Assessment Strategies

Here are a number of strategies and activities you might use to help uncover student misconceptions, the level of student learning and areas students might need further instruction.

Pre-Assessment

Use an origami student response system (See paper folding student response instructions and sample.)

Here are three multiple choice questions you can ask your students prior to viewing and discussing the Food Web from an Insect’s Perspective video. We suggest you adjust and/or add more questions to best address the needs of your students.

Students are each given the “origami student response system” and fold the paper to show their answer to each question. After the teacher asked each multiple choice question each student holds up his or her response by folding the paper so that the answer is facing the teacher.

QUESTIONS

1.  Food webs show how matter and energy can move in an ecosystem.  Which of the following relationships would NOT be found in a food web?
            a.  a praying mantis eating a hummingbird
            b.  a grasshopper eating a fly
            c.   a wasp eating an aphid
            d.  a plant eating an insect

2.  Soil contains many important nutrients.  Which of the following provides the most nutrients to the soil?
            a.  decomposition of dead animals
            b.  manmade fertilizers
            c.  recycled animal waste
            d.  rain water

3.  An energy pyramid shows the transfer of energy in an ecosystem.  How much energy is transferred from one level of the pyramid to the next?
            a.  100%
            b.  90%
            c.  50%
            d.  10%

ANSWERS

            1b, 2c, 3d

Origami Answer Sheet for Students

 

Pre-Assessment and Embedded Assessment Activities

Pre-Assessment:

Draw a food web that contains at least 10 organisms.  Then, with your partner, try to combine your individual webs into one larger, more complex web.  Share your ideas with the class.

(Teachers Note:  Look for the initial understanding of what happens in a food web.  In addition, look for any correct but non-traditional relationships, such as parasites, carnivorous plants, or organisms that eat the waste of other organisms, which is an important part of this video lesson.)

Embedded-Assessment:

Revisit the food web that was drawn during the pre-assessment.  Add at least three more organisms to your web that show your more complete understanding of a food web.  Feel free to construct a completely new food web if you wish.

(Teachers:  Look for a correct understanding of the relationships in food webs.  In addition, look for the inclusion of organisms discussed in the video, such as carnivorous plants [Venus flytrap and fly], and parasites [wasp and aphid].

Embedded Assessment:

Teacher demonstration with student interaction:
Energy flow in the ecosystem – simple explanation and class activity that teachers can do to help students understand the amount of energy transfer from the sun to plants and the resulting food chain. Use of mathematics (percents and measurements)
http://www.usoe.k12.ut.us/curr/Science/sciber00/8th/energy/sciber/ecosys.htm

Post- Assessment:

You can use the NAEP assessment items found on the Ohio Resource Center site that deal with Benchmark C and/or the constructed response questions development for this episode.

NAEP Assessment items:

Constructed Response Question:

At the end of the video, the host says, “One way or another, it all goes back to plants.”  Explain this statement, using examples from the video.

Grading Rubric:

4 points:  The response should include the following points:  Plants have the ability to capture the energy from the sun to use in food webs.  As organisms eat plants, they are able to use the energy that had come from the sun.  Some of this energy is not completely used by the organism, and the undigested plant waste that is found in their manure supplies energy for many other organisms.  Carnivorous plants eat insects that can trace their food back to plants.  The wasps that use the aphids as hosts for their eggs also trace their food source back to plants.

3 points:  Any three facts from the 4 point answer

2 points:  Any two facts from the 4 point answer

1 point:  Any one fact from the 4 point answer

0 points:  No facts from the 4 point answer