Authentic+Assessments

The purpose of this assignment is for you to create an authentic assessment for use in a high school biology class. Your assessment should include both a student handout and a rubric by which you will grade the students. The posted assignment sheet describes the requirements in further detail. This assignment does not require a formal lesson plan. Student Work:

WANTED: Greenhouse Gasses by Max Green This authentic assessment involves students working in groups of 4-5 to create an informative WANTED poster on a major greenhouse gas. The students are given one class period to work on the poster and it is due two days later giving them two nights to work on it outside of class. I used the Rubistar website to create my rubric.

By Kathy Rossetti In this assessment students are doctors at Sacred Heart Hospital. Sacred Heart is know for its cutting edge medicine in the field of genetic genetic diseases. Each year the hospital has a conference to educate other doctors about new diseases, their inheritance patterns, and possible treatments. As an employee of Sacred Heart each doctor (student) will have to choose one genetic disease to present to their collages.

In this authentic assessment, the students can either work in groups of two or three. Their goal is to design a song that relates to our current studies in molecular genetics involving DNA, RNA, and proteins. The students have three possible ways to perform their song. They can video tape themselves performing, record an audio file, or perform it live in the front of the class. The first sheet below is the document that is the handout that will be passed out to the students in class. The second sheet is the rubric and is how they are going to be graded for their assessment. This authentic assessment allows students to get creative and create a travel brochure for a species of their choice. The brochure should entice a species to want to visit the ideal locale. This assignment is designed for students to become familiar with concepts involved with ecosystems. Students will work with a partner and create an ideal environment for its species. The brochure can be done through Microsoft Word, Microsoft Publisher, or hand-written.
 * Brandon Parrott**
 * Frank Savaglio**



Around the world is an authentic assessment which allows students to create a presentation on a specific biome. Students are put into small groups and told that they have been given a blank check in order to travel to any biome in the world to better understand ecological concepts. The students are then expected to create a poster, powerpoint, or brochure on their biome along with an oral presentation between 4-8 minutes. Students are given a rubric to better understand certain aspects that need to be included for their grade.
 * Lauryn Funteas**


 * Kari Free** – This authentic assessment allows the students to work in pairs to create a lesson on an assigned system of the body. The pair of students is to create a lesson including a visual aid, handout, and quiz to teach their peers about the system of the body they were assigned. The quizzes will be combined for the unit test after all of the presentations. The rubric will be handed out to the students along with the assignment description sheet. [[file:Body Systems Auth Assess.docx]][[file:Body Systems Rubric.docx]]

Conservation News is an authentic assessment that asks students to work as a team of 4 "conservation biologists" to identify a conservation issue. Each team will be assigned a biome that they will research. Based on their research they will choose a conservation issue relevant to their selected biome. Each group will develop a front page of a newspaper that gives information about the biome and its location, and also explains the conservation issue to the public. The students are given a rubric to clarify the requirements, requiring several articles and images. They are given two class days for group work and one class day will be devoted to group presentations of their projects.
 * Lauren Clayton**

This is an authentic assessment for the cell unit. The students will be in partners and they will create a website for one part of a cell. They will need to include pictures, interactive simulations/games for that part of the cell, definitions, where it is found, what its role is in the cell, as well as the structure. This will help the students become familiar with using the internet and creating their own website. They will also learn there cell part, as well as the ones closely related. They will also then have a lot of resources to learn from their classmates websites as well. They will be graded on their website creativity and organization, as well as the content included.
 * Ashley Fleming**

This is an authentic assessment for nutrition. The students will have to create a form of media to project the information that they have learned in this unit to educate readers about the importance of proper nutrition. In this project the students will have to touch on how food is broken down in the body and where vitamins and minerals get absorb. Students will address certain illnesses that come from poor nutrition and gives examples of what foods to eat to prevent such diseases and illnesses. The students will close by creating a menu that shows some examples of a healthy diet.
 * Tim George**

Sam Alderfer
In this exercise students will, simply put, do science. They will first decide on a topic to research. Then they will formulate a research question associated with that topic. Next they will formulate a hypothesis in response to the research question. Then they will design an experiment to test the hypothesis and conduct the experiment. Finally they will report their findings. This exercise will be conducted in groups of 2-4 students. Students will pick their own groups

This is an assessment that will be used to learn the many differnet parts of the cell. The students will create a specific type of poem or song for their assigned cell organelle. They will be assigned a date in which we will conduct a "poetry slam" to perform their masterpieces. There is a lot of creativity involved in this project in that the students can pick a type of poem, write a song, or use an existing song and create their own lyrics. There are certain requirements that must be included that are listed on the handout along with the rubric. This project allows creativity for students and makes learning about cells more exciting. I have posted an example of my own song as well.
 * Nicole Martinelli**


 * Jill Dorbeck**

In my assessment I have chosen to allow the students to be creative and create their own orginial 'In Plain English' video. The students are asked to create a minimum of 1:00 minute video of a biological process covered in the first semester of the school year. There is a lot of room for creativity in this project but it can also serve as a review for the cummulative final at the end of the semester. After the projects have been turned in there will be an 'In Plain English' festival (popcorn included) to review for the final. (This project was adapted from Dr. Selgem's C&I 214 class.)




 * Jon DeRew**

This is an assessment that will assess the students on the parts of the cell. The students will be asked to make an edible cell. This cell will consists of important organelles and they all need to be edible. Every part of the cell must be edible; it may not taste the best but it must be edible. The students will also attach a key that describes the organelle, its function, and what it is represented by.


 * Katie Greune**

Students will have a chance to write a grant proposal focusing on school improvement. The proposal must be a topic in biology that we have discussed in the classroom. Each student is given certain criteria that they must meet in their proposal but other than that, students can be as inventive in their proposal as they wish to be.


 * Kyle Gunlock**

In this activity, students will choose an organelle and make a myspace profile for it. They will make the organelle come alive by using personification and background knowledge of the chosen organelle. The rubric mostly pertains to completion and not artistic ability, but students that enjoy making profiles will go above and beyond. It will take research of their chosen organelle to complete this project.


 * Lauren Birkner**

In this activity students will be exploring disease causing pathogens. They will choose one pathogen to research and then present their findings in the form of either a power point, poster, or song. Each presentation must be between 3-5 minutes long. Upon turning in their project they will also need to turn in a rationale for the project and 5 quiz questions that each student should be able to answer after their presentation is given. Objectives and guidelines are included on the students hand out and there are 3 separate rubrics which students should adhere to for which ever type of media they chose to present. This is an activity in which the students are required to make a presentation about cancer and cancer drugs. They will be forced to play a role and put forth a presentation to the FDA where they must argue for their point of view.
 * Kevin Templin: Cancer Project:**