“I don’t have many grades for this quarter, so I better give a few quizzes soon.” “I don’t have time for assessments – just let me teach.” I’m sure we’ve heard comments such as these (or thought them ourselves) in the faculty room. Both of these comments show a possible disconnect between assessment and student learning. The era of NCLB has us focused on summative assessments – those state level or end-of-year tests that can help us to make decisions about our courses and curriculum (assuming we look at the results!). But the articles in this issue, address formative assessments – the ongoing, classroom level assessments that are critical to knowing what students are learning during the instructional process so that we can move on (if they have learned a topic) or refocus the lesson to correct any misconceptions or fill in any gaps. Quizzes, lab reports, checklists, homework, quick writes, clicker systems, or “thumbs-up” can all be forms of formative assessment, assuming we provide feedback to the students. Providing timely and specific feedback to the students from these assessments has been identified in the research (see Marzano’s work What Works in Schools) as an effective way of enhancing student achievement. I’ve seen morphs of the word, such as informative or transformative that describe the effects that using these assessments can have on learning and instruction.
This issue of Science and Children relates to the January issue of Science Scope, which also considered the topic of assessments. There are lots of resources on assessment (use assessment as a keyword in SciLinks, – many of the sites address the issue of content area reading, too) and NSTA has some great books on formative assessments in science, including Science Formative Assessment: 75 Practical Strategies for Linking Assessment, Instruction, and Learning and Uncovering Student Ideas in Science: 25 Formative Assessment Probes. These are both excellent!
The authors of Assessing Children’s Career Aspirations invite you and your students to participate in a research project. While this type of assessment does not provide feedback on what students are learning from your lessons, it does provide insights into how your students perceive themselves and their futures. The study consists of an interview protocol and a sheet to tally your class summary. Even if you don’t submit the summary, it would be interesting to use the data to address some questions: Is there a difference between girls and boys in their aspirations? Are their differences between students of various socio-economic levels? Do student have realistic perceptions of various careers? Is there a difference in how students at different grade levels respond? (You’d need to have several teacher participate, and working on this project would be a neat introduction to action research as professional development.) If your school does a “Career Day,” the adults could use the protocol as a starting point for their discussions, too. The due date for the survey results is October 2008, so you could do this in September with your new class as a little individual time with each student! For more information on careers, you can also go to SciLinks and enter Careers as a key word. The sites here include descriptions of specific careers and examples of scientists at work.
The Elementary Students’ Science Beliefs Test is not exactly a test, but rather a tool for learning what your students know, think they know, or don’t know about 24 ideas in science. The authors describe a project in which they used the online version with students in grades 3, 4, and 5, including a summary of the results. (I wonder what scores adults would have!) They did describe some issues, including the reading level of the instrument. I took at look at it, and it would also require some computer savvy on the part of the students, especially the part where they type in an explanation of their responses. I could see a teacher using a “clicker” system to gather student responses while reading the questions and perhaps getting some oral feedback on the explanations. According to the website, the instrument is for students under 18, so it might be interesting to try with older students, too. Perhaps as a pre and post for an intermediate or middle school?
This is such an important topic, that I’ll consider more at another time!

—From the NSTA Learning Center

Continuing education is an important part of any job or profession, to stay current on new techniques, legal requirements, and advanced topics. It was impossible to learn as undergraduates everything we need to know today, especially on content or strategies that didn’t exist then! (Yes, my undergrad days included slide rules, library card catalogs with actual cards, and hard-bound textbooks – no laptops, Internet, or calculators in those good ol’ days!).
We science teachers have two fields that require continuing education – teaching practices and science content. In my school district, it was easy for our committee to plan professional development in teaching practices. Topics such as cooperative learning, assessment, classroom management, technology, curriculum design, questioning strategies, and reading/writing in the content areas applied to virtually all of the subject areas. But science content was another issue. For the 4.5 of us who taught secondary biology/life science, it was difficult (and costly) to find facilitators to provide workshops or seminars on specific science topics for just a few teachers. The local colleges did not have many content courses that were appropriate for teachers to keep up on current topics or to learn new ones. So once a year we science teachers combined with other schools for the traditional “large group in the auditorium for a speaker.” This approach to professional development was often irrelevant, and research has shown that these one-shot presentations without any follow-up are ineffective.
Fortunately, today there are a variety of ways to stay current in science topics: online courses offered by higher education and professional organizations, courses and seminars offered by museums, and podcasts, blogs and wikis from professional scientists. This month’s Science Scope lists many resources for science teachers of all grade levels, not just middle school. The SciLinks code in the table of contents (SS040801) doesn’t have any sites listed for that code yet, but if you enter “Professional Development” as a keyword, you’ll get a list of resources. The article Consumer Guide to Professional Development has a list of guidelines for choosing and evaluating professional development, whether online or in person. I’d give a copy to the principal or district professional development coordinator, too!
Something else I’d share with those responsible for PD are the resources at the NSTA Learning Center. It would be easy to design PD opportunities for both elementary and secondary teachers using these resources (and you could mention that many are free – for the cost of an NSTA membership, which is cheaper than most speakers would be). If you’re not familiar with these resources, they are an absolute treasure trove. I myself use the transcript option for conferences, the free Science Objects, the free online web seminars (most other professional organizations charge for these), and the listservs. Did you notice how many opportunities are FREE? That is an administrator’s favorite word!
But of course, reading journals such as The Science Teacher, Science Scope, and Science & Children is an easy way to stay current! For example, I’ve been to (and facilitated) many workshops on cooperative learning, but I’m excited about how the authors of Teaching Students to Think Like Scientists During Cooperative Investigations have modified the roles to go beyond the traditional logistical ones. They have lots of resources right in the article, too. If you need a refresher on cooperative learning, try What Is Cooperative Learning? or Cooperative Learning Strategies.
One of the things I enjoy most about finding and reviewing websites for SciLinks is exploring new topics. For example, this month I’m working on the topic “Dark Matter.” I had heard of this topic, but my knowledge was very superficial. So now I’m learning a lot! If you want to stretch your mind on this, go to the Particle Adventure website from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. It’s written for those who do not have a strong physics background. The concepts are chunked into a tutorial format, with lots of graphics and checkup questions. Even if you don’t teach this subject, check out this website as an example of a well-designed way to present material that is very abstract, but fascinating. (And, like me, you might learn something new, too!)
Keep a record of this type of informal learning – in a daily planner, on your PDA, or the calendar that’s on the NSTA learning center: reading a professional book or journal article (I have a friend who did a LOT of reading during her son’s swim meets!), watching a TV program related to science, reading/responding to a professional forum or listserv, or visiting a museum, zoo, planetarium, nature center, or botanical garden. Although the time you spend on these activities may not “count” toward your state’s continuing ed requirements, you may be surprised at the amount of informal professional learning that is part of your life.