Assessment of Module Goals

Below, you will find a list of assessments for each unit of the module, as well as assessments for the module as a whole. Each unit has associated with it formative and/or summative assessments to measure student progress toward individual unit learning outcomes. Additionally, the embedded assessment questions below are particularly helpful for measuring student progress toward key points of understanding in the overall module. These questions focus specifically on the question of what constitutes "the environment," the quantities of freshwater used by people for different purposes, the effects of surface water diversion and groundwater withdrawal in human and other communities, and the disparate effects of water scarcity in relation to gender, race and class. Finally, to assess overall learning in this module, you will find a summative assessment question directly related to the overriding module goal. This question directly assesses how well students can integrate what they have learned about the hydrologic cycle with societal impacts of human manipulations of the water cycle.

Overall Module Assessments

Summative Assessment

Using one or more labeled diagrams, describe a component of the hydrologic cycle (or processes that affect the components) that might result in unequal access to freshwater resources, and explain our difficulties in making sure that hydrologic systems are not altered in ways that favor one group of living beings over another. Describe two ways that manipulations of the hydrologic cycle might impact human communities and two ways that humans might mitigate the effects of such changes.

Sample summative assessment (Microsoft Word 2007 (.docx) 3.3MB Dec10 15)

Rubric for sample summative assessment (Microsoft Word 2007 (.docx) 3.7MB Apr30 16)

Unit Assessments

Note: All assessments are to be completed in Spanish. Possible answers in Spanish are provided on the rubric and examples of assessment questions in Spanish are provided on the individual unit page.

Unit 1 Assessments:

• Define environmental justice.
• Compare your definitions with those of the Environmental Protection Agency and Environmental Justice Activists (EJnet) noting similarities and differences.
• Justify why you have written your definition as you did.
• Grading Rubric for Minute Paper (Spanish) (Microsoft Word 2007 (.docx) 86kB Apr28 16)

Unit 2 Assessments:

• Student water footprint handout can be turned in for credit; individual answers will differ. Assessment to be based on completion of the table.
  
• Optional assessment — students create their own individual water cycle diagrams and/or discuss scenarios that impact the water cycle. Unit 2 assessment rubric Spanish (Microsoft Word 2007 (.docx) 116kB Apr28 16)
  

Unit 3 Assessments:

• Identify at least three possible environmental and/or social consequences for the Amazon River and its basin if the development of major hydroelectric projects on the Marañón River proceeds.
• Do any of these possible consequences connect to the idea of environmental justice? Explain.
• What additional research would you recommend to be better able to predict these consequences?
• Unit 3 Assessment Rubric (Microsoft Word 2007 (.docx) 28kB May18 16)

Unit 4 Assessments:

• Distribute a 3 X 5 notecard. On one side ask students to draw from memory a diagram of a rain shadow, with a brief explanation in Spanish of how it works.

• On the other side of the notecard, ask students to identify three factors that caused the Cochabamba Water Wars of 2000.

• Assessment rubric for Unit 4 (Microsoft Word 2007 (.docx) 101kB Jul16 24)

Unit 5 Assessments:

• Predict the direction of groundwater flow based on water table elevation levels, and
• Apply measures of soil permeability to predict the potential for groundwater contamination at the Lago Agrio 02 oil well site in Ecuador.
• Rubric to evaluate Actividades para el Pozo Lago Agrio 02 (Microsoft Word 2007 (.docx) 103kB Apr30 16)

Unit 6 Assessments:

• Assessment question 1: Describe the significance of the Ogallala Aquifer to US agriculture and explain why agricultural production is concentrated in this region of the United States. How might the groundwater of the Ogallala Aquifer be connected to the hydrological cycle and how can this connection/relationship be affected by overuse of the groundwater? What potential groups in society may be affected and why?
• Assessment question 2: Compare the issues of freshwater resources and environmental justice found in this unit with those found in one other part of the world we have studied. What do these two situations have in common? What strategies are required to resolve the conflicts over water in each case? What is the role that scientific research can play to help resolve these conflicts?
• Assessment Rubric Unit 6 (Microsoft Word 2007 (.docx) 107kB Apr30 16)