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Table 2 Concept types, names, and descriptions of EvoGrader scoring models

From: EvoGrader: an online formative assessment tool for automatically evaluating written evolutionary explanations

Concept type

Concept name

Concept description

Methods used to optimize scoring models

Normative scientific idea

Variation

The presence and causes (mutation/recombination/sex) of variation

Unigram, Stemming, Removing Stopwords, Removing misclassified data

Heritability

The heritability of variation (The degree to which a trait is transmitted from parents to offspring)

Unigram, Bigram, Stemming, Removing Stopwords, Removing misclassified data

Competition

A situation in which two or more individuals struggle to get resources that are not available to everyone

Unigram, Stemming, Removing Stopwords

Limited resources

Limited resources related to survival/reproduction, such as food and predators, and reproduction (such as pollinators)

Unigram, Stemming, Removing Stopwords, Removing misclassified data

Differential survival/

The differential reproduction and/or survival of individuals

Unigram, Bigram, Stemming, Removing Stopwords

Non-adaptive idea

Genetic drift and related non-adaptive factors contributing to evolutionary change

Unigram, Stemming, Removing Stopwords

Non-normative naïve idea

Adapt/acclimation

Adjustment or acclimation to circumstances (which may subsequently be inherited)

Unigram, Bigram, Stemming, Removing Stopwords, Removing misclassified data

Need/goal

Goal-directed change; needs as a direct cause of evolutionary change

Unigram, Bigram, Stemming, Removing misclassified data

Use/disuse

The use (or lack of use) of traits directly causes their evolutionary increase or decrease

Unigram, Bigram, Stemming, Removing Stopwords