Reasoning

Note: Please read Chapter 6 in the Sourcebook for Teaching Science before beginning this assignment.

Introduction: Much of secondary instruction focuses upon basic knowledge and comprehension, but fails to encourage the development of the higher order reasoning skills.  Fortunately, the sciences provide an environment that is conducive to the development of these higher order thinking skills, and teachers need to capitalize on this. In this assignment you will be writing questions to assess each of major the levels of reasoning outlined in Bloom's Taxonomy of cognitive skills.  As a class, identify the levels or reasoning for practice questions.

Part-1 - Practice -  The following are sample files created by former students.  Use the comment feature to grade the selected file.  Comment on questions that vague, irrelevant, missing data, confusing, incorrectly categorized, inaccurate, etc.

• Earth & Environmental Science - Water Resources, Climate

• Biology - Cytology, Genetics, Systems

• Biology - Mitosis, Cells, Angiosperm Reproduction

• Biology - Digestive System, Cell Division, Genetics

• Chemistry - Reactions, Atomic & Molecular Structure, Kinetic Molecular Theory

• Chemistry - Intermolecular Forces, Thermodynamics, Atoms

• Chemistry - Thermodynamics, Acids & Bases, Molecular Forces

• Physics - Motion in 1-direction, Energy Transfer, Light

• Physics - Electricity, Newton-s Second Law, Waves

• Health - Nutrition, Communicable Diseases, Fitness

Part-2 : Authoring Questions at Different Levels of Reasoning -   Select three specific scientific topics which might be discussed in one of the classes you plan to teach (e.g.. planetary motion, chemical reactions, electrostatics, ecology, etc.) and construct a 18 question exam.  

• Duplicate this template and save in your 525folder.  Make certain that your 525 folder permissions are set so that "Anyonew with the link can comment"

(a) Identify the theme for each set of six questions.

(b) Identify the course, grade level and ability level you are aiming at.  Your questions should be appropriate for this target audience.              

(c) Write six questions for each theme, one for each level of reasoning. You should write one knowledge question, one comprehension question, one application question, one analysis question, one synthesis question, and one evaluation question for each theme.

(d) Include supporting graphs, charts, diagrams, photos and/or movies as appropriate.

(e) Write complete answers to each of your questions.

(f) At least half of your questions should be in multiple choice format.  (Many teachers avoid asking higher order questions because they generally difficult to grade.  This requirement is given to help you develop skills in constructing tests that are easy to grade and yet still test higher order skills.)

Part-3 - Peer Grading: When you are done writing, exchange your assignment with your editor.  Use the comment feature to grade your author's work.  Comment on questions that vague, irrelevant, missing data, confusing, incorrectly categorized, inaccurate, etc.

Part-4 - Corrections: Review all of the comments and make corrections and/or responses to all comments.

• Make corrections as necessary.  Reply to ALL comments with a comment informing your editor of the actions you have taken.  Make me an editor (norm.herr@csun.edu) so I can see revision history.  Do not delete either editorial comments nor your replies.