The Purpose:       

This district guiding document is to support teachers with the pacing of Mystery Science units, alignment of grade level benchmarks/assessments to the core resource and much more. 

Scope & Sequence Draft in Progress:

Due to our phased-in implementation of the 2019 MN Science Standards, this document is in draft form with work representing grades K & 3. 

Next year, curriculum grade level reps from grades 1 & 4 will complete this work, with grades 2 & 5 the following year.  

Much gratitude and appreciation to our K & 3 science curriculum grade level reps.  This work could not have been accomplished without their tireless efforts and leadership!

Structure of the Science MCA IV

• an online scenario-based assessment

• includes text, graphics, animations and simulations

• question types include multi-choice, technology enhanced & constructed response

• is a fixed form test--all students taking the same test version will be administered the same questions

• total number of points for the Grade 5 MCA will be 45

• each question will be multidimensional, aligning, at a minimum, to the practice and core idea of the benchmark and, where possible, to the cross cutting concept

• test questions are written by trained Minnesota science educators in conjunction with MDE 

•  all scenes, simulations, and test questions are reviewed and revised by Minnesota educator committees and science experts for accuracy and appropriateness

Purpose of the Guide to Released Items

The purpose of this guide is to give Minnesota education professionals some examples of phenomenon-based, multidimensional items aligned to the 2019 Minnesota Science Standards. This guide includes information on benchmark alignment and student response data, to provide context for the online released items. These items can be used to prepare for the Science MCA-IV, which will be administered beginning in Spring 2025. Until that time, students will be assessed using the Science MCA-III. Resources for students to prepare for testing can be found on the Minnesota Assessments-Student Tutorials page.

This group of items is an example of one phenomenon with its associated items. There are some unique features specific to the MCA-IV:

• Phenomenon-based item sets. The context for each phenomenon is focused around observable events occurring in the universe that can be explained or predicted with scientific reasoning .
  

• Multi-dimensional items. Each item assesses the Practice and Core Idea of the benchmark. Most items also assess the Crosscutting Concept of the benchmark.
  

• Tabs. The information explaining the phenomenon may be contained in multiple tabs, which are all simultaneously available for each item.
  

• Constructed Response. In order to better assess student learning of several of the practices, MDE is investigating the use of short-answer constructed response items. An example is contained in this set of items.
  
  The data included in this document are actual student responses from the 2021 field test results. Items in this guide are not interactive. Visit G05 Science MCA-IV Released Items to see this Grade 5 phenomenon as it will appear in the testing platform.
  
  For more information, see Minnesota Comprehensive Assessment-Series IV (MCA-IV) Draft Test Specifications for Science linked above.