Beverage Advertising Should Be Restricted." Contemporary Issues Companion: Teen Alcoholism. Ed. Laura K. Egendorf. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 2001. Opposing Viewpoints Resource Center. Gale. CCLA, Hillsborough Comm College. 13 Apr. 2010
<http://find.galegroup.com/ovrc/infomark.do?&contentSet=GSRC&type=retrieve&tabID=T010&prodId=OVRC &docId=EJ3010084220&source=gale&srcprod=OVRC&userGroupName=lincclin_hcc&version=1.0>.
Passage 2. Con: Alcohol Ads Do Not Promote Underage Drinking
Never mind that our drinking laws are absurd. An 18-year-old is presumably mature enough to sign contracts, get married, have an abortion, go to war and decide who is going to run the country. But she or he is three years away from coping with the weighty implications of consuming a can of beer. Nor can a person of age 20, according to the Boies team, possibly resist the allure of a movie star enjoying a brew in a PG-13 film. In the end, how does a brewer or distiller, or a jury for that matter, distinguish an ad that would be suitable for a 21-year-old from an ad that might be construed as impermissibly "targeted" at a 20-21-year-old?
However serious the problem of underage consumption of beer and liquor, there are countervailing values that are implicated when speech restrictions are proposed.
The choice between preserving core 1st Amendment values and regulating ads for alcoholic beverages is a particularly easy one when there is little evidence of any connection between those ads and underage
drinking. We need not sacrifice commercial free speech to reduce alcohol consumption by minors. Nor should we sit back and allow the trial lawyers to add one more notch to their expanding tobacco belt. Their message is simple: The doctrine of personal accountability is out the window. In its place is the insidious notion that you can engage in risky behavior, then force someone else to pay for your mistakes. That message is far more pernicious than any beer or liquor commercial.
Source Citation:
Robert A. Levy. "Alcohol Ads Do Not Promote Underage Drinking." Opposing Viewpoints: Teen Drug Abuse. Ed. Pamela Willwerth Aue. Detroit: Greenhaven Press, 2006. Opposing Viewpoints Resource Center. Gale. CCLA, Hillsborough Comm College. 14 Apr. 2010
<http://find.galegroup.com/ovrc/infomark.do?&contentSet=GSRC&type=retrieve&tabID=T010&prodId=OVRC &docId=EJ3010436228&source=gale&srcprod=OVRC&userGroupName=lincclin_hcc&version=1.0>.
Essays will be evaluated on the following criteria:
1. IDEAS--focus on topic; effective support; explains & discusses main points 2. ORGANIZATION--underlying plan to guide reader; progresses logically
3. WORDING / DICTION--clear, straight-forward, lacks wordiness & inappropriate expressions 4. SENTENCES--clear & well constructed; avoids fragments & run-ons; variety in structure & length 5. GRAMMAR--reflects standard written English; spelling & punctuation do not interfere with meaning 6. MEETS OBJECTIVE--follows written assignment directions
Appendix B
Assessment of Quantitative Knowledge Directions:
Use algebra, critical thinking, or common sense to answer the following multiple-choice questions. Circle the best possible choice to each question. It is also important you answer every question to the best of your abilities. Include your name and section number on a separate title page.
Quantitative Assessment
1. A car rental agency charges $200 per week plus $0.25 per mile to rent a car. How many miles can you travel in one week for $250?
a. 200 miles b. 1000 miles c. 12.50 miles d. 62.50 miles
2. A nurse places a pill in a water solution at noon. The pill loses mass to the solution at a rate of 20% of its mass per hour. What percentage of the original pill’s mass remains un-dissolved at 3p.m.?
a. 51.2% b. 48.8% c. 60% d. 40%
3. You are looking into two long distance telephone plans offered by GT&T. The “One Rate 5 cents” plan has a monthly fee of $7.95 and all calls are 5 cents per minute. The “One Rate 7 cents” plan has a monthly fee of $4.95 and all calls are 7 cents per minute. Under what circumstances is one plan less expensive than the other?
a. The "One Rate 5 cents" plan is less expensive for calls lasting less than 1.5 minutes. The "One Rate 7 cents" plan is less expensive for calls lasting more than 1.5 minutes.
b. The "One Rate 7 cents" plan is less expensive for calls lasting less than 1.5 minutes. The "One Rate 5 cents" plan is less expensive for calls lasting more than 1.5 minutes.
c. The "One Rate 5 cents" plan is less expensive for calls lasting less than 150 minutes. The "One Rate 7 cents" plan is less expensive for calls lasting more than 150 minutes.
d. The "One Rate 7 cents" plan is less expensive for calls lasting less than 150 minutes. The "One Rate 5 cents" plan is less expensive for calls lasting more than 150 minutes.
4. Tina wants to secure sequins on a piece of felt shaped like a rectangle with a length of 10 cm and width of 21 cm. What is the cost of all the sequins if sequins cost $0.70 per 2
cm of coverage?
5. Suppose that aandb are both real numbers such thatab. What can you conclude about the inequality b a 1 1 ? a. b a 1 1 is always true. b. b a 1 1 is sometimes true. c. b a 1 1 is never true.
Appendix C
Assessment of Scientific Inquiry Knowledge Directions:
Refer to the summary of a scientific investigation that was conducted on “Light Requirements of Three
Species of Native Florida Submerged Aquatic Plants” and answer the multiple-choice questions that follow. It is also important that you answer every question to the best of your abilities.
Introduction
Submerged aquatic plants are an important ecological component of aquatic systems including lakes, ponds, and estuaries such as Tampa Bay. Submerged plants are rooted in the sediment and serve as habitat for many aquatic organisms, a nursery for juvenile fish and food for fish, turtles and other organisms. They also "clean" the water by filtering out pollutants such as nitrogen, phosphorus and heavy metals. Light availability is an important factor that limits the growth of submerged aquatic plants. Light is attenuated (decreased) as it passes through the water by things such as algae and decaying organic matter floating in the water. A study of the light requirements of three species of submerged aquatic plants native to Florida lakes was conducted. These three plant species are often found growing in mixed communities in lakes and ponds in Florida. When adequate light is available for plant growth, southern naiad and pondweed grow faster and tend to become taller than tape grass. This can cause problems with shading that restrict the growth of tape grass when found in mixed communities with the other two species. The goal of this study was to provide helpful information on the growth requirements of submerged aquatic plants to lake managers for them to use in making the best decisions about which plants to cultivate in restored lakes.
Materials and Methods
Young, actively growing plants of each of the three species were grown under exactly the same conditions except for the amount of light that they received. Three light treatment groups and a control group were established – 100% (full sunlight), 25%, 10% full sunlight and 1% full sunlight. The 100% (full sun) group was the control group. Six individual plants were grown in each group for a total of 24 plants. The plants were allowed to grow for a period of one month. At the end of the month, the plants were harvested, air-dried and weighed to determine the biomass (in grams). Biomass is an indicator of how much the plants grew. The six biomass values for each species were used to find the mean (average) biomass for each plant species in each light treatment group.
Results
The mean biomass values for the three plant species grown in the three different light treatment groups and the control group are compared in Figure 1. The greatest growth was shown by plants exposed to 100% and 25% full sunlight. Southern naiad and tape grass grew at 1% full sun but Pondweed did not grow. All plants exhibited much slower growth at 10% light availability than at 25% and 100%.
Figure 1: Three species of submerged aquatic plants were exposed to three light treatment groups –25% full sunlight, 10% full sunlight, 1% full sunlight and a control group (100% full sunlight). Six individual plants were included in each treatment group. The data shown are the mean (average) biomass values for each plant species in each treatment group after one month of growth.
Circle the Best Possible Choice to Each Question
1) The 100% light treatment group is called the control. Why is it important that an experiment include a control group?
e. The control group is the group that the researcher is in control of; it is the group in which the researcher predetermines the nature of the results.
f. The control group provides a reserve of experimental subjects.
g. A control group is required for the development of an “if”, “then” statement. h. A control group assures that an experiment will be repeatable.
i. Without a control group, there is no basis for knowing if a particular result is due to the variable being tested or to some other factor.
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90
Southern naiad Pondweed Tape Grass
100% 25% 10% 1% Bio m ass (gr am s)
2) Which of the following is the hypothesis of this case study?
a. Submerged plant species differ in their light requirements for growth. b. Submerged plant species exhibit little difference in their light requirements. c. Light is not a significant controlling factor of plant growth.
d. Submerged aquatic plants are very similar in their light requirements.
3) Which of the following is an improvement that should be included in future experiments designed to investigate the question of the light requirements of submerged aquatic plants?
a. Only three plants should be grown in each treatment group.
b. The plants in the 10% and 1% treatment groups should be fertilized in order to stimulate their growth but no fertilizer should be added to the 100% and 25% groups.
c. Additional light treatment groups, such as 5% and 7% should be included to find out more precisely how much light is needed by each plant species in order to grow.
d. Since the plants grow really well in the 100% and 25% treatment groups, fewer numbers should be grown in those groups than in the 10% and 1% groups in order to prevent shading and overcrowding. e. No changes can be made to improve future experiments.
4) Is it reasonable to conclude (i.e. is it supported by the data) that submerged aquatic plant growth is controlled by the amount of light that the plants receive?
e. Yes, this conclusion is supported by the data. f. No, this conclusion is not supported by the data.
g. The data do not clearly indicate an effect one way or the other. h. There is no way to conclude anything from this data.
5) Based upon the results shown, which of the following conclusions is most likely correct? a. Florida lakes that have low light availability (less than 10% full sun) have large communities of
pondweed.
b. In lakes with high light availability (≥25%), Southern naiad and pondweed grow more slowly than tape grass.
c. In lakes where submerged plants receive at least 10% full sun, slower growth of tape grass could be caused by shading due to taller plants of southern naiad and pondweed.
