Task Annotation Project in Science - Middle School (6-8)

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Each task includes a carefully annotated version as well as a document that summarizes reviewers’ takeaways from the task evaluation. When possible, task summaries include links to the source site so educators may access the most recent publicly available versions as tasks are revised based on feedback. Click the links below to access each task.

  • Heated Cup of Water (PS)
    • In this task, students are asked to draw a model that shows what the motion of water molecules look like before and after the water is heated. This task is a classroom-based assessment that is designed to be used independently of any particular curriculum or instructional sequence, and is intended to be used as a formative check  of student understanding of an unpacked "part" of a performance expectation (the learning performance described). This task was developed as part of the Next Generation Science Assessment (NGSA) project, and can be found here.  
  • John's Experiment: Heating Sand (PS)
    • In this task, students are asked to evaluate an experiment and support or refute a provided hypothesis about heating two different colors of sand. This task is a classroom-based assessment that is designed independently of any particular curriculum or instructional sequence, and is intended to be used as a formative check  of student understanding of an unpacked "part" (learning performance) of a performance expectation (PE). This task was developed as part of the Next Generation Science Assessment (NGSA) project, and can be found here.  
  • Layers in a Test Tube (PS)
    • In this task, students are asked to consider whether mixing and heating two substances caused a chemical reaction to occur, based on data and students’ understanding of chemical reactions. This task is a classroom-based assessment that is designed to be independent of any particular curriculum or instructional sequence, and is intended to be used as a formative check of student understanding of an unpacked "part" (learning performance) of a performance expectation (PE). This task was developed as part of the Next Generation Science Assessment (NGSA) project, and can be found here.  
  • Natural Hazards (ESS)
    • This task asks students to help city leaders develop an emergency plan for natural hazards by showing them how data can be used to inform such a plan. Throughout the task, students are asked to analyze and interpret different sets of data, drawing on multiple sets of data to make claims. This task is intended to be used as a classroom-based performance assessment that can monitor progress toward MS-ESS3-2, and is independent of any specific curriculum or instructional materials. The publicly available task was developed as part of the Stanford NGSS Assessment Project (SNAP) and can be found here.  
  • Sound (PS, instructionally embedded)
    • This task is Lesson 7 from the Storylines Middle School Unit "How Can We Sense So Many Different Sounds from a Distance?" This lesson is intended as a review of the big ideas learned in the previous six lessons, and it prepares students for a formal assessment that they will take individually after Lesson 7. This lesson spans 3 40-minute periods during which students are engaging in activities to help them answer the Lesson Question: How can so many different sounds be coming from the needle and the record when you spin it? Students discuss their ideas about investigating how the different sounds are made, conduct investigations about the effect on sound from changing frequency and amplitude of a vibrating object, and work with partners to make sense of how the needle on a record makes different sounds. At the end of the lesson students identify evidence on a record of what is causing the needle to vibrate in different ways to make different sounds, add this information to an Incremental Model Tracker, and use these ideas to make predictions about varying the speed of the record, which will be addressed in the next lesson. An EQuIP Peer Review Panel review of this unit can be found here.