06 spring - kim, dana, katie b
calorimetry

This meeting was focused on assessment. We worked with different forms of assessment, both formative and summative. During this meeting we were given time to create an assessement for our lesson study. At this point our lesson study was centered around a lab activity from Living by Chemistry in which cheetos were burned to find calories. Two of us (Kim and Dana) had already taught this lesson once. We decided to develop a lab quiz that would help us assess the goals of the lesson.

At this point our overall goals were that they understood heat transfer, could explain trends on a graph and could calculate the calories. Our assessment consisted of giving them a data table with marshmallow data as opposed to cheetos with the goal to apply previous knowledge to a new situation. We them expected them to fill in the missing pieces, graph ΔT vs Δm and explain trends, calculate calories and calories per gram, and explain the pattern in calories per gram for different amounts of marshmallows. By the end of this meeting we were somewhat excited about getting to use this assessment at the end of our lesson the next year.

This developed quiz was actually never used. Kim and Dana had already taught the lesson for the year. During the upcoming summer meeting, the lesson as a whole went through drastic changes and this particular assessment fell to the side. There was some value to developing the quiz even though it was never used. We were forced to decide our goals by focusing on what we actually wanted the students to be able to do, while at the same time developing more accurate and useful assessments.

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