Of Empowering Kids and Science Assessments

This year I have really been trying to make my classroom one where kids have choices, options, and a voice in their own learning. Reading the book Empower: What Happens When Students Own Their Learning has helped me see I'm on the right track with many of the things I've been incorporating in my classroom, and it's also given me some ideas of where to go next. Helping my students understand what it means to have a growth mindset has also been a goal of mine this year, and while it's difficult to fit into a pass / fail, take one test, here's your grade system, I'm pretty happy with how I've been incorporating that as well.

So my dabbling here and there lead me to think differently about how I wanted to assess my unit on the scientific process. This year, instead of giving the big, summative assessment, I decided I wanted to take the ideas of student choice and growth mindset and apply them to determine my kids' knowledge of the scientific process. I also wanted to try and get away from the one shot, here's your grade assessment strategy that I so often have to follow. The answer was having my students design and carry out their own experiment following the scientific process.

I have been embedding the idea of the scientific process throughout the year as we have carried out different experiments, so all of my students have had a preview to the steps and the vocabulary we would be using. To examine the parts of the process more closely, we conducted four different experiments, and we worked on writing mini lab reports so the kids could see that writing is a very important part of science.

Along the way both of my classes had the opportunity to participate in the Skype a Scientist program. If you have not heard of this, please, please check it out! Both Alex and Ehren answered my students' questions about what is it like to be a scientist beautifully and with passion! They helped my kids see that experiments are more than just "fun" things you do, and both men are working hard to make a difference in the world.

After building my kids' background knowledge, it was time for them to take charge. I created a mini lab report form, and the first step was for the kids to pick their favorite experiment that we had done in class since the beginning of the year. Just to make it a little easier, I did limit it to four choices:

• evaporation experiment
• the gummy bear experiment
• the food coloring experiment
• the paperclip experiment

Once the kids chose their favorite, they got into groups based on that choice. Depending upon the number of people in the group, the kids could choose small groups to complete their experiment. In the end, between the two classes, I had 12 groups collaborating to design and complete their experiments. 

After going over the rubric (an area where I could get the kids' input -- maybe a goal for next year) the kids were eager to get started, and their first task was to create an short abstract and a shopping list for me. They had to present their idea and get approval before beginning their process. Once they had approval, then it was time to work on each step. The kids collaborated to:

• Share their observations from the original experiment and their background knowledge about their new idea.
• Explain the variable of the original experiment.
• Explain the variable of the new experiment.
• State their research question.
• Determine their hypothesis.
• Come up with a detailed plan.
• Carry out the experiment.
• Analyze the data they collected.
• Draw conclusions about the results.

The kids had as many opportunities as they needed to conference with me about each part of the report and make changes to improve their grade. Some kids were perfectly happy to just score proficient, and others eagerly accepted feedback and worked towards the advanced mark on the rubric. The only step that they kids could not redo was the experiment; because of the sake of time we had to limit it to one shot, but the could explain what they would do differently in their conclusions section.

While it certainly would have been much easier to send home a study guide and give my kids a test one day, assessing my kids' knowledge of the scientific process was so much more beneficial in so many ways.

• Students had the opportunity to practice the basic tenet of having a growth mindset: you have to persevere when things are challenging, and you have to go back and fix a mistake when you make it. That's how our brains grow.
• Students had the opportunity to work on their communication skills, whether it was in their experiment group or sharing their ideas verbally or in writing with me. There were many, many revisions as we went through the process, and nobody ever gave up.
• I got to see exactly where the holes were for my kids and reflect upon how I need to change my instruction next year: I need to give them examples of detailed plans when we do them. I need to do a better job of helping them understand how to analyze data before they have to do it on their own. 
• I got to see exactly where my kids' learning was right on track. They really understand that there can only be one variable in an experiment, and they did a great job using the tools to measure and collect data. 

While I originally intended for this process to end with the students turning in their reports, an unexpected little twist popped up. As I was sharing pictures of their work on twitter, a friend who teaches in California tweeted back. After a few messages, we decided that my students would type of their plans and share them with her class so that her students could try and duplicate the experiments and the results. This is such a vital part of scientific discovery, so I am really excited to make this connection and see how it works out.

While it certainly took more time than a test, I saw my students continuing to learn and grow throughout the assessment period, and according to my students, they feel like they understand the scientific process "way better" than they would have and think they will remember it much better, too. I'm hopeful that I can continue to find ways that I can offer the kids some choice and adapt our assessments so kids have the opportunity to showcase their learning and continue to work toward mastery.