Performance Standard 4: Assessment of and for Student Learning

The teacher systematically gathers, analyzes, and uses all relevant data to measure student academic progress, guide instructional content and delivery methods, and provide timely feedback to both students and parents throughout the school year.


Biotechnology Project

The biotechnology research project is a great example of an assessment tool to gauge the students’ understanding of not only biotechnology, but numerous biology concepts covered throughout the year.  This project serves as the final exam for Biology during the spring semester.  Students are assigned a biotechnology company that trades on the stock market by drawing a company symbol out of a container.  The students work on collecting the information about their company the entire semester.   The portfolio, poster, and presentation are due during exam week.  Not only do the students learn and apply biology, but they also learn tidbits about the stock market.  As an added bonus they realize how biology is used to make real money in the real world. 

Feedback

I sometimes give the students four or five questions they must find the answers to by conducting a little research.  I want them to dig a little deeper and apply the knowledge they have gained in the class to figure out the “why”, “what”, or “how”?  I want the students to become actively engaged in the higher levels of learning.   I allow the students to use the iPads during class time to begin their research on the questions and if they need to they may finish them for homework.  As I walk around the room, I often hear “ooo” and “ah” as the information makes sense to them all of a sudden and they synthesize the new information with what they already know.  It is the aha moments like this that make teaching worthwhile.