The Operation Montserrat program makes use
of several types of assessment materials. Please keep in mind
that many of them are not intended for grading purposes.
- The non-graded (formative) assessments
ask students to present their current thinking on what they
are learning in an informal and non-threatening way. Using
these tools enables the teacher to check students' progress
and make any necessary mid-course changes.
Note: If you choose to use these
for grading, we suggest using an all-or-none grade for
completion or a three-level rubric for satisfactory completion
(complete, near-complete, or needs work).
- The graded (summative) assessments should
be used to check for a student’s understanding at
the completion of a unit. Please keep in mind that these
assessments were not designed to be psychometrically valid
or reliable indicators of an individual student’s
achievement or skills. An outline showing when and how to
use the assessments in conjunction with the lessons and
activities is given in the Scope
and Sequence in the Teachers’ Toolkit.
Non-Graded (Formative) Assessments
- Application Materials- These are completed
as 4-5 person Emergency Response Teams. Each application
from each team should have the following:
1) A letter
of team commitment
2) Emergency Response
Team rules.
3) One resume
from each member of the team.
4) A sample of
Earth system science skills. Students will examine
the impact of wildfires in Yellowstone National
Park and complete two worksheets: Yellowstone Analysis
and Sphere Analysis Tool.
5) (Optional) A
mission patch, a team motto, theme song or melody.
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- Emergency Response Team
Member’s Log- Used like a learning journal
after completion of each unit. The specific questions used
in this log are based upon research which showed that by
using these questions, students retained more knowledge
at the completion of the program.
- Team Evaluations- At the completion of
each unit, ERT members will have the opportunity to provide
feedback on how they think their team is doing. These evaluations
should be done by each student for 1) themselves and 2)
the group as a whole. As the teacher you may want to provide
your own evaluation of the group each time as well.
Graded (Summative) Assessments
- Article Review Questions- At the end
of each article are three questions. These may collected
as a means of evaluating student comprehension of the material.
- Earth Science Analyses- For each unit,
students will look at the impact of a natural disaster upon
their sphere, and then develop a group response.
- Worksheets- Throughout the program there
will be opportunities for students to complete worksheets
which go with the activities. For example, students will
be completing data sheets and graphs when they practice
how to analyze volcano data.
- Hands-on Closure Questions- At the end
of each hands-on activity are questions to wrap-up and debrief
students on what they learned from the activity.
- Briefings/ Reports-
You may choose to have students work in groups to complete
activities and then give a report at the end. For instance
at t-Minus 1 Week students are asked to develop "contingency
plans" for the island of Montserrat. These could be
turned in and graded.
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