“CAN WE HAVE A GROUP TEST?” DESIGNING COLLABORATIVE, ACTIVE, ALTERNATIVE ASSESSMENTS FOR PHYSICS CLASSES

#AAPTSM17

July 2017

Kelly O’Shea and Danny Doucette

Kelly O’Shea & Danny Doucette Slides & More: goo.gl/Rmeoba

Physics Teacher at Little Red School House & Elisabeth Irwin High School in NYC for the past 3 years

Previously at Trinity School NYC for 1 year and St. Andrew’s School in Delaware for 6 years

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kellyoshea@gmail.com

@kellyoshea

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Who I am: Kelly O’Shea

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http://kellyoshea.wordpress.com Teaching blog with longer articles about practice, etc

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http://kellyoshea180.wordpress.com Shorter posts about the day-to-day in my classroom—with lots of photos!

Kelly O’Shea & Danny Doucette Slides & More: goo.gl/Rmeoba

Physics Teacher at the International School of Latvia (Europe) for the past 6 years

Previously in Mongolia, moving to Pittsburgh this summer

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danny.doucette@gmail.com

@danny_doucette

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Who I am: Danny Doucette

On the web:

danny.science�Just a web site

teachingdanny.wordpress.com�Attempting to go a bit deeper with topical issues in physics education

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Kelly O’Shea & Danny Doucette Slides & More: goo.gl/Rmeoba

Rethinking Final Assessments — Group Practicum Exams

Kelly O’Shea & Danny Doucette Slides & More: goo.gl/Rmeoba

Rethinking Final Assessments — Group Practicum Exams

Kelly O’Shea & Danny Doucette Slides & More: goo.gl/Rmeoba

International Baccalaureate: prep for Internal Assessment

PART TWO (orally)�“Using the tools at your tables, determine the wavelength of the light that is emitted by the laser”

PART ONE

This task is about double-slit interference. Using your resources, make some notes on this page about this topic. For example, you could … Please collaborate.

PART THREE

Individually, please answer the following questions:�1. What was your role in the group work? How did you do?�2. What were one strength and one weakness in your method for Part Two? How could you improve the method?

Kelly O’Shea & Danny Doucette Slides & More: goo.gl/Rmeoba

How it can look in the classroom

What Danny has tried:

1. Randomly assigned to two groups.
2. In the first group, complete an activity designed to build background knowledge.
3. In the second group, work on the practicum task. Collect data, draw graph, etc.
4. Individually, complete a reflection. Submit work from 2-4.

What Kelly has tried:

1. Randomly assigned to a group.
2. Individual warm up problem. Turn it in.
3. Work with your group on the practicum task(s). Test, revise, etc.
4. Help clean up. Fill out reflection.

Kelly O’Shea & Danny Doucette Slides & More: goo.gl/Rmeoba

Student Feedback on What was Tested

Kelly O’Shea & Danny Doucette Slides & More: goo.gl/Rmeoba

Student Feedback on What was Tested

Kelly O’Shea & Danny Doucette Slides & More: goo.gl/Rmeoba

Student Feedback on the Assessment

Kelly O’Shea & Danny Doucette Slides & More: goo.gl/Rmeoba

Student Feedback on the Assessment

“more practical rather than theoretical so we have to use logic and background knowledge”

“I stress less and, to be honest, learn more”

“We are able to share knowledge between each other and so by the end of the quiz we know more about the topic the quiz was about”

Kelly O’Shea & Danny Doucette Slides & More: goo.gl/Rmeoba

What and how to assess?

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Also… useful feedback versus grading.

Kelly O’Shea & Danny Doucette Slides & More: goo.gl/Rmeoba

Student Feedback on Grading

Kelly O’Shea & Danny Doucette Slides & More: goo.gl/Rmeoba

One Idea (Not Tested) For Grading

Maybe the students get a certain number of chips that they can trade in for a nudge during the exam. The group has to all agree to trade one in (and the teacher can veto, obviously, if they are asking for something before they've had a chance to think about it or whatever), but trading one in will (slightly) lower their max score for the assessment. But also not completing the task successfully would similarly lower their max score, so they would have to decide on the best plan.

5 points — group base score (everyone just gets this unless their group sets the room on fire or something—but this is where you subtract the half point or whatever if they use a nudge token)

max 1 point for individual participation/reflection

max 1 point for individual pre-work (warm up problems)

max 1 points for successful completion of task

max 2 points for meaningful writeup of their solution

Kelly O’Shea & Danny Doucette Slides & More: goo.gl/Rmeoba

Links

• Kelly’s blog post on this scientific abilities: https://kellyoshea.blog/2016/03/31/assessing-scientific-abilities/
• Eugenia Etkina’s work on Scientific Abilities
• Kelly’s post on collaborative group exams and Danny’s post
• Kelly’s post on scientific competencies and being “smart” in science class: https://kellyoshea.blog/2016/11/08/being-smart-in-science-class/
• And Ilana Horn’s work that post was based on: https://teachingmathculture.wordpress.com/2016/10/25/auditing-your-classrooms-for-competence-and-status/

Kelly O’Shea & Danny Doucette Slides & More: goo.gl/Rmeoba

Additional Links

• Colleen’s post on participation: http://engineeringwithphysics.com/2015/09/29/participation-goals/
• Physics Lab Practicum Book: http://www.physicsforce.com/class-practicums/ (Can download PDF on that page for free)

Kelly O’Shea & Danny Doucette Slides & More: goo.gl/Rmeoba

Overview of the Workshop

1. Welcome and super short overview. Why collaborative? Why practical? NGSS/AP/IB alignment? Sort into random groups for first activity. (10 minutes) (I group triplets in class, but I think 6 groups of four might be better here)
2. First lab practicum group activity. (10 minutes warm up problem individually, 40-50 minutes to work the problem in groups) Have an extra set up in case a group finishes early? Or an extension instead?
3. Come back together, but mix up groups again. Briefly talk about ways we’ve implemented in our classroom. Give teachers a chance to talk to each other about what they experienced (in groups with people who did different activities). Opportunity to share back. (15-20 minutes)
4. New groups again. Second activity. Everyone does the same activity. (Something more like what Danny has done in his classes.) (40 minutes)
5. Short break.
6. Come back together. Mix up groups again. Share to each other, and share back to the larger group. What have we noticed and wondered so far? What ideas are happening? (10-15 minutes)
7. Briefly seed the conversation about assessment. We will do more in depth later. (5-10 minutes)
8. Split into small groups by interest/school type/etc (3-4 per group, ideally… make multiple small groups from large ones). Might be good to think about what group types to have before we get there. Work in these small groups on designing a new lab practicum that would work for your classes, constraints, and students. (1 hour?)
9. Back together. Share back (briefly). Put what you’ve done into a google doc/folder so we all have it.
10. Assessment conversation.
11. Wrap up. Reflections. How can you fit it into your own classroom (if you even want to do that)?

Kelly O’Shea & Danny Doucette Slides & More: goo.gl/Rmeoba