The Assessment

Assessment Rationale
This practical differs from others you have taken in that we are requiring that you, in addition to undertaking an experiment, be actively involved in its design. The ability to design experiments that appropriately test a research or clinical hypothesis is an important skill for a scientist to develop, and will demonstrate to us that you understand the basic immunological concepts underlying your practical work.

Assessment Procedure
You are provided with some basic background information on a clinical case and a suspected diagnosis. You are also provided a list of reagents that will be available to you in the laboratory.

Before the practical
You must research the basic immunology underlying the practical and think about how you could use the reagents provided to test a hypothesis based on the clinical case. You should make notes that you can bring to the practical session in order to discuss what you have learned with your lab partner.

During the practical – Day One
You have 3 hours in which to discuss the case and the underlying science within your laboratory partner, and to identify the hypothesis that you will test. You will design an experiment that appropriately tests this hypothesis using the reagents available to you, and produce an experimental plan using the worksheet provided. At this stage, you will submit your worksheet to an assessor, who will mark you as a pairing on your experimental design and rationale (assessment part 1). You will then be permitted to set up and run your experiment.

Practical – Day Two
You will take a picture of your experimental results after overnight incubation. Using this, you will consider and evaluate the results of your experiment and complete a results worksheet for submission on BlackBoard, which will be marked on your interpretation of the findings (assessment part 2).

Assessment Feedback
You will be given a mark for the experimental design (50% of the marks) and the interpretation (50% of the marks) components of the assessment, and a final score will be provided via BlackBoard after the practical. Your worksheets will be marked according to the marking guidance at the end of this handout and uploaded onto BlackBoard so that you can identify areas of strength or for improvement.

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