I met with the sixth, seventh, and eighth grade science teacher during my visit. When I entered his classroom, a group of four students were finishing up their club period where they were listening to Brazilian music and drawing what they felt in the music. The students explained to me that their club meets on Fridays, and they take turns listening to music from around the world.
During this time, the teacher showed me two students science notebooks. Their notebooks were divided into four sections: notes, lab, writing, and vocabulary. When skimming through the notebooks, I found a lot of open ended questions that involve critical thinking and the application of prior knowledge such as, "Do you think there is life on other planets? What supports your answers?" This type of question could be described as a "constructed response" question that "requires students to formulate and develop ideas and arguments" (Darling-Hammond and Adamson, 2010).
It was explained to me that in addition to regular science class that meets two times a week for one hour each, students have two more science periods a week that are specifically dedicated to writing. Students select a topic that interests them and use the period to independently research and write their paper and design their class presentation.
On the day of my visit, students were walking to a nearby park to launch model rockets. The model rocket project was an introductory activity for Newton's 3rd Law of Physics. They had already completed the first and second law. Students had been working on a "space unit" since the start of the school year, exploring things such as galaxies, the sun, the atmosphere, and gravity. In the model rocket launch, students would time the rocket's ascent and descent, and ultimately use the data to calculate the rocket's peak height during the launch. The teacher told me that students would be assessed based on their calculations, but also on a written reflection in their lab notebook where they would describe their results and why they think the said results happened. During the space unit, students were assessed with small quizzes and other writing assignments.
While walking to the park I asked students about Newton's first two laws and they were all able to state the laws and explain them to me. They did not do "hands-on" experiments or projects for the first two laws. In addition, I asked students about other projects that they have done in science in previous years. They described to me an incredibly detailed project where they made aquatic robots and tested them in a pool at the local YMCA (none of them could tell me the purpose or unit of the robots) and also a project in which they created turbines to provide electricity.
While walking home from the park, a student was talking to the teacher about her rocket that "got lost in space". The student assumed that because she did not see her rocket come down, that it was still floating around. The teacher used this students' statement to create a teachable moment where he asked students what they thought happened to the lost rocket. He told the students that this would be a writing prompt when they got back to school.
I was very impressed with my visit to this school. The rocket launch project was designed as a performance assessment for one major task; could the student accurately determine the rocket's height using the force of gravity? The project demonstrated that the school was dedicated in providing hands on learning experiences to students. The students were incredibly engaged and knowledgeable on the topic at hand. In depth responses were given to all questions, and students were able to support their thinking. I believe that these eighth grade students were working at the "application" level of Bloom's Taxonomy, clearly able to transfer prior knowledge to their outdoor learning experience.
Darling-Hammond, L. & Adamson, F. (2010). Beyond basic skills: The role of performance assessment in achieving 21st century standards of learning. Stanford, CA: Stanford University, Stanford Center for Opportunity Policy in Education.
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