Examinations (Exams) are the primary method used in ASU ONLINE BCH341 to evaluate a students understanding of the topics covered. Prof. Yarger strives to produce exams that fairly evaluate students’ practical and conceptual understanding of physical chemistry topics as they apply to the biological sciences and biochemistry based industries (e.g., pharmaceutics, medical, bioenergy, ecological, biotechnologies, etc.). In the real world, problems are not closed book, memorization based, and restricted to ‘1 hour’ where a bunch of different problems have to be solved. Real world problems are open to any resource available and care that the person solving the problem can articulate their process for deriving an answer or solution. Hence, showing the detailed solution to a problem will hopefully lead to predictions or insights that help advance a topic or provide solutions and ‘next steps’ in optimization or ideas. It is the goal of Prof. Yarger to provide ‘take home’ examinations that represent ‘real-world’ based problems in biopchem. Often the take-home exam questions are ‘project’ oriented and this will be discussed in more detail as the semester progresses.
Exams by Prof. Yarger consist of in-depth problems (or small projects) that are meant to represent modern topics and problems that arise in biophysical chemistry (biopchem) areas of research and application in industry. Example exams by Prof. Yarger from past semesters of BCH341-ONLINE at ASU can be found on the biopchem.education website (e.g., fall 2018, spring 2018). Keep in mind, the type of exam given in the standard BCH341 class is different from the type of ‘take home’ exam given in the online version of BCH341. The suggested homework problems and YellowDig problems given to students are meant to represent questions similar to what a student will have on their ‘take home’ exams.
Specifically, for the Fall 2019 Online version of BCH341, exams will be posted on Canvas and students will have ~72 hours (3 days) to complete the exam and turn in a single PDF document with all the detailed steps to solving the problem(s) explicitly shown (and typeset, NO handwriting allowed). The single PDF document that contains a student’s solutions will be uploaded to Canvas by the announced due date for grading. In Canvas, there is a (crude) ability to perform an anonymous peer review process (peer grading) of the exams. This peer review and/or peer grading has been show to be very helpful in the learning process. The exams will also be graded (edited) by the instructor and/or TAs. Details about this process will be discussed on the exam, in screencasts/videos and on yellowdig.
- Exam 1 (DUE Sept 10, 2019, 11:59 PM UTC-7) When submitting the single PDF exam file in Canvas, include your ASU ID #, underscore BCH341_Exam1_Fall2019.pdf as the filename (e.g., ‘1234567890_BCH341_Exam1_Fall2019.pdf’). The exam should NOT contain any handwriting and should be typeset.
- Expanded PDF Exam: BCH341_Exam1_Expanded_Fall2019.pdf
- Condensed PDF Exam: BCH341_Exam1_Condensed_Fall2019.pdf
- Open Document Format (ODF) text document (Libre Office): BCH341_Exam1_Condensed_Fall2019.odt
- MS-Word, XML Format: BCH341_Exam1_Condensed_Fall2019.docx
- Rubric / Solutions: Posted at 1:00 PM, Sept 11, 2019 (UTC-7)
- Detailed Rubric for Peer Review/Grading. There are several formats provided so that students can use it as a template for peer review or future exams/assignments. It was written in Libre Office and the native format is odf, but it saves well as a pdf document too. Warning, I include a docx version, but this sometimes has formatting issues.
- Portable Document Format (PDF): BCH341_Exam1_Peer_Review_Rubric_Fall2019.pdf
- Open Document Format – Text Document (odt): BCH341_Exam1_Peer_Review_Rubric_Fall2019.odt
- MS-Word, XML Format (Docx): BCH341_Exam1_Peer_Review_Rubric_Fall2019.docx
- BioPchem Google Sheets (Publically Available): Exam 1 (linked in above documents)
- Detailed Rubric for Peer Review/Grading. There are several formats provided so that students can use it as a template for peer review or future exams/assignments. It was written in Libre Office and the native format is odf, but it saves well as a pdf document too. Warning, I include a docx version, but this sometimes has formatting issues.
- Exam 2 – (DUE Sept 23, 2019, 11:59 PM UTC-7) When submitting the single PDF exam file in Canvas, include the last 4-digits of your ASU ID #, underscore BCH341_Exam2_Fall2019.pdf as the filename (e.g., ‘1234_BCH341_Exam2_Fall2019.pdf’). The exam should NOT contain any handwriting. The exam should be typeset.
- Exam (pdf format): BCH341_Exam2_Fall2019.pdf
- Exam in Open Document Format (ODF) text document (Libre Office) format: BCH341_Exam2_Fall2019.odt
- Exam in MS-Word 2007-2019 format: BCH341_Exam2_Fall2019.docx
- Exam in web-page format (html). Exam 2 Web (html) version.
- Rubric / Solutions: Posted at 1:00 PM, Sept 24, 2019 (UTC-7)
- Detailed Rubric for Peer Review/Grading. There are several formats provided so that students can use it as a template for peer review or future exams/assignments. It was written in Libre Office and the native format is odf, but format is BEST MAINTAINED using the portable document format (pdf). This is the only version that is reviewed to be properly formatted!!
- Portable Document Format (PDF): BCH341_Exam2_Solutions_Rubric_Fall2019.pdf
- Open Document Format – Text Document (odt) – Libre Office/Writer: BCH341_Exam2_Solutions_Rubric_Fall2019.odt
- Associated Public Google Sheets (Spreadsheets):
- Exam (pdf format): BCH341_Exam2_Fall2019.pdf
- Exam 3 – (DUE Oct 7, 2019, 11:59 PM UTC-7) When submitting the single PDF exam file in Canvas, include your Last Name, underscore BCH341_Exam2_Fall2019.pdf as the filename (e.g., ‘Yarger_BCH341_Exam2_Fall2019.pdf’). The exam should NOT contain any handwriting. The exam should be typeset.
- Exam (pdf format): BCH341_Exam3_Fall2019.pdf
- Open Document Format: BCH341_Exam3_Fall2019.pdf
- MS-Word, XML Format (Docx): BCH341_Exam3_Fall2019.pdf
- Rubric / Solutions: Posted at 1:00 PM, Oct 8, 2019 (UTC-7)
- PDF Version: BCH341_Exam3_Rubric_Fall2019.pdf
- Links to Public Shared Google Sheets for Exam 3
- Final Exam – (DUE Oct 10, 2019, 11:59 PM UTC-7) – OPTIONAL: Substitutes for the 3 midterm exams. When submitting the single PDF exam file in Canvas, include your Last Name, underscore BCH341_FinalExam_Fall2019.pdf as the filename (e.g., ‘Yarger_BCH341_FinalExam_Fall2019.pdf’).
- Exam (PDF Format): BCH341_FinalExam_Fall2019.pdf
- Open Document Format: BCH341_FinalExam_Fall2019.odt
- MS-Word Format: BCH341_FinalExam_Fall2019.docx
- VDW Assigned Cmpd, Problem 2: FinalExam_Student_Assigned_VWD_Gas_Cmpds.pdf
- Excel Version: FinalExam_Student_Assigned_VWD_Gas_Cmpds.xlsx
Often on exams and/or projects you need to reference material, i.e., provide citations. Here is a link to the section in the ACS style guide for citations from: ACS Style Guide 2006, Chapter 14, References.
BioPchem 