Co-Construction of Lab Data Analysis Criteria

Post date: Dec 11, 2015 6:53:47 PM

After attending several sessions given by Sandra Herbst last year, I really wanted to try co-constructing criteria with at least one of my classes... but which one? It had to be something that would be used a lot - this is a relatively time consuming process so it doesn't make sense if you do this for a one-time assignment. I was also a little nervous - it looked beautiful when Sandra Herbst did it in the videos, but could I do that? The year started and I had not done it yet... I just couldn't quite figure out the best way to approach it and with which class.

In October I attended the Geeks Unite Math and Science Conference and there was another session that touched on co-construction but the presenter focused on lab analysis - Lightbulb!! Yes! Lab analysis is something we do ALL YEAR in science, so that made it the perfect place to start. In order to have the longest-reaching effects, I decided to try it with my Science 7 Class - I spent the next day writing more detailed lesson plans than I have in years but I was energized and ready to go.

Class 1: Graph Analysis

Using some of the students' actual graphs, we looked at a 'good' example and one that was less so. Students brainstormed the categories and criteria that answered the question "What does good graph analysis look like?". This was an AWESOME class. I was very clear that whose graphs we used weren't important, what was important was learning from what we could observe.

Their list was re-formatted and printed onto bright (and I mean BRIGHT) blue paper that I laminated it for them to put into their binders. We also made a checklist (shown above) that students now use before the submit any graphs to us. If they don't have the criteria, they need to add it before they submit for assessment. The end result has been a marked increase in the quality of graphs students are making and students know that while they construct them that they should be looking at their BLUE sheets!

Class 2 & 3: Lab Data Analysis

After the success of the graph analysis, I decided to get a bit more adventurous and attempt co-construction modeled after a lesson from one of Sandra Herbst's sessions. I cut up a whole pile of chart paper and put together a set of answers to a science 7 question that I had collected in a previous year. I asked students to look at what made one answer better than another and write down what they noticed in the "good" answer. They could write down as many different criteria as they could think of, each on a separate sheet of chart paper.

Once everyone had written as much as they wanted, we cleared the tables out of the way and started laying out all of their papers. Eventually the room was full and the kids loved getting to walk around their criteria! I started identifying specific criteria I noticed and asked students to help me gather every paper that fit that same idea... one by one we managed to collect all of their criteria into piles. From each pile we were able to get one big idea and make another list together, which was printed on bright GREEN paper this time, laminated and we made another checklist.