Objective Related Assessments
Assessment Description
Measuring student mastery is crucial to measuring the effectiveness of your instruction. The assessments in the above embedded document have been designed to monitor student progress throughout the unit. Most of the assessments are guide posts to check how students are understanding the material and progressing on their project. These assessments are placed at the end of each nanotechnology lab day to check how students are understanding each of our sets of objectives. If students struggle with the content they will have the opportunity to look through the labs and repeat content if necessary. Exit Slip for How Big is it? shows how we will assess students ability to make connections from nanoparticles to everyday objects. There are other examples of formative assessments in the above document. The summative assessments that we are using are for the group projects at the middle and end of the unit. The first is a proposal for their group project. The second is the final project rubric which can be seen here. This assessment is designed to measure student achievement on 21st century skills and completing their project in a acceptable fashion. Our final assessment is a summative assessment over the nano science content. This is designed to have students articulate what they have learned about nano science in their group as well as what they may have learned from other group presentations. That assessment can be seen here. There are other examples of assessments that will be used in the unit in the above embedded document. Feel free to modify the rubrics and exit slips as you see fit.
How to Provide Feedback to Students
Students will have exit tickets almost every day at the end of the period. The teacher will respond to answers and questions on the exit tickets on the following day during the debrief period at the beginning of class. This will allow students to self-reflect on their learning and progress.
After students present their initial proposal on Day 8, the teacher will give feedback on their project ideas. If groups need to revise their proposal, they can do so at the end of the period before they continue with the projects.
During group work time, the teacher will walk around the room and meet with each group periodically to check on their progress. At this time, groups can ask questions, assess their work, and redirect if needed.
After students present their initial proposal on Day 8, the teacher will give feedback on their project ideas. If groups need to revise their proposal, they can do so at the end of the period before they continue with the projects.
During group work time, the teacher will walk around the room and meet with each group periodically to check on their progress. At this time, groups can ask questions, assess their work, and redirect if needed.
Plan for Student Presentations
In the final project, groups will discuss who their audience is and who the proposed solution is aimed toward. As a requirement of their projects, they need to determine a plan for presenting their information to the intended audience. For example, groups may propose an energy plan for a specific business. They may decide to make a brochure and send it to the business or publish a website. Advanced groups will have already been in contact with their audience. For the actual presentations during class, we will invite other classes and teachers to watch. If groups have contacted their specific audience, they may invite them to come if they are available.
Final Assessment: Team and Individual Grades
The final assessment of the project has two parts: a group presentation rubric and an individual nanoscience content summary rubric. The group presentation rubric evaluates the final product, processes used by students, and the skills developed by students by including those expectations in the criteria. For process skills, students have to show that they have a clear question, problem, and audience. Students also must show that they have conducted some sort of investigation of their own design or analyzed the data of another investigation if it’s not possible to test their solution in the classroom. This helps to reinforce the scientific method. Students will be assessed on content by how they include nanotechnology in their solution, which will require them to use the information that they learn from the lab activities. Students’ skills will be assessed in the final product by evaluating their resources for reliability and quality (team grade), presentation skills (individual grade), and collaboration/time management (individual grade). The collaboration/time management portion is based on the collaboration reflection and the collaboration logs.
Students will be further evaluated individually on their content knowledge and final product through the nanoscience content rubric. They will be asked to explain the learning objectives (content knowledge) as well as make connections to their project and research (final product). The learning objectives are stated as the criteria, and students can demonstrate varying levels of mastery depending on their ability to explain and make connections. By requiring this of all students, they must be sure that they understand both the content and the project on an individual level in order to get full credit for their work.
The group presentation rubric is an evaluation of a team product: the solution they determine from all of their research, investigations, and data. This will comprise 50% of the grade on the project since it evaluates process skills, 21st century skills, content, and includes a final product. Content cannot just be evaluated at the team level because then you do not have a clear idea of which group members understood the objectives being addressed, and you cannot determine what level of mastery each student has reached individually. This is why we have included a nanoscience content rubric which each student will individually address through their own summary of the objectives, activities, and project. We have included all major objectives on this rubric, which requires each individual student to demonstrate their learning in the content standards and connect it to the project that their group created. If individual students do not contribute much to their group project or do not understand it, they will have difficulty explaining the objectives and making connections to the project. This will help to further reveal problems in collaboration and participation in the project. This will make up the other 50% of their grade. Students must contribute to and understand the final product for half of the grade (team), and then demonstrate that understanding for the other half (individual).
Students will be further evaluated individually on their content knowledge and final product through the nanoscience content rubric. They will be asked to explain the learning objectives (content knowledge) as well as make connections to their project and research (final product). The learning objectives are stated as the criteria, and students can demonstrate varying levels of mastery depending on their ability to explain and make connections. By requiring this of all students, they must be sure that they understand both the content and the project on an individual level in order to get full credit for their work.
The group presentation rubric is an evaluation of a team product: the solution they determine from all of their research, investigations, and data. This will comprise 50% of the grade on the project since it evaluates process skills, 21st century skills, content, and includes a final product. Content cannot just be evaluated at the team level because then you do not have a clear idea of which group members understood the objectives being addressed, and you cannot determine what level of mastery each student has reached individually. This is why we have included a nanoscience content rubric which each student will individually address through their own summary of the objectives, activities, and project. We have included all major objectives on this rubric, which requires each individual student to demonstrate their learning in the content standards and connect it to the project that their group created. If individual students do not contribute much to their group project or do not understand it, they will have difficulty explaining the objectives and making connections to the project. This will help to further reveal problems in collaboration and participation in the project. This will make up the other 50% of their grade. Students must contribute to and understand the final product for half of the grade (team), and then demonstrate that understanding for the other half (individual).