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November 2003Welcome to Exemplary Initiatives online!Exemplars is a community of users dedicated to helping schools become successful in standards-based performance assessment and instruction. Our monthly newsletter features short pieces from Exemplars users, as well as brief reflections on current education issues and trends that impact standards, assessment and instruction. If you would like to contribute, or have comments you would like to share, please get in touch with us at info@exemplars.com. We look forward to hearing from you. In This Issue:
Students Who do Real Science, Achieve Real Success in ScienceThe articles in this issue of Exemplary Initiatives by Karin Hess and Tracy Lavalle underscore the value of inquiry-based science programs. In the current climate, state testing programs are assuming an increasingly important role; causing several schools and districts to feel compelled to supplant reform programs they have introduced, with new programs to prepare their students for statewide testing. For those who continue to use the reform programs there is good news. Evidence concludes, that students who perform hands-on science achieve at higher levels on both standardized and performance-based science tests. A RAND Corporation study, Hands-on Science and Student Achievement, written by Allen Ruby ©2001, examined the relationship between hands-on science and student achievement on both types of testing. The study used two sources of data: A 1994 RAND survey of 1,400 eighth graders and their teachers; and the National Educational Longitudinal survey of 1988 (NELS:88) - A national survey of 25,000 students in eighth, 10th and 12th grades and their teachers. In both studies, teachers and students reported the amount of hands-on science they engaged in during science classes. Hands-on science was defined as, "to include all hands-on activities carried out by students in their science classes." (p. 1) Data in the surveys shows that hands-on science is positively related to higher achievement on both standardized and performance tests and that the "magnitude of the relationship" is "substantial." The evidence for the relationship between hands-on science and multiple choice testing is particularly strong because it comes from two different surveys using different multiple-choice tests. Addressing the policy implications of these findings, the author, Allen Ruby, finds that the positive relationship between hands-on science and standardized testing supports the study's "continued promotion" of hands-on science. The finding of a relationship with both multiple choice and performance test scores should make this promotion more attractive. In those states or districts that intend to continue to rely on multiple choice tests, the use of hands-on science can support efforts to increase scores without the fear that the increased time required for hands-on science will harm student test scores. States or districts that adopt performance assessments often promote increased hands-on science under an assumption that the two are linked. Our results provide evidence to confirm this assumption. States and districts using a combination of test types may have been torn in the approach to take toward increasing scores. Our results show that an emphasis on hands-on science can support gains in both types of test scores. (p. 233)
For the complete version of Hands-on Science and Student Achievement, Allen Ruby ©2001, please visit www.rand.org/publications/RGSD/RGSD159/.
"We're Off and Running!" Exemplars Hits the Los Alamos School DistrictSeveral years ago, Connie Witt tried to implement a standards-based curriculum and grading system into her school district, Los Alamos. At that time, she received little feedback or enthusiasm from her colleagues. Nevertheless, she pushed on. Determined to turn things around, Connie purchased Exemplars with her own money and began to apply basic standards-based skills. As Connie states, "I tried to introduce all of this when I first went back to the classroom a few years ago. No one understood what I was trying to do." After years of hard work, Connie's district has become extremely successful in using Exemplars and in, "Making a paradigm shift from focusing on instruction to focusing on student learning and using formative assessment to drive instruction." She began with the principals in her district, teaching them how to assess student work using rubrics. For many it was the first time they had ever looked at student work in this way. By collecting sample math tasks and rubrics from Exemplars web site, and student work from their own schools, Connie led them through the process of working in pairs and using rubrics to evaluate student work. She found this "mini training" highly effective and explained, "They were amazed at the power of the conversations they had around the student work." She has since conducted similar training sessions with teachers, which has resulted in a whole new approach to staff development. Connie states, "We're moving away from district-wide, one size fits all trainings to peer coaching at sites. "This has become a valuable tool to Los Alamos in teaching the use of rubrics and self-assessment. The principals were thrilled Exemplars enabled them to provide their teachers and students with high quality rubrics and benchmark student work. The rubrics have also become a helpful tool for parents in understanding the standards-based (no letter grades) report cards.
Next on their agenda is to begin using Exemplars reading, writing and research materials to help develop their language arts assessment. Connie states, "We've started a 4-8 vertical alignment team for language arts and are trying to design a collection of developmentally appropriate sets of rubrics, 'style' sheets/guidelines, etc." They anticipate the same level of success they experienced with Exemplars math materials.
Why Teach Science Concepts Through Inquiry and Investigation?If you were "taught" science the way I was taught back in elementary school, you probably experienced what I fondly refer to now as "language arts science." Language arts science is when you read and discuss scientific ideas, look at pictures of scientists working in labs, memorize definitions of science terms, and then get tested to see what you know. If you are a good memorizer/reader/listener, then you actually appear to understand science. Unfortunately, many of us who "learned" science in this way, eventually discovered that we really did not understand the underlying science concepts. We soon questioned, "How were we going to be effective teachers of elementary and middle school science if we taught our units of study in the same way we were taught?" Let's fast forward now to the 90s. Nationally, states and schools were given the charge to articulate their standards for student performance, and to define WHAT body of knowledge students should be learning in science and HOW they should be learning it. Inquiry and investigation, while not new, but certainly not widespread as an approach to teaching science, suddenly experienced greater attention. Credible science education "authorities"-such as the National Research Council, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the National Science Teachers Association-began to write about, research and document the important role that inquiry plays in true science learning. "Teaching science through inquiry allows students to conceptualize a question and then seek possible explanations that respond to that question." (Inquiry and National Science Education Standards: A Guide for Teaching, published by the National Academy Press, 2000) Students who use inquiry to learn science engage in many of the same activities and processes that scientists use to accomplish their work. This premise was the basis for the development of the performance assessments that comprise Science Exemplars. It is our belief that inquiry is the foundation for the development of content understanding. Teaching students the use of the processes of science - researching "testable" questions, collecting and interpreting data, and drawing conclusions - enables them to construct and develop their own science knowledge. Sharing scientific knowledge in the classroom creates a scientific community and develops science literacy. This is a quantum leap from the language arts approach of the earlier decades. Students can demonstrate both their conceptual knowledge and application of science skills through scientific inquiry. The danger is when either one - science knowledge or science skills - is forgotten, or not assessed. Science knowledge and skills are intertwined in good science and are more meaningful when demonstrated in connection to each other. For example, in order to accurately represent data using graphs, charts, diagrams and/or models, a student must know what data is appropriate to collect to answer the question posed: how to organize data to make sense of it; and how to build on prior knowledge to extend his/her thinking about the science concepts. The performance-assessment tasks in Science Exemplars seek to expand the notion of the science classroom - not to become chaotic and unfocused dens of experimentation, but to become places for field and laboratory experiences using real science equipment. Probably the greatest disservice to students, in the name of promoting inquiry, is to assume that unguided, open-ended investigation will yield great learning. This is simply not true. Open-ended experimentation cultivates creative thinking and curiosity - both essential to inquiry. Before students can pose questions for investigation, design and conduct experiments, and organize and present data that supports their findings, they need clear models and honest feedback to validate and guide their science learning. They need questions posed throughout the inquiry process that help them conceptualize their ideas and confront their science misconceptions in meaningful ways.
Science Exemplars can help teachers and students reach these goals. All of Exemplars science materials contain tasks at the K-2, 3-5 and 6-8 grade levels. Each task includes: a science investigation; the investigation's science concepts; instructional tips for preparing and guiding students through the inquiry process; task-specific scoring rubrics to aid in assessing student work; a key to national science standards that can be linked to state standards; and annotated benchmarks of student's actual solutions at four levels: Novice, Apprentice, Practitioner and Expert. For a closer look, please click here to view a sample task.
In the Spotlight: Science ExemplarsWith so much of the elementary school focus on math and literacy, science is often put on the back burner. While it is true that math and literacy are extremely important, science does not have to be an afterthought or an hour spent on a Friday afternoon. Science Exemplars can help schools and teachers bring science to the forefront. Science Exemplars subscription and Best of Science CD-ROM have many unique features from their counterpart Math Exemplars. Each task is directly linked to the national science standards as well to the Big Ideas and Unifying Concepts of science. Big Ideas such as patterns, changes and cause and effect, offer exciting ways to integrate science with other subject areas. Additionally, within each task description there are specific interdisciplinary links as well as literature connections, both fiction and non-fiction. These tools enable the teacher to explicitly integrate science into the daily curriculum through math, reading, writing and social studies. In my third grade classroom, science is the focus and math and literacy are integrated. One of the major concepts I teach is interdependence. Through a unit on habitats, students conduct a number of scientific investigations on the habitats in our geographical area, create a field guide and learn how the plants and animals that live there are interdependent. During this unit, students regularly use math skills such as data collection, graphing, surveying, mapping, computation and problem solving. Students also conduct research on the plants and animals that live in this habitat using a wide variety of print and web-based resources. Our literacy time is devoted to an author study (Jean Craighead George and Jim Arnosky are two examples of authors that use environmental themes in their books) as well as reading picture books, and other literature with a focus on habitats and the environment. See the grade 3-5 task, How Much Diversity is There in This Habitat? on the Best of Science CD-ROM for an extensive bibliography as well as other suggestions for integration. Writing also plays an integral role in my science program. Throughout the habitat unit students document procedures in journals, use investigation-recording sheets, and write literature responses, reports, persuasive essays and narratives. Science has an important place in the elementary school curriculum. The skills of science: questioning, observation, prediction, investigation, data collection and analysis and drawing conclusions are connected to what we do in math, reading, writing and social studies. The Big Ideas and Concepts of science are universal and the integration possibilities are endless. Finally and most importantly, science nurtures our students' curiosity, sense of wonder, and encourages their inquiry into the exciting world we live in.
If you are looking for a great place to start integrating science, try reading the book What is a Scientist by Barbara Lehn, with your students!
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