STAUB, N.L.*; PAUW, P.G.: Digital Portfolios Are Required of Biology Majors.

We are initiating a curriculum that requires students to maintain a digital portfolio of laboratory work. This portfolio links learning throughout the biology curriculum and allows students to develop a sense of ownership of their work. Students are required to save images from inquiry-based laboratory exercises, research projects in several courses, and any independent work with faculty. In addition to the images, students need to provide a complete figure legend and to answer a series of questions about their work. Thus their portfolio is a collection of images/videos as well as explanatory text. For courses without microscopy work, students make portfolio entries using graphs, figures, and images of field sites or organisms. Thus this requirement reaches ecological and organismal courses as well as those that use microscopy. We use consumer still and video digital cameras with both dissecting and compound microscopes, connected to Macintosh computers. Our talk will review the imaging capture equipment, our portfolio requirements, and examples of student entries. Laboratory exercises, portfolio requirements, and examples of student work are available at http://www.gonzaga.edu/academics/biology/digital_portfolios/. Supported by NSF CCLI 0088638.