What
do my students know about the living environment? What do they know about
the science involved in Pacific navigation? in fishing? in food preparation?
What can they do? How skillfully can they carryout scientific inquiry?
Can they work well with others? Are they effective problem solvers? Do
they give up when they encounter difficulties, or do they persist, seeking
other routes to success? Can they think critically? Do they seek more than
one possible answer to complex questions? Can they communicate about what
they've learned in science? Can they make connections between their science
learning in school and their lives outside of school? Can they put their
knowledge and capabilities together and create products of value? What
do they care about? Does their caring result in action? How well are they
developing scientific habits of mind like persistence, curiosity, open-mindedness
and the ability to pose questions? How skillful and accurate are their
observations? Do they demonstrate caring for their island environment?
Are they thoughtful decision makers, aware of the impact of their decisions
on other living things?
Each of these questions, and many others, gives us opportunities for standards-based assessment. Each is related to our vision for scientific literacy. To answer such questions we need samples of student work, records of their performance on tasks and projects. We can use their logs and journals of scientific investigations and field excursions; we can record observations of their actions and use oral questions to probe their understanding. Quality assessment requires many different types of evidence to give us a clear picture of students' growing scientific literacy.