SA NC Doing Investigations/Chapter 5

Managing and assessing investigations
''This chapter is based on work by Maryna de Lange, a primary school science educator from Saldanha Bay and the 2002 Maths and Science Educator of the Year. She is passionate about investigations and was the prime mover behind making "investigations" the theme of this year's MSTotY workshop.''

A suggested procedure for managing a scientific or mathematical investigation for school or "Expo" purposes
In order to get the most out of learner investigations the process must be managed carefully. It is important to ensure that the learners (and sometimes their parents too) are well-informed about the process and exactly what is expected of them. The following points will be useful for planning your investigations.

1. Clearly state: "This investigation will be for ... e.g. final year assessment / regional competition etc. and will count 50% towards the year mark in science / may, thereafter, be submitted for the national competition etc. ... ."

2. Clearly state and publicise timelines and deadlines.

3. Within the first week of the announcement, the CRITERIA (see the assessment pro forma below) must be fully discussed with participants / learners by organizers / educators.

4. The learner's choice of the topic is the most important part. These must be finalized within a week of the announcement.

5. Educator reviews possible topics with each learner and tests the topic against the criteria provided for the investigation. Get clarification of and agreement on the "focus question."

6. Learners must start work on the literature review / research immediately and get as much outside help as possible on this preliminary stage of the investigation.

7. Within one month of the announcement (or less, depending on overall timeline and deadlines), the educator must review each learner's topic, focus question(s), hypotheses, plans and "research design" in a one-to-one interview with the learner.

8. The investigation report must be handed in within the agreed period. On the deadline for the investigation, all reports must be handed in regardless of their state of readiness. (No extensions can be allowed without seriously disrupting the year programme, so careful monitoring of progress by the educator is essential.)

Doing independent assignments / projects / investigations develop extremely important attitudes, life skills and scientific and mathematical skills e.g. time management self discipline perseverance  careful, thoughtful and insightful work  reflection  accuracy etc. These skills and attitudes will all be assessed at the end of the senior phase.

In order that learners realize the importance of meeting deadlines etc., they can be made to sign a "contract"

Declaration: I understand and agree to abide by all conditions and

deadlines as explained to me by: __________________________________

Learner's signature: __________________________________

Dated: 			 			 ____/____/200____

Parent's signature:		 __________________________________

Dated:				 		 ____/____/200____

Publication of notice and criteria: Dated: ____/____/200____

Educator's signature: 	 	 __________________________________

Dated: 			 ____/____/200____

Obviously investigations take a lot of time to set up. Therefore the management of the process must be meticulous and starting on time and keeping to your schedules is critical. Each learner must be allocated time for discussion and consultation if investigations are to serve their educational purpose. It is possible to manage up to 35 learners. For classes larger than this it may be advisable to work in pairs. The problem with doing investigations is that the experience we want the learners to have is really a private one and it is most powerful when it is a personal learning experience. When learners are in pairs there is no guarantee that each will get the full benefit of their experience. It becomes important to choose well-balanced pairs in which both individuals will contribute equally and communicate well, so that they learn from each other.

ASSESSMENT CRITERIA FOR A SCIENTIFIC INVESTIGATION / PROJECT (INCLUDING REPORT AND PRESENTATION OF FINDINGS)
NAME: ___________________________________

TOPIC:___________________________________

Tips on assessing investigations.
When all is said and done, the amount of effort put into an investigation by educators and learners is considerable and therefore deserves meticulously thought out and planned assessment. Investigations provide a wonderful platform to assess scientific and mathematical thinking in action. But it also means that the assessment must be continuous in order to extract the most value possible from the process. Assessment can take on different forms, depending on the situation at a particular time. Here are some ideas.

discuss class work or homework, especially when moving to the next topic. It helps you to recap on work done, provides a basis for moving ahead, saves time and provides immediate feedback. Its drawbacks include not getting to see individual learners' problems. Learners tend to mark themselves correct even when they are not. Sometimes they mark an answer correct when the steps leading to the answer are not.
 * Self-assessment. Learners assess themselves. This method works well when you

Possibly members of a group assess other members. The method poses the problem of learners giving in to peer pressure and awarding marks for incorrect answers. Control is essential when peer assessing and learners' books must be checked for the accuracy and honesty. It becomes easier when a class gets used to the method and sees the value of accurate assessment.
 * Peer assessment. Like self-assessment but here learners assess each other.

learners. Rubrics are particularly useful when learners present the findings from their investigations. Key items to be assessed are listed clearly with their rubrics alongside them and learners' strengths and weaknesses can be "pegged" at a glance.
 * Rubrics. work well and if well designed they are one of the best tools for assessing

In order to assess individual strengths and weaknesses there is no substitute for the educator reviewing and marking each learner's work. The purpose must be not only to allocate a mark but to find the basis for remedial work where it is needed. The other forms of assessment add value, but only if they add to the educator's own review of learner's written work. It may be time consuming but it gets you to know your learners. At least half of a learner's homework and class work must be assessed by the educator. Formal tests must be marked by the educator and ideally even informal tests must at least be reviewed.
 * Educator assessment. is the most common form because it is the most important.

Assessing presentations and products
There are certain standard types of assessment instrument but apart from the general type, instruments are seldom "one size fits all". So we usually construct instruments for specific activities. An instrument like the one below might be used when individual learners or groups are presenting their "research" findings on a task assigned to them. This example would be used when they are explaining the idea of "systems" in the context of the human body. Assigning a "maximum possible" mark for each item provides the educator with a benchmark or standard by which to judge performance on that item. An important principle of assessment is to ensure that learners know well beforehand, exactly what the criteria are against which they are being judged. When learners know this they begin to develop their own "internal" standards.

A similar instrument might be used to assess a model that has been constructed. In this case the model is of the lungs inside the thorax. It shows how, by using the diaphragm to increase the volume of the thorax the lungs can be inflated and deflated. This model could be made from a two litre cold drink bottle, a balloon, a plastic drinking straw and a cork with a hole bored in it. In this activity, the learners would have been given clear instructions to follow.

The score on an instrument like this can be related to an overall, 5-point scale e.g. excellent (5/5) good (4/5)  satisfactory (3/5)  unsatisfactory (2/5)  poor (0-1/5).

The words used to describe the different levels are a matter of choice. If, for instance, it is a 5-point scale, the five words or phrases used must describe a logical sequence of performance levels, communicate to learners how their educator will judge their performance and must indicate to learners where they have performed well or poorly on the task. With the assessment instrument in front of them the educator and learner can decide how to remedy shortcomings and build on strengths.

Rubrics
Rubrics use words to describe successive levels of performance. They are useful assessment tools but they are of no value unless they are carefully constructed and then used with fairness, insight and care. It doesn't matter how good a rubric is, if the educator does not use the rubric consistently appropriately learners will have no confidence in the method or the instrument. When learners lack confidence in an educator's judgments (about their performance) they miss the learning opportunity that good assessment practice can provide. The assessment of an investigation can teach almost as much about the process of investigation as the activity itself.

Here are some rubrics. In the first example we have a rubric to assess designs in a technology class. The second the rubric is for assessing actual design drawings. The third rubric is related to RNCS Learning Outcomes (LOs) and Assessment Standards (ASs) for the Natural Sciences.

A rubric for assessing designs in technology.

A similar rubric could be used for assessing learners' actual design drawings.

Any good rubric can be adapted or used as a template to produce others. The revised national curriculum statements (RNCS), scheduled for implementation in 2007, call for assessment of four level of performance in the GET band. Therefore particular tasks and activities can be assessed by designing rubrics from the learning outcomes and assessment standards appropriate to the task. In these examples (adapted from All Aboard Science 7 by Heinemann Publishers) various learning tasks are covered. The first example involves an investigation into the causes of corrosion in metals.

The investigation of sensitive issues can lead to debate that involves prejudices and emotion. In science it is important to recognize and keep these distractions in check. That is why scientists try &Acirc &shy not always successfully &Acirc &shy  to take account of how we accumulate knowledge and the peculiar role that personal feelings and prevailing ideas play in attempting to understand the world we live in. The third learning outcome (LO3) in the Natural Sciences deals with this issue and is notoriously difficult to assess. Rubrics can help when we discuss issues that bring out emotion and contradiction. But we should not allow difficulties like this to put us off because dealing with topics that call for the interpretation of historical evidence and differing points of view are important to our development as scientifically literate people. The rubrics for the Natural Sciences LO3 AS1 can be adapted, for instance, to issues of gold mining and processing of gold ore, the development of dynamite and the effect that refrigeration has had on the international trade of agricultural products.

Strategies: your own assessment policy
Maryna de Lange has set her assessment policy so that several assessable aspects of her learners' work count towards the final mark for the year. She writes: "I balance five forms of assessment so that every learner's preference can be accommodated. I use the assessments to build up learners' portfolios which I keep in my Master file. I regularly record the outcomes of my observations on a formative record sheet. Learners are allowed to choose the work they want to keep in their portfolios for promotion purposes. Assessments consist of educator-, peer- and self- assessments. The forms of assessment I use are:

(a) Four tests and two examinations. The tests count 30 marks each and the examinations are set for between 100 and 150 marks. The totals for the tests and the examinations are then converted to 60 marks each. [Total 60 + 60]

(b) Eight class- or homework activities count 15 marks each. 120 marks are converted to 45. [Total 45]

(c) Two projects of 40 and 35 marks respectively. [Total 40 + 35]

(d) Two assignments of 30 mark each. [Total 60]

(e) Two investigations of 30 mark each. [Total 60]

The total mark for Science for the year is 360. The pie-chart below gives us a picture of this policy. Remember that there is also a portfolio and a formative record that can be used when the learner's performance for the year is assessed. OBE calls for continuous assessment to ascertain a learner's development. Does this policy meet these requirements?

You will agree that this assessment policy gives a very comprehensive picture indeed. The pie chart also shows that investigations and projects (both involve learners working independently on problems of their own choice) make up more than a third of the total mark.

Proportions by Form of Assessment