Nicolette (Nikki) Guido ’27

Major: Dual Degree in Biochemistry and Music
Project: "Evidence-based Assessments for General Chemistry Laboratory Skills"
Advisor: Shari Dunham, associate professor of chemistry

How can educators assess a student’s mastery of laboratory skills and measure the effectiveness of feedback? That’s what sophomore Nikki Guido set out to explore with her advisor Associate Professor of Chemistry Shari Dunham when the pair worked together to design and modify authentic skills assessments for Guido’s SOAR project.

Students in a summer-session chemistry course were surveyed about their prior experience and confidence level with basic, hands-on laboratory skills after they performed an experiment where a new skill was introduced and then again after they recorded a narrated video of themselves performing a rubric-led experiment.

Preliminary results from the pilot study indicate that student experience and confidence were variable at the start of the course and increased both after a skill was introduced and after a student received feedback on their video.

The small sample size proved challenging, Guido says, with 14 students participating during the first half of the course and 11 students in the second half. “This has made analyzing data for any significant differences difficult.”

The pair plan to further their research by evaluating students in the Chemistry 113 course so as to collect and analyze data from a larger group of students. They also plan to analyze the impact of offering different rewards upon completion of assignments.

“We want to see if receiving a digital badge or physical sticker after completion will influence students to be more likely to complete the assignments.”

Guido says she now understands how much work goes into planning and creating assignments from the perspective of a teacher and researcher, as well as the significant trial and error of the process.

Collaboration came easy with Dunham, Guido says, making her SOAR project one of the most valuable experiences at Moravian.

“It has opened my world to more ways of research and allowed me to test my interest in the field I wish to study and the career I wish to pursue,” says Guido, who presented her project at the Landmark Conference over the summer.