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 in which students might need further instruction.

The use of graphic organizers can be used as pre-assessment activities (or formative assessments, if we use the results to help us plan!), as embedded assessment strategies and even as final assessment assignments. The most common graphic organizers are the KWL charts and Venn diagrams. The “freeology” website (http://freeology.com/) has a large variety of graphic organizers that are downloadable. This site also provides a very brief explanation of how to use each graphic organizer.

Video Post-Viewing Assessment:

The "Give One; Get One" (http://freeology.com/graphicorgs/page6.php) summary strategy is a useful tool to identify what the students have retained from the information in the video. Provide the students with a grid of twelve squares. In any three squares, the students record three different facts or ideas that they remember from the video. The students then begin to ask their classmates to fill in the other squares with information from the video that has not yet been recorded on the grid. Each classmate can fill in only one square on an individual's grid, but students can add information to as many different grids as they want. The grid can now be used in a variety of ways, such as notes for the students as they write a summary of the information addressed in the video.

Pre-Viewing Activity:

KWL charts help students' access prior knowledge about a topic. Have the students fill out the K and W sections of a KWL chart (a blank template can be found at http://freeology.com/graphicorgs/pdf/kwl.pdf) and then show the episode 3 Stars and Galaxies and the Universe: Oh My!. After the students have watched the video, have them complete the "L" section of the chart. You could also have the students revisit the "K" column, is there anything that they need to revise in that section of the chart?

The website Amazing Space: "Myths vs. Realities: Galaxies" offer teachers two very good pre-assessment activities for studying Galaxies. Teachers can adapt both of these activities for use with their students. Go to the following website for these assessments. http://amazing-space.stsci.edu/eds/overviews/myths/galaxies.php

Brainstorming:

Engage students in an open discussion about what they know about the size and shape of the Universe. Students probably have a lot of preconceived ideas of Space and space travel, information they’ve learned from watching science fiction movies. For example, you could ask some open-ended questions like:

Embedded Assessment:

Video Talking Points: As you show Episode 3 again, stopping the video at some of the Talking Points mentioned in the teacher video engage and challenge the students to explain what was just said. Ask them if they can provide any proof to validate the statements. Encourage the students to use science terms as they discuss their astronomy ideas.

Break the class into groups and have them discuss how science uses technology to understand the world around us. This can be done after the students have viewed the video. Require each group to do a brief presentation summarizing their discussion. A key concept here is the Science standards dealing with the Scientific Ways of Knowing and Science and Technology.

Have the students play the two astronomy games (“Near and Far” and “Small and Large”) developed by Cherilynn Morrow. Download available on the Space Science Institute website at http://www.spacescience.org/education/instructional_materials.html

Post-Activity Assessment:

You could use a student lesson as a summative activity for each student. One such lesson can be found at the Hubble Deep Field Academy (online activities) – site contains multiple activities. Can be used as a summative evaluation of student learning. http://amazing-space.stsci.edu/resources/explorations/hdf/

When you’ve completed your classroom activities for Episode 3, Stars and Galaxies and the Universe: Oh My!, you could present your student with a list of astronomical terms and have them write a sentence for all the terms. This is a Think-Pair-Share type of activity and can be used as a post assessment tool. Add or delete any astronomical terms you wish; we offer as a suggestion terms like: Universe, galaxy, solar system, star, sun, planet, moon, astronomical unit, light year, how do astronomers measure distances in space, parallax.