Phenomenal Assessment
Focus on Climate Science • Atypical Uses of Assessment Items • Three Item Clusters, WCAS-style
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Focus on Climate Science • Atypical Uses of Assessment Items • Three Item Clusters, WCAS-style
Climate Science Phenomena → Tools for 3-Dimensional Learning
Climate Science Phenomena → Tools for 3-Dimensional Learning
In 2018-19, Washington's Climate Science Proviso commissioned the development of three "item clusters"--sets of assessment items written around intriguing phenomena related to climate science. These useful-but-imperfect item clusters were used with students across Washington state, and have also been used to engage teachers in a number of professional learning activities.
This website exists to share...
- The item clusters and related materials (standards alignment, scoring tools, science resources)
- Professional learning activities that illustrate many ways to use item clusters to spark classroom learning activity.
Atypical Uses of Assessment Items
Atypical Uses of Assessment Items
Assessment Items Can Spark Powerful Learning Activities for Students
Assessment Items Can Spark Powerful Learning Activities for Students
- These item clusters may seem like they're meant to be used for giving grades at the end of a learning sequence.
- This website shares several ways that item clusters and other assessments can be used to drive equitable learning activity.
Three Item Clusters, WCAS-style
Three Item Clusters, WCAS-style
4th Grade: Comparing & Critiquing Energy Sources
4th Grade: Comparing & Critiquing Energy Sources
- Washington State is phasing out coal-fired electrical power plants.
- Use multiple kinds of information to compare how coal-energy and hydroelectric-energy systems generate and supply electricity to your home.
- Explain the limitations of these two energy resources.
Grades 6-8: Analyzing Patterns in Wildfire Data
Grades 6-8: Analyzing Patterns in Wildfire Data
- Wildfires are caused by lightning and human activity, and are further influenced by a number of weather and climate conditions.
- Look for patterns in large sets of annual regional data: number of wildfires and total areas burned by lightning and human activity.
- Use weather patterns and climate knowledge to predict the likelihood of wildfires in upcoming seasons.
Grades 9-12: Climate Impacts after 1492
Grades 9-12: Climate Impacts after 1492
- The "Little Ice Age" was a global cooling event that spanned a period that included European immigration to the Americas.
- One factor contributing to the global cooling could be the disruption of indigenous agricultural practices across two continents.
- Piece together the cause-and-effect sequence of events for this hypothesis.
- Use sediment-core and ice-core data to critique an argument about these events.
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