Assessment can be conducted in several ways.

 

• To score assessments with open-ended responses, you will need to use a rubric. It is important that you review your students' responses before you establish your assessment rubric. A quick review will usually make it possible for you to create three stacks of papers: those that exceed expectations, those that meet expectations, and those that do not meet expectations. You will have some papers that are "fence sitters", making it difficult to determine where they belong. As you make a closer examination of the three groups of student work, list the things that define each group. With this information, you should now be able to determine where your "fence sitters" go and you should have a rubric for continued development.

• If you have challenged the students to design and conduct a scientific investigation or experiment, you may want to use and/or modify one of the following rubrics. NOTE: It may be wise to share the rubric with your students before they begin so that they have a clear understanding of what is expected of them and how their work will be graded.

If you do not have it already, download Acrobat Reader in order to view the first two rubrics. This file can be read and printed on virtually any platform -- Macintosh, Windows, or Unix. You can download the Acrobat player for free from Adobe. For Netscape users, you'll want to use the Acrobat plug-in that makes viewing Acrobat files a snap!

MULTIPLE CHOICE ASSESSMENTS

• AIR QUALITY EXPERIMENT Available to download as a PDF file.

• HOT ROCKS Available to download as a PDF file.

• SURFACE TEMPERATURES Available to download as a PDF file.

• VEERING PATH STUDY Available to download as a PDF file.

• SCHOOLYARD SOUNDS Available to download as a PDF file.