Science for All: Using Formative Assessments to Differentiate Instruction

Journal Article | November 2017

This column shares strategies for increasing student engagement. This month's issue discusses how to keep formative assessment methods informative and engaging to maximize student participation and performance.

Formative Assessment Probes: Uncovering Representations of the Water Cycle

Journal Article | December 2017

This column focuses on promoting learning through assessment. This month’s issue explores the effect of representations on children’s thinking about evaporation and the water cycle.

Listserv Roundup: Technology tools for paperless formative assessment

Journal Article | December 2017

This column shares recent conversations taken from the NSTA listserv community about current science education topics. This month’s column focuses on technology tools that NSTA e-mail listserv members use for formative…

Commentary: Finding Purpose—Reflecting Upon Curriculum and Assessment

Journal Article | October 2002

An opinion piece about how the purpose of teaching plays a sginificant role in how lessons are received and valued. The challenge for teachers is to critically reflect upon the purpose of their curriculum and…

Science Sampler: Validating assessment—Teacher study groups

Journal Article | December 2007

Teacher study groups are a valuable method of examining the validity of classroom assessments and determining how well the assessments align with student learning goals. The implementation of teacher study groups is…

Formative Assessment Probes: Where Did the Water Go?

Journal Article | June 2012

This column focuses on promoting learning through assessment. This month’s issue discusses how formative assessment relates to standards-based teaching and learning.

Formative Assessment Probes: Soil and Dirt: The Same or Different?

Journal Article | February 2015

This column focuses on promoting learning through assessment. This month’s issue explores children's commonly held ideas about soil.

Formative Assessment Probes: Where Do I Put the Switch?

Journal Article | August 2015

This column focuses on promoting learning through assessment. This month’s issue discusses using formative assessment probes that may surface and challenge ideas confronted during the engineering design process.

Formative Assessment Probes: Mountaintop Fossil: A Puzzling Phenomenon

Journal Article | November 2015

This column focuses on promoting learning through assessment. This month’s issue describes using formative assement probes to uncover several ways of thinking about the puzzling discovery of a marine fossil on top of a…

Formative Assessment Probes: Uncovering Students' Concept of Matter

Journal Article | December 2015

This column focuses on promoting learning through assessment. This month’s probe can be used to elicit young children's ideas about matter. The probe reveals commonly held ideas elementary students have about the types…

Formative Assessment Probes: Is It a Theory? Speaking the Language of Science

Journal Article | August 2014

This column focuses on promoting learning through assessment. This month’s issue focuses on a probe that is designed to find out if students (and teachers) distinguish scientific theories from the common use of the word…

Including Often-Missed Knowledge and Skills in Science Assessments

Journal Article | August 2014

Use common specifications and scoring plans to develop successful assessments.

Science Sampler: Using graphic organizers as formative assessment

Journal Article | December 2006

With the move in the last decade toward a standards-based science curriculum, assessment has become an important part of science teaching and learning. National policies such as the No Child Left Behind Act place…

Creative Exercises in General Chemistry: A Student-Centered Assessment

Journal Article | August 2010

Creative exercises (CEs) are a form of assessment in which students are given a prompt and asked to write down as many distinct, correct, and relevant facts about the prompt as they can. Students receive credit for each…

Formative Assessment Probes: Is It a Solid? Claim Cards and Argumentation

Journal Article | June 2013

This column focuses on promoting learning through assessment. This month’s issue discusses students' ideas about solids and the macroscopic properties they use to decide whether a material is a solid.