Angie's Goal

Science assessments - the old paper and pencil tests - have never seemed adequate as summative assessments for my students. So naturally, I've designed projects and labs that I think will better allow students to show me everything they know at the end of a unit of learning and therefore truly be summative. However, students don't always do well on these assessments and I often hate the grading process, which is usually arduous and messy. I blame this all on the poor design of the assessments. Some of them usually seem like good ideas, but do not translate as nicely in practice.

What I believe has been one of the most successful summative assessments I have designed has comprised of a paper and pencil test that complements a lab test. I used this assessment at the end of the unit on cellular processes (diffusion/osmosis and cellular transport). What I liked about this assessment is that it gave me an opportunity to see that students understood several key concepts and skills (i.e. how to conduct & write up an investigation, how & why molecules move in/out of cells, the effect this has on the cells) and could also directly apply them in a timed lab activity. Unfortunately, not all units lend themselves to this type of a test, and often, when I feel a traditional test isn't appropriate, I have created a project.

This year, I am planning to assess all my unit assessments and implement backwards design into all my units, picking up from the first unit on cellular processes. This means that I'll start first with creating the ideal summative assessment, then plan backwards to lay the path on which students will use to realize this ideal. This ideal assessment will have an experiential (hands-on) component to it so that students have the opportunity not just to tell me what a scientific term means, but be able to apply it directly in a timed setting.

I am hoping that if I design these assessments more thoughtfully, they will better inform my teaching and help me prepare students for them. The added bonus too is that the correcting process should not be as laborious.