TABLE 2.

Sample of UTA muddy point responses from the weekly journaling

Bloom’s taxonomy	Number of Bloom’s scores for 9 weeks	Example of muddiest point concepts
Knowledge	9	Learning the terminology for the different types of antimicrobial chemicals.
Comprehension	97	How the toxin breaks down in our guts and why it isn’t harmful to humans.
Application	67	“Differentiating between anaerobes, aerobes, and facultative anaerobes.”
Analysis	40	The effects of Bt corn on the monarch butterfly population: what does the majority of research state on the issue? Is there a direct effect on the monarch population through the use of Bt corn?
Synthesis	2	I think is important to discuss the fact that people fear all bacteria because of a few bad ones, which is the reason why we will use stock yogurt in the yogurt lab instead of bacteria culture to inoculate the milk. The questions I would ask are whether it is a good idea to educate people about beneficial and safe microorganisms and whether people will ever feel comfortable about consuming microorganisms in any form.
Evaluation	1	The muddiest point will probably be the lack of consensus on the issues, but this is inherent because of the lack of consensus in the scientific and environmental community. There isn’t enough long-term data about how Bt corn and other genetically modified crops will affect the environment. A lot of the potential problems of transgenic crops are still unforeseen, but does that mean we shouldn’t forge ahead with genetic engineering? I think the hardest part for the students will be coming to a conclusion on whether or not it is safe for the environment, because it’s more of a personal choice than a scientific fact.