Table 1.

Coding rubric for the pre- and posttest and examples of rubric application to student written responses

Coding rubric	Coding explanation	Pretest osmosis example	Posttest adaptation example
Nonresponse	—	—	—
Naive	Response is incorrect or is too vague to determine whether it is correct.	“Moving from less dense to more”	“Using an existing trait to serve a different purpose”
Novice	Response contains both incorrect and correct statements and may be incomplete.	“Diffusion of oxygen from high to low concentration”	“An evolutionary trait of an species that has been selected for and increases fitness”
Intermediate	Response is correct but is not complete.	“Diffusion of H2O”	“A heritable trait that is advantageous for a particular environment or situation”
Advanced	Response is correct and complete.	“Diffusion of water through [a] cell membrane”	“Its an evolutionary process which enables an organism to survive in a particular environment”