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GLOBE
Classroom Assessment Tools provides a general template that
teachers can use to develop integrated investigation problems.
Teachers may choose to use all or some of the assessment components
as they are appropriate for assessing GLOBE within their particular
science curriculum. To analyze student work, collaboration,
communication, and generic
scoring rubrics are provided as well.
The above
template was used to develop all of the samples found here
at GLOBE Assessment. An example, Earth System's Phenology
for Middle School, is demonstrated for you below.
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 Insert
GLOBE data or graphs for the shools listed above
here
The
growing season for a native crop is the amount
of time necessary at suitable air temperature
and soil moisture levels for growing to occur.
In an effort to increase the food supply in overpopulated
areas, a group of scientists have proposed trying
to plant a crop in several places in the world
that have similar environmental and climactic
conditions as the area where the crops are native.
As a preliminary study, the scientists have been
looking for areas that have similar air temperature
and soil moisture conditions. Using the graphs
and data above and assuming all other conditions
are equal,
a)
answer all of the following questions
b)
write a short report (about 1 page) that discusses
the possibility of planting the new crop in any
of the regions - Heath, Barron, or Kinninmont.
Make sure you support your conclusions.
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 (Present
problem requiring use of GLOBE data archives)
Present problem situation/driving question
with background and role of the student in the investigation.
Look at the graph for the native site above. Think
of two questions you might ask regarding the data
that are related to finding other sites that have
similar conditions. A sample question might be "At
what point during the year does it look like spring
is beginning?" Make sure you also say why you think
the answer to your two questions might be helpful
to you. |
 (Planning
Investigations: Ask students to pose relevant questions)
Ask the student to look at the GLOBE
data/graphs provided above and come up with possible
questions that she/he might ask regarding the data.
Provide a sample question to help guide the
student.
One of the students in your investigation
group, Samantha, suggested that finding trends in
graphs is sometimes helpful for analysis. Looking
at the bar graph for the native site, what happens
to the air temperature between January and December?
What happens to the soil moisture between
January and December? |
 (Analyzing
and interpreting GLOBE data: Ask questions about
data in the table)
Ask the student to find observable trends
in the data.
Looking again at the bar graph for the
native site, mark where you think each of the four
seasons begins and ends. For example, mark "S" for
the beginning of spring, "Su" for the beginning
of summer, "F" for the beginning of fall, and "W"
for the beginning of winter. Make sure you label
each of your marks. What information helped you
decide where to put the marks for each season? |
 (Conducting
Investigations: Assuring data quality)
Ask student to look through the data
for possible measurement or data entry errors and suggest ways to avoid these types of errors
in the future.
The air temperature and soil moisture
data shown in each of the graphs are monthly averages.
To find the monthly averages, data was collected
by students taking measurements on each day of the
month and then calculated then calculated at the
end of each month. Since it is always important
to show accurate data in your graphs, what are two
possible sources of error you can think of in the
above method?
How
would you make sure that these errors did not occur
if you were taking the measurements and calculating
the averages?
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(Analyzing
and Interpreting Data: Ask questions requiring interpretation
of data)
Ask the student what the relationship
is between the two variables given. Provide the student with an example of a trend.
Another student in your investigation group,
James, mentioned that finding relationships between
different variables can be a very useful part of
analysis. Looking at all four of the graphs on the
first page, what can you say about the temperature
at the beginning of the growing season for each
of the regions? In other words, when the growing
season is just beginning in each region, what is
happening to the temperature? |
(Analyzing
and Interpreting Data: Ask to represent data in
a graph or table)
Ask the student to use the data provided
to generate new data representations to analyze
trends.
Looking at the graphs for each region, fill in the
chart below that compares each region's beginning
and ending temperature and soil measurements to
that of the native site. Use "+" if the measurement
is more than the native site, "-" if the measurement
is less than the native site, and "." if the measurement
is similar to the native site.
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(Analyzing
and Interpreting Data: Ask for interpretation of
data on the graph)
Ask student about specific features of
graphs and what indications there are for various
maximums, minimums, etc.
Ask them to explain their answer.
Using the table you just created, which of the
three possible sites (Heath, Barron, and Kinninmont)
looks like it has a growing season most similar
to the native site? Why did you choose the site
that you did? |
(Planning
Investigations: Ask to set up another problem)
Ask student to choose another school
from the GLOBE database that has some related feature
as the school(s) they just analyzed.
Have them copy a relevant data set for this
new school and to perform a similar analysis on
this new data set. Ask them what other variables they would be interested in looking
at and why.
Looking again at how you determined which site
was most similar to the native site, list an additional
type of data from the GLOBE archives that would
be helpful in determining the beginning and ending
of each season: |
 (Summarizing
Data: Ask to summarize and report findings)
Ask the student to summarize their analysis
of the original school(s) and to write a short report
or to prepare a short presentation of their findings
and recommendations, supporting their conclusions
with the analysis they have done and to suggest
other data that might be helpful for further study
of the situation.
Using the data analysis you have done, write
a short report (about 1 page) that summarizes your
findings and explains the pros and cons of each
site (Heath, Barron, and Kinninmont) based on its
similarity to the growing season of the native site.
Make sure you discuss additional information that
you would need to make a more accurate judgement
on each of the sites. Also, be sure to support your
conclusions with the data in the graphs and the
analyses you have done while answering the questions.
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As examples-
a set of tasks and questions designed to test each of the
components of the science investigation strategies in the
GLOBE assessment framework are presented below. While the
protocol tests are designed to test students' use of the measurement
procedures, the integrated investigation problems are designed
to examine how students can plumb GLOBE data by checking for
measurement quality, analyzing and interpreting data, making
comparisons of measurements taken in different locales, posing
questions and approaches for new investigations, and communicating
about investigation findings. Before utilizing these sample
assessments, a thorough examination should be conducted to
ensure that the measures match classroom curriculum and local
GLOBE activities.
Currently
there are six investigation areas which you can choose from:
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