1. The collections
SERC: Science Education Resource Center at Carleton College
SERC office and staff helps develop and manage web resources for many projects thru collaboration
Many different collections of activities, submitted for different projects
On the Cutting Edge: the first of the projects hosted by SERC
Most of the activities in the Cutting Edge collections were submitted in connection with workshops.

2. Cutting Edge Reviewed Collection
On the Cutting Edge is conducting a review of activities in the Cutting Edge collections plus activities in other SERC collections (e.g, Starting Point, Margins, Quantitative Skills, etc.)
Each activity reviewed only once and ranked:
Exemplary (Part of Reviewed Collection)
Pass (Part of Reviewed Collection)
Keep (Not part of Reviewed Collection)
De-accession (only for Cutting Edge items)

3. Cutting Edge Reviewed Collection

4. Our process
Anything tagged with geophysics vocab in any SERC collection)
Each receives 2 reviews
Authors receive letters
Exemplary: reviewer comments, but no revisions necessary
Pass: reviewer comments, including what changes necessary for Exemplary
Keep: reviewer comments, including what changes necessary for Reviewed Collection
Reconsidered if revisions submitted by deadline; otherwise, ranking remains

5. Plan for review team meeting
Talk about questions, issues
Each reviewer reads other review, assigns a tentative ranking, and writes a summary paragraph of advice that Michael can use in the letter to the author
Post questions in chat

6. Some nuts and bolts Review it in the context that it was designed for
Not just whether it’s good for a geophysics course – many will be for other courses (e.g., intro geo)
Not everything has to be a full lab or major assignment (e.g., a back-of-the-envelope calculation could be Exemplary)
Not every activity needs to be usable by all instructors (e.g., a lab requiring specific software/math/expertise background)

7. More nuts and bolts Exemplary
Good science, good pedagogy, all materials are there for someone else to adapt/adopt
Can be “local” if it is also a good template
Does not need to have answer key or to provide an instructor with background
Scoring
Exemplary or very good in all categories
Exemplary in at least three of the five.
18 or higher.
Can still receive advice for enhancement

8. More nuts and bolts Exemplary minus
Could be made Exemplary with only a small amount of work (e.g., fixing a URL, uploading the latest version of the assignment, adding instructor tips, fleshing out the ActivitySheet a bit).
These will be ranked as Pass and will be reconsidered for the Exemplary collection if the author makes the necessary fixes.

9. More nuts and bolts
Pass – these become part of the Reviewed Collection
Those that aren’t Exemplary but still have value to others
Have to be more than just the germ of an idea
Have to have all of the components
These should have no scientific errors.
If you think there are errors, confirm this with someone else on the review team.
Those with scientific errors should go into the Keep category.

10. More nuts and bolts
Keep – no designation on ActivitySheet, will come up last in a search
Nucleus of a good idea
Insufficient info for someone to adapt or adopt or scientific errors
Author receives letter with comments on what revisions are necessary for us to reconsider for the Reviewed Collection

11. More nuts and bolts De-accession Not an activity or very fragmentary
Unlikely to be anything like this in the batch to be reviewed
Cannot de-accession anything except Cutting Edge collection activities

12. Summary Four rankings Summary paragraph of advice Exemplary
Exemplary minus (technically a Pass)
Pass
Keep
Summary paragraph of advice
Remember that these were submitted voluntarily to a community collection
Be kind but clear
spreadsheet to Michael with Review ID #, title, submitter name, and your summary paragraph (do not enter in the online review tool)