The combination of the Scientific and Engineering Practices and your content specific standards are the best way to ensure your students are engaged in rigorous thinking and content.
Use grade level, Common Core aligned Scientific Literacy Standards to inform instruction.
Use SCALE's Guiding Design Principles for a Science Task as a tool to design a meaningful artifact.
Find examples of science assessments on the SCALE website, or search for science projects from the Performance Assessment Database or in the BIE Project Database.
According to the Buck Institute, there are four main ways a project can be authentic. Ideally, projects combine multiple elements of authenticity into a project.
To learn see examples from each of these four categories, click here.
The Buck Institute for Education has a curated database of projects in a variety of subjects and grade levels. For additional Buck Institute resources to help you plan a rigorous, authentic project, click here.
Use this FREE database to find examples of stand alone or embedded performance assessments (artifacts). Many of the tasks are already aligned to OUR RUBRICS! The performance assessments include teacher and student versions of activities, student samples of final products, and alignment to standards. Create a FREE account and click on “Performance Tasks” to view examples.