"Assessment Analysis”
As my CM and I co-planned our unit on the chemistry of biology, we decided to try using a stations activity to teach the students about the chemistry of water. I believe that the use of group activities is one way to stimulate science-based discussion among students, as long as the teacher can provide structure for and constantly monitor the conversations occurring within student groups. Discussion is essential to all aspects of scientific inquiry: discussion of observations that lead to scientific investigations, discussion of methods used in the scientific research process, discussion of the data generated during research, and discussion of the potential implications for research findings. Indeed, as Olson and Loucks-Horsley (2000) note,
“Teachers of science [must] develop communities of science learners that reflect the intellectual rigor of scientific inquiry and the attitudes and social
values conducive to science learning. In doing this, teachers [must] … nurture collaboration among students [and] structure and facilitate ongoing
formal and informal discussion based on a shared understanding of rules of scientific discourse” (p. 23).
Thus, I organized a stations activity to help students discover the important properties of water. I hoped that our carefully crafted and detailed activity worksheet would guide students through the scientific inquiry process of making predictions, following procedures, recording observations, and discussing the stations, all with the more general goal of learning the lesson content and objectives. At the end of the three-day activity, I collected student worksheets as a means to formatively assess where the students were at in their understanding of the chemistry of water.
I also had the students revisit the water stations activity on their most recent summative exam (looking at student understanding of basic chemistry principles and the chemistry of water). This summative exam began with 30 multiple-choice questions and ended with 4 short answer questions. We required students to answer 2 out of the 4 short answer questions; they could choose which two to answer. If they answered a 3rd question, then this question would count for 5 extra credit points. One of the short answer questions was as follows:
33. Water is awesome! Explain some of the properties that make water a unique molecule. To guide your answer, think about the most interesting
stations from the water stations activity. Be sure to describe the observations you made at the stations and properties of water that explained what
you saw.
After analyzing exam results for my class, I discovered that 22 out of my 31 students decided to answer this question. 12 out of the 22 students who answered this question described specific examples from the water stations lab:
Student #1:
“Teachers of science [must] develop communities of science learners that reflect the intellectual rigor of scientific inquiry and the attitudes and social
values conducive to science learning. In doing this, teachers [must] … nurture collaboration among students [and] structure and facilitate ongoing
formal and informal discussion based on a shared understanding of rules of scientific discourse” (p. 23).
Thus, I organized a stations activity to help students discover the important properties of water. I hoped that our carefully crafted and detailed activity worksheet would guide students through the scientific inquiry process of making predictions, following procedures, recording observations, and discussing the stations, all with the more general goal of learning the lesson content and objectives. At the end of the three-day activity, I collected student worksheets as a means to formatively assess where the students were at in their understanding of the chemistry of water.
I also had the students revisit the water stations activity on their most recent summative exam (looking at student understanding of basic chemistry principles and the chemistry of water). This summative exam began with 30 multiple-choice questions and ended with 4 short answer questions. We required students to answer 2 out of the 4 short answer questions; they could choose which two to answer. If they answered a 3rd question, then this question would count for 5 extra credit points. One of the short answer questions was as follows:
33. Water is awesome! Explain some of the properties that make water a unique molecule. To guide your answer, think about the most interesting
stations from the water stations activity. Be sure to describe the observations you made at the stations and properties of water that explained what
you saw.
After analyzing exam results for my class, I discovered that 22 out of my 31 students decided to answer this question. 12 out of the 22 students who answered this question described specific examples from the water stations lab:
Student #1:
Student #2:
Student #3:
Student #4:
I found the variation in responses interesting. Some students gave very structured and detailed answers to the question, as exemplified by the work of student #1 and student #2 above. These students defined properties of water, named the activity at which they saw these properties demonstrated, and clearly described how this property of water resulted in the phenomena they witnessed. Other students gave somewhat less complete answers, as exemplified by the work of student #3 and student #4. It seems that these students could recall the vocabulary and the specific observations associated at certain stations, but they had trouble clearly connecting how the properties of water resulted in the observations they made.