Course Assessment
Six-week Unit
The following assessments for the 6-week unit are examples of the type of assessments that may be appropriate as you teach your course. Effective assessment is very difficult to do well, so you may find that your own assessments may be an improvement over ones that we list here. Please send your example in, and we will be happy to make it available to all of our users. In order to expose new teachers to different types of assessments, we have included a variety of assessment types, from long term projects (tapping into higher understanding) to quizzes (effective for having students demonstrate their understanding of new terminology). We have posed the assessments in terms of framing questions.
Before you start the course, you may want to conduct a "pre-test" in order to determine what background the students are bringing to this topic. A well-thought out pre-test can be used as part of the assessment at the end of the course as a post-test, provide direct evidence of student achievement. (EXAMPLE?)
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Week 1: What is the Earth made of? How do you know?
- Quiz: The first week will be heavily laden with terminology. A traditional quiz provides a rapid assessment of the students' understanding of terms and evaluation of certain skills such as familiarity with the metric system (NEED EXAMPLE QUIZ).
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Week 2: How did the continents get their shape?
- Take-home writing assignment: Have students explain the often heard statement that LA will one day be a suburb of San Francisco. How could this happen (other than through urban sprawl)? How can the movement actually be measured? How long will it take for this to happen?
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Week 3: What does the bottom of the ocean look like?
- Oral report as a small group: Choose a model of the Earth (a tennis ball, balloon, basketball, etc.) and describe the different layers of the earth and how we can "see" evidence of continental drift and sea-floor spreading. Report should also have a written component, and it should be clear that all students have participated in most aspects of the project. (ERIC, I DO NOT UNDERSTAND THIS ONE.)
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Week 4: Why do the plates of the Earth move? these forces as evidence for Plate Tectonics?
- Individual in-class writing assignment: Using the model of the Earth that you used last week, how would you change it to include your knowledge of driving forces such as the density of the different layers of the earth. Using the existing information of your model, explain where on your model you may find evidence of continental drift and plate tectonics. Can you make some guesses as to where you might find more volcanoes and/or earthquakes?
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Week 5: What is an earthquake?
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Web search: Divide the students in small groups based on continents/land masses/
plates/hemispheres/etc. Have the students go to the following Websites and
record the location of earthquakes and volcanoes in their area and compare it
to other regions of the Earth. Why are some areas more seismically active that others?
How does the current seismicity compare to the earthquake history? How do the
locations of earthquakes and volcanoes correlate? Each student should prepare a
written report with a map showing the location of their earthquakes and volcanoes.
The map should have a key to indicate the severity of the quake.
Current Earthquake Information (global)
Current Volcano Information (global) -
Week 6: How do you measure earthquakes?
- Parental involvement: Go around your home and write down at least 15 things in your house that may be hazardous during an earthquake and why. You should make changes on at least one of these hazards, and have your parents/guardian sign your assignment acknowledging the change that you made. Alternatively, have the students evaluate their classroom or other areas of their school and make suggestions for improved safety. Related projects could be putting together an earthquake kit for their homes.
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Culminating Project:
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Present students with different pictures of IO or Mars or Europa or other
planets/moons in our solar system. Have students predict, describe and/or
draw pictures of: what the interior of the celestial body may look like;
what problems there might be with building structures on the land; what
evidence they can see of Plate Tectonics; what precautions may be built into
structures that are built.
Have students investigate the country/land mass that their family originally came from. What evidence of Plate Tectonics can you illustrate using your knowledge of Plate Tectonics and your research about your landmass? In what ways are the buildings there safe or unsafe and why?
Write a letter to a relative of yours that does not live in San Francisco or the Bay Area. Describe to them why San Francisco is so prone to earthquakes. You should include picture/diagrams and also explain how we try to prevent major damage from earthquakes. Does your relative have to worry about seismological events? If so, try to explain to them the dangers they may be in and why.
Other relevant assessments, depending on the emphasis of your unit: Rocks and Rock Cycle: o Lab Practical: Get students used to a lab practicals by setting up different stations around your classroom with a variety of questions and materials. All student can have a 20 question answer sheet, but start at a different point in the answer sheet. One station can have rocks A, B and C. Students should be able to identify them as sedimentary, igneous, or metamorphic. Another station can have a diagram of a volcano, and would ask what kind of rock you would expect to find along the sides of the volcano (explain your answer). Another station or two would have pictures of places that clearly exhibit examples of metamorphic or sedimentary rock. Students should be able to JUSTIFY their answers for each and every question. Another station should have a fossil. Have students explain if this is a rock or not and what kind of rock it would be if it IS in fact a rock. Again JUSTIFYING the answer is important