Early Childhood Science Assessment Tools
Journals 📓
It is an effective tool to assess mastery, as it allows independence in demonstrating knowledge and skill. This could include drawn images, written words, labels, diagrams, written sentences, etc. It is an open-ended assessment that can demonstrate what a child understands about a topic or concept.
Students could learn about or explore a topic and then document their learning. It can show a nice progression of learning and teachers can base future lessons off of what the student does or does not understand.
Yes, I use this in my first grade classroom. It is a good method for students to demonstrate learning. I can use guided pages with prompts and pictures or the students can work fro blank pages to demonstrate their new learning. It helps to know where students are stuck on new content.
Students could have a journal prompt to write about/draw a way they can stay safe during their science work. They could diagram safety procedures as one of their entries. This would let the teacher see their understanding of safety procedures.
It is important to use multiple methods as not all children learn in the same way. Different methods work better or words for students and all children should have the opportunity to express their learning in a way that shows what they actually learned.
Observations 👩🏫
Observations are a great addition to various other forms of assessments. With observations you are able to observe students performing a certain task. For example, if you are teaching a lesson on the food pyramid and you have the students assembling the food pyramid, it's easy to walk around the classroom and observe which children are able to complete the task.
They can be used to guide instruction because they are hands-on. You can easily pass out the materials to each student and demonstrate how to complete the project. The students can easily follow along because they have the materials.
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I plan to use observations as a form of assessing student's knowledge in my classroom. I plan to observe students individually, as a large group, and in small groups, to ensure that I have observed them in various settings and learning groups.
Safety practices can easily be incorporated as the teacher will be observing the students, therefore she will catch any unsafe activity that may be happening. The teacher will of course cover the safety precautions prior to letting the students engage in the activity.
It is important to use multiple forms of assessment, as some children may demonstrate their knowledge differently. For some, it may be hands-on activities and for others it may be written tests. It's important that we utilize various assessments to ensure we are capturing the full potential and understanding.
Informal Conversations 👥
Informal conversations are a low pressure assessment on what a child knows and the child is more likely to give you more information about the topic. This should not be the final measure of assessment, as there are more formal assessments to measure a student's mastery.
With early childhood science instruction, informal conversations would be used to gather in information. For instance, walking around a classroom after explaining a lesson is the perfect time to have one of those conversations. The teacher can prompt children with open-ended questions.
I could see myself using this daily on the playground and in the classroom. Informal conversations can be used to gather information about what you are teaching and be used throughout the day.
Science safety is essential, so making sure it is included in each conversation is essential. You can ask students "What is your safety plan" and "what safety equipment will you need before you begin"? This would allow you to see what the child knows about safety procedures and equipment.
Using different forms of assessments are key to understanding what a child really knows. What you may have caught on one assessment may have been missed on another. Giving an accurate reading of the progress of the child is important to help the child meet their full potential.
Performance/Task-Based Assessments 💥
Assessing students off of their performance and tasks is always a true way to observe their science knowledge. There are specific procedures that must be used for various tasks and teachers can assess their learning through watching the child carry out these tasks.
The assessment is used to make sure that students follow the correct steps as well as ensure that they can do an experiment properly.
I would use this type of assessment in the classroom, as it gives children the opportunity to safely explore their own environments while conducting various experiments to see how they can use the process in the future. I would start the students off with easier experiments and procedures.
Even for non-explosive experiments I would have my students wear protective gear over their eyes. I would also ensure that they follow proper hand-washing techniques. Not only that, but I would also have them wear gloves to protect their hands.
The reason for using multiple methods is to make sure that all students are responding to the lessons in a favorable way. Not every child responds to the lessons that are presented, but by using multiple methods it can help to cover the full spectrum of how children learn.