I’m looking for suggestions for formative assessments.  Do you have some unique ideas to assess students quickly and adjust instruction accordingly?
—Karen, Arizona
Formative assessments are ongoing, classroom level assessments critical to discovering what students are learning during the instructional process so we can move on (if students have learned a topic) or revisit our instruction to correct any misconceptions or to fill in any gaps. These quick and focused check-ups can provide just-in-time information on what students know or can do prior to end-of-unit tests or yearly exams.
I’m not sure I have any “unique” ideas and you may already have many activities that could be part of a formative assessment process. These can be varied so they become an integral and enjoyable part of the learning process, not just special events. Formative assessments are usually not graded to provide a safe way for students to ask questions and reflect honestly on their learning—and not be penalized for a mistake, a misconception, a question, or an incomplete understanding during the learning process. Here are some formative assessments I like:

• Frequent quick thumbs-up/down/sideways responses from students can give instant feedback during a discussion or activity. If you’re concerned this is a self-assessment, you can ask a thumbs-up student to explain briefly or use some probing questions with a thumbs-down student to find out the source of the confusion (which other students probably share, too).

• Some teachers use small white boards or half sheets of paper on which students write and display short responses and hold them up. A brief scan of the room lets you see the responses and know all students are involved. This is a low-tech version of the “clicker” systems that allow students to respond electronically for an instant check of student understanding. The advantages of the electronic system are that students may be more forthcoming is they feel their answer isn’t being broadcast to the class and you have a record of the student responses to analyze.

• In a variation of the think-pair-share strategy, students do a quick write in their notebook/journal, share their writing with a partner, and then summarize to the class. If the summaries start to sound the same after the first several ones, you can ask other teams if they have questions or anything new to add. As you listen to their summaries, you can get a feel for what students are learning, and the other students get to hear the information in different words or from a different perspective.

• Students could work on a graphic organizer or summary as a warm-up or a ticket-out-the-door activity to give you a glimpse into their thinking.

• When students are working in pairs or teams, you can walk around with a checklist of communications skills and lab behaviors or a notepad to record your observations to discuss with the class. Spend a little time with each group to observe their work, ask a few questions, or provide any clarification. This could also be a time to do a quick scan of some science notebooks.

Regardless of what activity you use for formative assessment, it’s important for students to get feedback beyond whether the response was correct or incorrect. Giving specific suggestions for improvement, asking probing or follow-up questions, encouraging the students to correct their mistakes, and helping students to self-assess their work authentically are part of the formative assessment process.
So what does a teacher do if the students didn’t get it? It may be tempting to assume they weren’t paying attention (which may be true) or to repeat the information in a louder or slower voice. But you need to have a few extra tricks up your sleeve to adjust your instruction: alternative explanations, extra practice activities (once any misunderstandings are cleared up), other visuals, additional examples and non-examples of a concept, graphic organizers, think-alouds, or alternative readings. Of course, if all the students get it, it’s okay to move on to the next part of the lesson. (Although I found sometimes their understanding was fragile and some additional assessment and review was necessary later.)
I would recommend the book Science Formative Assessment: 75 Practical Strategies for Linking Assessment, Instruction, and Learning from NSTA Press. I showed this to some of my colleagues in other subject areas, and they saw quite a few strategies that could be adapted to their subjects, too. Uncovering Student Ideas in Science, Volume 1: 25 Formative Assessment Probes (along with Volumes 2, 3, and 4), also from NSTA Press, focuses on determining what students already know about a science topic, including misconceptions.
The results of summative assessments (state tests, end-of-course exams, unit tests, or final projects) can help us make decisions about our courses and curriculum, but they don’t tell us much about which individual students are having problems or have developed misconceptions during our instruction. And by then it could be too late to go back and review or reteach.
Image from http://www.flickr.com/photos/demibrooke/2550349404/

What’s New, 2/1/2010
Here’s a quick look (with lots of links!) at what’s going on at NSTA’s online outposts:
In the NSTA online professional learning communities, we have new groups created on a variety of topics…

• Two new groups that should be of interest to conference-goers: the 2010 National Conference Group and the Shared Housing Conference Group. Presenters should start posting your handouts, attendees should start downloading session resources, and looking for roommates now!
• Our Indiana chapter, Hoosiers Association of Science Teachers (HASTI) has their conference this week, listed on the calendar. And for NSTA members out there, there has been a terrific conversation on our listservs about Indiana geology!

At the NSTA Learning Center, check out this Wednesday’s Web Seminar: Engineer Your Life: Spark Girls? Interest in Engineering.
On our “core site” (www.nsta.org): everyone’s gearing up for our National Conference on Science Education this March 17–21 in Philadelphia. Write your own declaration of independence and join your fellow educators this March in Philadelphia!
On Facebook, the discussion about teachers and technology has been re-energized, and we’ve created an event for the National Conference.
On Linkedin, you can now find a jobs subgroup, that re-posts all of the listings on the NSTA Career Center.
And of course all our science educator Tweeps are tweeting and re-tweeting about our Philadelphia conference!
Renew Your Membership!
Now is the time to insure that you don’t miss a single journal issue or one minute of the time you use to network and build professional connections here in these online communiities. Click the link above to renew your membership and insure that NSTA stays in your corner for your science education career!

A new series for a major cable network is searching for college students who are always inventing things and building things. If you know any smart, creative, and talented students who have a flair for science and engineering, please share this announcement with them. Ideal candidates should be freshmen or sophomores and have a couple of  friends who also share their passion for inventing. “However, as long as you are a student and an inventor, we want to hear from you! Think along the lines of the movies Weird Science and Real Genius,” says the casting director.
If you or someone you know is interested, please answer the following questions and e-mail them to mb2casting@yahoo.com by February 14:

1. Name, age, and name of college/university you attend
2. What year are you in, and what are you studying?
3. What types of things have you invented or created or are currently working on?
4. Do you invent alone, or do you work with a partner or group of people?

Please send a picture along with contact info (phone and e-mail).

My ninth grade students enjoy labs, but my colleagues say I do too many and the students aren’t learning anything. How many labs should I do each week?
—Carolyn, Billings, Montana
I’m curious as to what you mean by “labs.” Some teachers use the word lab to describe a variety of activities from investigations and experiments to cookbook demonstrations, small-group discussions, simulations, group writing assignments, laptop activities—anything students do in groups in science class. While all of these activities can be useful learning strategies, let’s assume you are referring to inquiry-based investigations and experiments.
NSTA’s position statement on Scientific Inquiry states, “Scientific inquiry is a powerful way of understanding science content. Students learn how to ask questions and use evidence to answer them. In the process of learning the strategies of scientific inquiry, students learn to conduct an investigation and collect evidence from a variety of sources, develop an explanation from the data, and communicate and defend their conclusions.”

Although you do not have to justify your choice of learning activities (or their frequency) to your colleagues, you may want to reflect on what you’re doing for your own professional piece of mind. While considering your activities, it may be helpful to parse the above position statement. Do your labs help students to

• understand science content—the processes and “big ideas” as well as facts and concepts;
• ask questions (not just answer ones that someone else asks);
• design and conduct various types of investigations, depending on the questions;
• collect and organize their evidence (data);
• analyze the evidence to develop an explanation; or
• communicate and defend their conclusions?

This is a lot to expect of students; they need guidance and modeling tailored to their level of experience. I had the opportunity to work with a middle school teacher who scaffolded the inquiry process for her students. She kept the unit’s “big idea” posted in the classroom and made sure to refer to it during every activity (lab or otherwise) to keep the students focused on the content. When she asked students for questions to investigate, she added a few of her own as a model. She guided the students through a discussion of how the experiment was designed and how the design related to the question (after experiencing various types of investigations, they took over more of the design process). She monitored them as they did the procedure and collected data, and she assisted or intervened when necessary. She worked with the students as they reviewed their data and determined  if their evidence answered the questions, and discussed why it did or did not. During the process, the students recorded the data and their conclusions in their notebooks. The teacher recognized this was a time-consuming process, but she was confident they were learning (and the assessment results supported this conclusion).
I really don’t have a numeric answer to your question. Regarding the number of activities, for scientific inquiry the quality of the activities is more important than the quantity. Doing an activity for the sake of doing an activity without any follow-up or reflection may lead to the second concern about what the students are actually learning and whether they truly understand the concepts. I attended a workshop with a middle school teacher who remarked, “I keep my students so busy they don’t have time to think.” I still wonder what—if anything—they learned.
Image from http://www.flickr.com/photos/jimmiehomeschoolmom/3423116

Science activities with two-year-olds may not last very long but sometimes the children surprise me. One group of four children spent about 15 minutes exploring a set of cardboard tubes with ends covered with either clear plastic wrap, wax paper, or a double layer of black plastic (black construction paper would also work). We looked through the tubes and talked about what we saw— could we see through them? Then I put out small flashlights. Exploration took off!

The twos tried each tube, comparing how much they could see through the material and how much light from the flashlight came through.
The children learned to turn the flashlights on and off, and found out they could hide the flashlights inside two tubes. We talked about being safe by never shining a flashlight into our own or anyone else’s eyes. As children proposed explorations we tried out their ideas. The tiny bathroom really can fit two teachers and four children! The children moved the lights closer and farther away from the wall, noticing how the size of the light beam grew bigger and smaller. One child asked, “Are these toys or are they science?” I said, “They are both, toys and science” which seemed to be an acceptable answer.
Peggy

NSTA Press author Richard Konicek-Moran has always been challenged and inspired by what he calls Everyday Science Mysteries, those events you stumble on that make you ponder “why on Earth….” or “what could that be?”  Dick cleverly captures and shares in his books the wonderful ways teachers can turn those everyday mysteries into teaching opportunities.  When he’s not writing new books for NSTA Press, Dick and his wife, Kathleen, travel between their Massachusetts home and their home in Florida, where they volunteer in the Everglades. Dick’s new blog takes readers inside his Everglades experience. Check out his recent posts on how the January cold snap in Florida is affecting that complex ecosystem.  And visit NSTA’s Science Store to preview Dick Konicek-Moran’s newest volume in the book series, Even More Everyday Science Mysteries: Stories for Inquiry-Based Science Teaching. We’ve posted a free chapter from the new book as a preview:  See “Here’s the Crusher,” an everyday mystery related to air pressure.

To help students understand this month’s earthquake in Haiti, the Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology has compiled a set of resources called Recent Earthquake Teachable Moments. These include links to animations and visualizations, presentations, news releases, and other materials for students and teachers to explore seismology within the context of current activity. These resources are updated frequently. There is a list of resources in Spanish, too. If you’re interested in more information, activities, and visuals on earthquakes in general, be sure to use SciLinks for a list of dozens of resources, organized by grade level. Use the keyword “earthquake.”
Looking ahead to next month, the Winter Games begin in Vancouver on February 12. The National Science Foundation and NBC Learn have collaborated to create The Science of the Olympic Games. This 16-part video series explores the scientific principles affecting how Olympic athletes perform, including gravity, friction, velocity, acceleration, drag, and resistance. The videos include Figuring Out Figure Skating, Slapshot Physics: Hockey, The Science of Snowboarding, Air Lift: Ski Jump, and Banking on Speed: Bobsled. Each video is about five minutes long, and there’s even one on friction and curling! For additional websites on science and sports, check out SciLinks. Use the keyword “sports” for grades 5-8 and 9-12. The the topic “Energy and Sports” includes Sport Science from the Exploratorium Museum (with sections on baseball, skateboarding, surfboarding, hockey, and cycling). And if you’re ready for some warmer activity, use the SciLinks keyword “surfing” for sites on the Science of Surfing.