Category: Videos

Handouts are available below

 

Big Idea

What’s the best pro-d you had in 2022? Today, I want to share the best pro-d I’ve had this year regarding assessment – specifically, standards based assessment. And, this was all done without hiring an expert or speaker or quietly sitting through another workshop. However, you will need the company of a few colleagues. Long story short, the best pro-d regarding assessment I had this year had my colleagues and I discussing case studies, marking assignments and tests together, and sharing and discussing our resources.

 

 

3 Activities to do for Pro-D on Assessment

Number 1:  Discuss case studies. Here’s one we discussed on our last pro-d day:

 

“James is in your class and he’s missed a lot of classes this term. As a result, James has numerous missing assignments and tests this term. Furthermore, many of his absences are unexcused. If James shows up at the end of the term and demonstrates his learning on the alternate, “make-up” assignments created by you, would you assess James as “Proficient” or “Extending” this term for his curricular standards? Why?”

 

The case study above is based on something we’ve all probably experienced as science teachers – a student coming in at the end of term, scrambling to get marks in, and that’s what’s so great about case studies because they’re authentic and we’ve all had our own ways of dealing with those same issues which makes for great discussion and learning. I’ve come up with some more science focused ones in our handouts below.

 

Number 2:  Mark something together. For example, with my department, I gave colleagues a copy of a student’s final exam – the written portion – and asked colleagues to mark each response using a 4 point proficiency scale from emerging, developing, proficient, and extending. Turns out, we didn’t all agree that number 6 was a proficient response or number 2 was a developing one. However, we were within one level of each other, which good enough because the point of this exercise is to show whether or not we are similar in what we’re looking for in a response. If I say a response is an extending response while another colleague says it’s a proficient one, then that’s all good – we’re close enough. However, if I say a response is an extending response while another colleague says it’s a developing one, then that’s something we should discuss and hash out.

 

Number 3:  Share and discuss sample work. During our last meeting during our pro-d day, I asked department members to bring two different tests or assignments that were used to assess two different science standards. One colleague brought a test and talked about how the extended response questions were used to assess application, while another colleague shared a project that was also used to assess application. And, I shared a project as well and how it assessed application too. What’s interesting is how we assess application through such different contexts and real examples. What does extending or proficient look like on an extended response question or in my project or my colleague’s project? That’s something that could definitely push my practice forward.

 

Thanks for reading, and we’ll talk science again soon.

 

 

Resources

 

Handout(s): Standards Based Assessment Case Studies in Science Ed.

 

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Handouts are available below

 

Big Idea

How do you assess work habits? It sounds like a simple thing to do – we think we know good work habits when we see it – but what does it look like? Today, I’m sharing some things my colleagues have shared on how I can improve assessing work habits. Long story short, I can use work habit rubrics, provide different ways for students to demonstrate work habits, and conference with individual students to better understand what success looks like for them.

 

 

Strategies in Assessing Work Habits

Number 1: Use a rubric to assess work habits. Below is one from a high school in BC. The rubric shows that work habits include attendance and punctuality, preparedness, responsibility, and initiative and it goes further to explain what good, satisfactory, and needs improvement would look like for each category. I would be responsible for letting my students know about this rubric at the beginning of term so they know what I’m looking for. One colleague suggested I develop a work habits rubric with my classes instead of using one that is already pre-made. This would do double duty: let students know what is being assessed in work habits while also giving students voice as to what should be assessed.

 

Number 2: Give a greater diversity of practices students can do to demonstrate work habits. For example, an English teacher at my school has students come in during flex time to get help with and work on essay drafts. This colleague counts this as work habits because it demonstrates ownership of work and an interest to put in the work to improve. This could translate into my science class with regards to the engineering and design projects I give students. For example, right now, some of my students are working on a bath bombs project – where they’re tinkering with the formulations to achieve a specific result. In the same way as my colleague who teaches English, I could open up my room during flex time to allow students to work on or get help with their bath bomb formulations too before the project is due. This is not something that I would traditionally be able to measure if I were just checking for completion of assignments.

 

Number 3: Conference with students to reevaluate what success looks like to each student. A colleague who works in the special ed program mentioned that, for some kids, getting to school is a huge win. Perhaps, that can be recognized in their work habit. Thus, in my mind, I’m seeing that work habits are flexible – they can be evaluated against a rubric, but also adapted for individual cases. But, this would need me to know the student, what they’re struggling with, and what they’re doing to overcome it.

 

Thanks for reading, and we’ll talk science again soon.

 

 

Resources

 

Handout(s): Work Habits Rubric – Burnaby North Secondary

 

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Handouts are available below

 

Big Idea

In my last post, I spoke about how I’m using Standards Based Assessment (or SBA) with my classes. Thanks to Kirstin Laird-Osterhout on Facebook, who posted “Thanks! Any tips for a district that still uses letter grades and percentages?” Today, I’m sharing how I’m using SBA with my Physics 11 and 12 classes while still reporting a letter grade and percentage for each student. Long story short, I’ve had to change the weighting system I use for grades, use my professional judgment to develop a scale that converts proficiencies to percentages, and conference with students more regularly.

 

 

Converting Standards Based Assessment to Percentages

Number 1: Change traditional grade or mark distribution from tests and assignments to proficiency in standards. For example, for my Physics 12 class, before SBA, student mark distribution was based on 20% labs and assignments and 80% tests and quizzes. Now, with SBA, student mark distribution is weighted equally across the 5 standards (process and analyze, communication, evaluation, apply and innovate, question and predict). By giving equal weight to all the standards, I am saying that all aspects – like scientific thinking, planning and conducting experiments, communicating scientific ideas using words, etc. – are equally important in Physics and not just the calculations or a handful of other things that appear on tests.

 

Number 2: Use professional judgment to develop a conversion scale that converts proficiencies in standards to percentages. For me, at the end of term, I give an overall proficiency for each standard. Then, I look over all the standards and convert this to a percentage. To me, a student who is proficient across all standards is a high B student (approximately 84%). A student who is extending in all areas is a high A (approximately 98%) student. A student who is developing across all areas is a high C+ student (approximately 70%). For students who are in between (for example, have some proficient and some extending), they would be a low to mid- A student (between 88% to 94%).

 

Number 3: Conference with students regularly when doing SBA. Conferencing allows me to clarify to students how they can improve to progress to the next proficiency level. Conferencing also allows students to reflect upon their own learning. For example, I’ve had students write a reflection for me at the end of term about their own learning – where they’re strong, where they’ve improved, and where they need to continue to work on. I also ask students to write down what percentage they feel they’ve achieved based on the proficiency scales and my conversion tables. And if I’ve done a good job communicating throughout the term about proficiencies and what to demonstrate at each level, students should be able to come up with a percentage on their own that is pretty close to what I would have assigned for them.

 

Thanks for reading, and we’ll talk science again soon.

 

 

Resources

 

Handout(s): Proficiencies to Percentages – Sample Conversions

 

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Handouts are available below

Big Idea

I’ve been doing standards based assessment – also known as standards based grading – with my classes for the past 4 years. Today, I want to share a few things I’ve learned in doing Standards Based Assessment (or SBA, for short). Long story short, SBA has changed my practice for the better and it’s because it’s made what I do in my practice more intentional and more explicit and it’s given students more opportunities to practice science skills.

 

Things I Learned Doing Standards-Based Assessment

Number 1: I need to be more intentional with how I assess students. For example, how do my tests assess science standards? And, how many test questions do I need to ask before I can say a student is developing or proficient or extending? One thing I started doing was reformatting my tests so that I categorized questions by the standard or skill I was assessing. Looking back on my tests forced me to review the questions I asked, to take out the ones that didn’t assess standards, and to create some new questions that did.

As a result, my tests are now shorter and more efficient. Before SBA, my tests generally had 20 to 30 multiple choice, true/false and short answer questions. Now, I have roughly 7 to 9 questions per test.

Number 2: I need to be more explicit with my rubrics. I use a lot of rubrics to assess extended response questions and assignments, and I need to constantly make clear to myself and students what students should be able to demonstrate at an emerging, developing, proficient, or extending proficiency level. For example, the BC ministry of education says that a student who is proficient can provide a complete response to a questions while a student who is extending can provide a sophisticated response. But, what’s the difference between a complete, proficient answer and a sophisticated, extending one? What does that look like? When I started doing SBA with my classes, I had to invest time into defining and redefining my rubrics and then communicating these to my students. But, once I ironed it all out, students had a better understanding of how to get from proficient to extending because the differences were now made clearer.

Number #3: I need to set up more opportunities for students to practice using the rubrics. This means that if I’m going to have a question on a test that has students write a prediction, then I’m going to need to give students an opportunity to write a prediction and evaluate it against the rubric I’m using. 

An awesome benefit to this practice is that it makes it easier for me to mark test questions because both my students and I know what to look for in a developing, proficient or extending response.

Thanks for reading, and we’ll talk science again soon.

Resources

Handout(s): Starting Your Standards Based Assessment Journey

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Handouts are available below

 

Big Idea

Here’s another lab I’ve done with my students for the past few years that not only has them practice a useful lab skill – in this case, finding volume using water displacement – it also gets students to practice CER, which stands for Claim Evidence and Reasoning. This lab doesn’t need anything elaborate or complicated – all this lab needs is a ruler, a graduated cylinder, some cubes and prisms and, perhaps, an overflow can if you can get your hands on one.

 

The activity is made up of 1 big question I want students to investigate and answer: which way of measuring volume – direct measurement, water displacement, or overflow cans – gives the most accurate measurement and which one the least?

 

 

Activity: 3 Ways to Find Volume, Practice CER

Before the activity, I go over with students how to find the volume of regular shaped and irregular shaped objects using direct measurement and water displacement. I also show students how to use overflow cans, which is kind of fun if you can find them. An overflow can works similar to the water displacement method with a graduated cylinder. When setting up the overflow can, I first fill it up to the top and let water flow out the straw. When water stops flowing out, it’s ready to use. Now, when an item is dropped in, the volume of that object will cause the water level to rise and water will flow down the straw. I collect and measure the volume of water that overflowed, and this volume of water is equal to the volume of the object dropped in.

 

For the activity itself, students are given 3 or 4 regularly shaped objects and then asked to find the volume of the objects by using direct measurement, water displacement, and the overflow cans. I get students to fill out a table that looks like this. To answer the lab question, I get students to write a CER statement – complete with evidence and sound explanations. Students need to look at each measurement made for each object and consider which one is closest to the real volume. There is no one agreed upon answer. Some students say water displacement is most accurate because everything is contained in the cylinder, while others will say direct measurement is most accurate because you can make more precise measurements for each side. Some students say water displacement is least accurate because the water inside the graduated cylinder can splash out, while others say the overflow cans are least accurate because the droplets may not all drip down. The great thing is, there are many answers that can be made and we’re having students practice justifying their answers.

 

That’s how I’m doing it this year and it’s still a work in progress. How do you do it? Please email me a strategy or two – I’m interested to know. 

 

Thanks for reading, and we’ll talk science again soon.

 

Resources

 

Handout(s): Handout – Finding Volume and Practicing CER

 

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Handouts are available below

 

Big Idea

A great question will get students to connect and apply science in creative ways. I get a lot of positive feedback on my test questions, and since many teachers are having difficulty finding good extended response questions to use, in this post, I’m sharing 4 types of extended response questions I use on my tests so that you might make a few of your own.

 

Long story short, on my tests and quizzes, I use the following types of extended response questions: (1) the Competing theories question, (2) The Show and Tell question, (3) The Multiverse Question, and/or (4) The Analogous task question.

 

Type 1:  Competing Theories

In a competing theories question, students are given a theory and then asked if they agree or disagree with the theory. Or, they’re given 2 different theories explaining the same phenomenon and asked which one they agree with. Students need to tell me (a) whether they agree or disagree, (b) why they agree or disagree, and (c) to provide a counter example or an alternate explanation. Download the handout below for a sample Competing Theories question.

 

Type 2: Show and Tell

In a Show and tell question, students are asked to predict a trend. In their response, students need to first graph out their trend and then write a proper hypothesis statement that includes an If, then, because, and however statement.  Download the handout below for a sample Show and Tell question.

 

Type 3: Multiverse

In a Multiverse question, students are asked to solve a problem using what they’ve learned in class while following the rules of an alternate reality. In their response, students need to draw connections with what they learned in science class to the alternate reality. Download the handout below for a sample Multiverse question.

 

Type 4: Analogous Task

In an Analogous Task question, students perform a task that is similar to the idea or process behind a scientific tool or discovery we’ve addressed in class. In their response, students need to explain what they’ve created using scientific concepts covered in class. Download the handout below for a sample Analogous Task question.

 

That’s how I’m doing it this year and it’s still a work in progress. How do you do it? Please email me a strategy or two – I’m interested to know. 

 

Thanks for reading, and we’ll talk science again soon.

 

Resources

 

Handout(s): Handout – 4 Types of Extended Response

 

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Handouts are available below

 

Big Idea

Building and testing paper airplanes is one of those simple activities I know many science teachers do to teach scientific method and that students of all ages can do. Today, I want to share what I’m doing with the paper airplane project with my students to get MORE out of them – more creativity and more opportunities for learning – because the paper airplane experiment is a great opportunity to use Design thinking and test things rapidly.

 

Long story short, to get more out of students on this project, I set limits to the project, make prototyping a requirement, and assess and assign marks to the process. Today, I want to share the 3 things I’m doing to teach CER (Claim Evidence Reasoning) this year. 

 

First: Set Limits to the Paper Airplane Activity

One way to get students to be more creative about their paper airplane projects is to set limits. Some of the limits I set are taken from the Red Bull Paper Airplane Competition, which include (1) folding a paper plane on the day of the competition with paper that I supply, (2) only folds are allowed – no glue, tape, or cuts are allowed, and (3) throwing the plane down a hallway and releasing the plane behind the starting line. These limits force students to be more creative with their designs – especially since they can’t tape or cut their planes, they’ll need to experiment with folds. And, students need to be more creative with their throwing – especially since the hallway has a low ceiling, students can’t just throw their planes like they would a baseball outdoors.

 

Next: Make Prototyping a Requirement

Another thing I do is require students to create and test multiple prototypes over two or three weeks. In Design Thinking, this is known as rapid prototyping. Through rapid prototyping, students really get to understand the problems with their planes and to develop a greater number of and better solutions to these problems. Having students make just one plane or giving students just one period or one day to complete the project is simply not enough time for students to do a deep dive into what makes a paper airplane fly far. We don’t want a student to make just any paper plane – which tends to happen if we just require one prototype. Requiring 3 or 4 prototypes gets students to try new ideas, fail at some of them, and learn from their failures.

 

Finally: Assess the Process

I assign marks to assess the process. For example, if I want students to make one prototype a week, I assess each of my students’ prototypes. I record how far the first prototype built on week 1 went and I compare that measurement to how far the 2nd prototype built in week 2 went. I assess or improvement. If there’s 25% improvement, students get an emerging mark (or 1 out of 4 if you’re using numbers), if there’s 50% improvement, then it’s developing, 75% is proficient, 100% is extending. This assessment prevents students from just constructing anything for their prototypes and requires them to put some real attention on their prototypes, which will only help make the final product better. I also require students to write a brief report for each prototype, and I assess the distance that their final paper planes travel. In all, I have at least 5 marks taken from this project, and those marks are directly related to science and engineering practices.

 

That’s how I’m doing it this year and it’s still a work in progress. How do you do it? Please email me a strategy or two – I’m interested to know. 

 

Thanks for reading, and we’ll talk science again soon.

 

 

Resources

 

Handout(s): Handout – Paper Airplane Activity

 

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Handouts are available below

 

Big Idea

Today, I want to share this resource with you – an activity I’ve been using every year for the past 18 years of teaching. It’s an activity that teaches students about Mendeleev’s Periodic table. If you’re looking for an activity that teaches students that elements on the periodic table are grouped vertically by similar properties, this worksheet is for you.

 

But First…

A big thank you to the person who created this activity, which I copied and pasted onto a worksheet. I found it online 20 years ago during my practicum – in the early days of Google and before we could download files easily. And, I’ve been using it every year since I’ve been employed. Even my practicum advisor, who still teaches in the classroom beside me, uses it as well as other Chemistry teachers in the school. It’s that good. So, thank you, person or person(s) who created this – unfortunately, I never got your names.

 

Mendeleev’s Periodic Table Activity

As for the activity itself, there is a front and back side of this worksheet. On the back side, there’s a partially complete periodic table. The periodic table is vertically grouped by properties. For example, column one has lithium, sodium, and potassium. And, if we look at the properties, lithium is a soft metal, a good conductor, and reacts with water. Looking down at sodium, we see the same, and the same for potassium as well. There are also blanks on this periodic table – and so did Mendeleev’s table. That’s why Mendeleev’s table was so amazing – it left blanks that predicted other elements. On the front side, there’s a table of unknown elements A, B, C, D, etc., and we place these unknowns onto the table. We do so by looking at the properties of each unknown and seeing which vertical column those properties would match with. For example, G is a solid that is soft, a good conductor, and explodes in water. That sounds like it belongs in the same column as sodium, potassium, and lithium. However, which blank would it be? To determine that, we can look at trends – for example, the melting point of each metal seems to decrease as we move down the column. Thus, the unknown with the same properties as the other elements in this list and with the lowest melting point would be at the bottom. That’s what I like about the worksheet as well: small trends that students need to observe. Students usually take about 5-10 minutes to complete and then we discuss.

 

If you’ve tried or am trying this with your colleagues, please email me and let me know! 

 

Thanks for reading, and we’ll talk science again soon.

 

Resources

 

Handout(s): Mendeleev’s Periodic Table Activity

 

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Handouts are available below

Big Idea

How many science teachers are guilty of asking this question: what is science at some point – probably at the beginning – of the school year? I know I am. There’s nothing wrong with that question. But, what if we could ask the same question in a different way so that we can generate a more thoughtful discussion?

 

Getting the Discussion Going

To get students thinking about science, I first give students some ad slogans and have them guess the company. For example, “The Happiest Place on Earth” is Disneyland; “Just Do it” is Nike; and, “What’s in Your Wallet” is Capital One.

 

However, I also spend a bit of time deciphering cleaver slogans, like this one “Move the Way You Want”. Take a guess as to which company it’s from. Most kids guess it’s a company that makes shoes or cars or fitness accessories like FitBit. This slogan, though, is for Uber. It’s cleaver because Uber’s app does make it extremely easy to not just get to book a ride to get from one place to another but also to schedule a time, to add multiple stops, to split fares – the app really is the way it says moving around the way I want.

 

Then, I get students to imagine that they are a marketing firm that has come up with a slogan for a company and that the slogan is “the sweet science.” I ask them to write down (a) what company would this slogan for? And (b) why does sweet science fit the company? What does “sweet” or “science” refer to in the company?

 

For example, imagine eharmony – the sweet science. How is eharmony sweet Or or science? Or Reebok – the sweet science. How is Reebok sweet or science?

 

Give students 5 minutes to discuss in pairs and come up with 2 companies to apply the slogan to and why. Then, have groups merge with another group to decide on 2 ideas to share.

 

As for ideas, a lot if my students applied “the sweet science” slogan to companies that make food, dessert, cake, coffee or frappuccinos. For example, Starbucks literally makes sweet drinks and they use science in experimenting with ingredients of different flavor profiles in order to produce the sweet drinks that customers enjoy . Other suggestions that weren’t so literal included dating apps like Tinder and tech companies like Apple Computer products.

 

I write out student answers on the board – along with what science and sweet refers to for each company. And, the key thing I point out to students is that science is not so much a subject but a process or action. For Tinder, science is in the processes and algorithms used to match people. For cakes and sweets, science is in mixing and the chemical and physical interactions between ingredients. Science is an action – a doing – and not a subject

 

Where does “The Sweet Science” Come From?

I wrap up by talking about what “the sweet science” actually refers to. The term “the sweet science” was coined in the 1800s to refer to sport of boxing. The science of boxing refers to the strategy a fighter uses against their opponent. As for why boxing is “sweet”, I think it’s because seeing a good boxer is like seeing an artist paint. It’s effortless looking and flowing. It’s sweet. Just like when we see Steph Curry drain 3 pointer or Rafael Nadal make a backhand. However, I want to re-emphasize than even in boxing, the science is in process. It’s an action and not a specific item.

 

If you’ve tried or am trying this with your colleagues, please email me and let me know! 

 

Thanks for reading, and we’ll talk science again soon.

 

Resources

 

Handout(s): How My Students Use Ad Slogans to Discuss, What is Science?  

 

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Handouts are available below

Big Idea

Today, I’m talking about the one thing we don’t talk about as teachers – the one thing we should be talking about. And, I’m sharing what I did with my department to get us started talking about this one thing. This is all inspired by a book I am currently reading called Grading for Equity by Joe Feldman.

One thing that Feldman mentions in his book that stuck with me was the fact that grading is important and yet we rarely talk about it. As a result, we end up having teachers who teach the same course but assessing it very differently. Now, some teachers may say that that’s just the way it is because every teacher teaches differently or stresses different things. But, from a student or parent perspective, having part of a student’s mark dependent on which teacher they get isn’t fair- a student’s mark should be a reflection of the student’s ability alone. And, each student should have an equal opportunity to achieve the same mark regardless of whose classroom they’re in.

Getting the Discussion Going

So, to get teachers talking about grading, I developed this worksheet called What is the Purpose of Grading. It’s got 6 statements on it, and these statements come directly from Feldman’s book. For example, one purpose of grading that Feldman mentions is to motivate students.

On this worksheet, I had my department members circle whether they strongly agree, slightly agree, slightly disagree, or strongly disagree with each statement. Then, I had teachers rank each purpose from most to least important.

We briefly went over the statements on the worksheet as a group. For the most part, people agreed and disagreed on the same points. But, it really didn’t matter what we wrote because this worksheet was just a springboard for us to start thinking about grading.

Follow Up Discussion

My follow-up question generated the biggest discussion: How do we make sure grading is equitable between classes – especially between courses taught by multiple teachers? Consider the following: if one educator views grading as a way to motivate students, then he/she may be more inclined to give bonus marks or completion marks for homework; and, as a result, that teacher may have grades that are lower or higher than a teacher who doesn’t view grading homework the same way.

I got some strong opinions from my department members for the follow up question. Some said it’s not possible. Some said it’s possible if we assessed competencies or skills instead of content. Some asked whether it was more for lower grades but not so in higher grades or vice versa. We didn’t finish our conversation – we only had 10 minutes for this activity, but it got people thinking about how they assessed and it primed us for future discussions.

If you’ve tried or am trying this with your colleagues, please email me and let me know! 

Thanks for reading, and we’ll talk science again soon.

Resources

Handout(s): Handout – What is the Purpose of Grading? 

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