Refined from Understanding by Design

Assessment Plan Blueprint

What understandings or goals will be assessed through this lesson?

Since this is the engaging activity for a sound unit, student’s initial understandings of sound
and soundwaves will be assessed during this lesson.

What criteria are implied in the standards and understandings regardless of the task specifics?
What qualities must student work demonstrate to signify the standards were met?

The criteria implied by the standards
includes students being able to describe a
simple model for waves relating the
amplitude and the energy of the wave.
Students will be able to create a model
describing how the waves are transmitted
through various materials.
The qualities that student work must
demonstrate include the annotated
diagrams. The diagrams will include sound
waves in specific locations to show what
medium the waves are travelling through.
They will also need to adjust the shape of
the wave depending on the pitch.

Through what authentic performance task will students demonstrate understanding?

Task Overview: Before completing the activity, students will be watching multiple videos on
producing sound from a glass bottle filled with water. They will be forming initial claims to
answer the question “How does the amount of water in a glass bottle affect the sound?” With
these initial claims in mind, students will conduct an activity to investigate their claims.
Students are going to be filling five glass bottles with different levels of water. They will be both
tapping on the bottles and blowing on the top to produce sound. Noting the different sounds
based on the tapping and blowing, students will sort the different water levels from low to high
pitch. Once the bottles have been sorted, students will annotate their bottle diagrams to show
the order of water levels within each bottle. Based on the results obtained from the activity,
students will revise their initial claims and then state the evidence they found to support those
new claims.

What student products and performances will provide evidence of desired understandings?

Students annotated diagrams and revised claims will provide evidence of desired
understandings. The bottle diagrams have only one correct way of being labeled, so it is easy to
see if students are on the right track. The revised claims will also serve as evidence based on
their evidence. Students will need to have revised their claims to correctly answer the guiding
question. They will need to use the correct evidence to support their claims.
Refined from Understanding by Design

By what criteria will student products and performances be evaluated?

Students products will be graded based on completion. This is an engaging activity, so the
assessment of 100% correct information is not necessary for this lesson. Students diagrams
will be monitored during the activity, so they can be guided in the right direction before they
begin to form misconceptions. Claims will be checked for completion and briefly read over to
check and see if the students are on the right track. No formal grading will be conducted for
this activity.