Genetics Concept Assessment (GCA)
Purpose
The Genetics Concept Assessment (GCA) is designed to test achievement of nine broad learning goals in majors and non-majors undergraduate genetics courses.
Population
The GCA is commonly administered in introductory college genetics courses.
Typical Performance
We haven’t performed an analysis of the LASSO data for typical performance, but the developers of the instrument students found pretest scores around 40% and posttest scores around 74% across the 3 institutions the instrument was initially tested at.
Validity
The GCA was originally developed in 2008. Relevant article is listed below:
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Smith, M. K., Wood, W. B., & Knight, J. K. (2008). The genetics concept assessment: a new concept inventory for gauging student understanding of genetics. CBE-life sciences Education, 7(4), 422-430.
Example question
A population of buffalos is isolated such that no new buffalos can come into their territory. Which of the following is primarily responsible for the appearance of new alleles in this population?
a) Reassortment of chromosomes during the process of creating sperm or eggs.
b) Mutations in cells that will become sperm or eggs.
c) Changes in the environment that favor some buffalo traits over others.
d) Random mating between the buffalos in the population.
Research
See the validation section for related articles.
Example LASSO Report
Please follow this link to our example report for concept inventories.