Acceptable Evidence (performances of understanding)

As students progress through any unit of learning, their level of understanding must be assessed. Following the guidance
offered by Wiggins and McTighe in the article, Understanding Understanding

, performances of understanding will be used

throughout the unit and categorized as introductory, guided inquiry, and culminating performances as a way indicate their
function and sequence within the unit of learning.

Introductory Performances
Pre-survey of students initial ideas and attitudes about scientific discourse, and the role of evidence in
scientific discourse

Students are presented with a mystery; Why are these ships

in a field? Through a slide presentation of ships

in the Aral Sea and record their initial ideas in their science journals

Guided Inquiry Performances

Reflections: Students will reflect on their learning and new understandings frequently throughout the unit.
Sometimes students will reflect individually in their science journals, and sometimes they will reflect with
thought partners or as a class. Reflections in one of these formats occurs on an almost daily basis and the use
of evidence to support ideas and explanations is expected.

Data collection: Students collect data daily for a period of time during the unit while they observe their
mini-lakes. Additional data collection occurs throughout the unit as students grapple with the behaviors and
properties of water as it transforms between solid, liquid, and gas. Students are assessed on their ability to
use the data they collect as evidence to support their ideas and explanations.

Claim-Evidence-Reasoning

(CER) Framework: Students begin by making claims and are facilitated in

discussion to support those claims with evidence. As we move deeper into the unit, the concept of reasoning
is introduced and students begin to connect their new understandings of science ideas to their claims and
evidence.

Concept cartoons: Concept cartoons are used periodically as a checkpoint after a new concept has been
explored and students have had an opportunity to make observations, collect data, reflect, and engage in
scientific discourse with peers. The concept cartoons present students with a scenario that addresses the
same concept they have been exploring but set in a new, but similar context. Students are assessed on their
ability to apply the scientific principles they have learned from the evidence they have collected to new
situations.

Annotated drawings: Students create annotated drawings to demonstrate their current, best thinking about a
phenomena that may not be visible to the unaided eye (such what is happening at the particle level during
evaporation). During the unit the annotated drawings are treated as works in progress and students are

encouraged to revisit their models as they analyze and evaluate evidence and their thinking changes.
Annotated graphs: Students annotate their graphs occasionally as they notice trends, patterns, or anomalies.
The annotated graphs serve as a way to assess their understanding of the data they have collected.

The story of the minilake: This occurs once, approximately mid-way through the unit. It is an opportunity for
students to make public their new understanding of evaporation on the particle and visible levels using their
mini-lakes as the context through which to tell the story. Students ability to use evidence to support their
claims and explanations is assessed. Additionally, students are pushed to apply these ideas to a similar
situation. (puddles after rain, dew on grass, etc.)

Culminating Performances These more complex, concluding performances of understanding give students a
chance to synthesize and demonstrate the understandings they developed through the other performances of
understanding.

Post survey of students ideas and attitudes about scientific discourse, and the role of evidence in scientific
discourse

Final project: Students make their learning public by synthesizing what they have learned about water
transformations and applying it to a new scenario. Students are given choices around how they wish to
communicate their learning.