Aquarium Ecosystem Assessment

Cindy Hmelo-Silver
,
Educational Psychology, Rutgers University
This assesses students knowledge of aquarium ecosystems. It has been used largely with middle school science.

What learning is this evaluation activity designed to assess?

It can be used to assess students understanding in terms of structures, behaviors, and functions as well as the sophistication of their mental models and the coherence of their explanations.

What is the nature of the teaching/learning situation for which your evaluation has been designed?

This was designed to go with inquiry materials that introduce students to aquatic ecosystems.

What advice would you give others using this evaluation?

Are there particular things about this evaluation that you would like to discuss with the workshop participants? Particular aspects on which you would like feedback?

We are trying to develop a more general version for aquatic ecosystems (and have a draft that we have piloted).

Evaluation Materials