Client Information

Name: Terra Brown

Position: 7th Grade Life Science

School: General Ray Davis Middle School

Email: tbrown@rockdale.k12.ga.us

Georgia Certification Number: 397633

Assessment

This assessment corresponds to the lesson the designer created in a previous course, and

can be viewed at https://lifescienceorganizationoflife.weebly.com/. Students will be instructed to

work in pairs to choose an organism, and demonstrate their understanding of how that organism

fits in to each level of organization both internal to the organism (cells, tissues, organs, organ

system, organism) as well as the levels of organization external to the organism (organism,

population, community, ecosystem, and biome).

Using a PowerPoint presentation that students will be able to access via the online

learning management system utilized in the classroom, the teacher will instruct students to

choose an organism as well as a presentation medium such as Powtoon, Prezi, Adobe Spark, or

something similar. Teacher will instruct students to construct a presentation that shows a

breakdown of the organizational levels within the organism including the kinds of cells, tissues,

organs, and organ systems that make up that particular organism. Students will also include in

the presentation the levels of organization that the organisms fits into outside of the organism

within the biosphere, from the organism itself, the population, community, ecosystem, and

biome. The teacher will instruct students to include appropriate images for each level. Images

can be student created or found on the web. Pictures collected from the web should include an
appropriate citation/reference. The teacher will also instruct students to include brief text

descriptions for each level, describing how each image illustrates each level of organization

included in the presentation. Students will submit presentations to the teacher digitally.

Measurement Tool

Digital Presentation Rubric:

Organization of Life
Organism Selected:____________________ Group:________________________
Points: _____________/16
Level V Level IV Level III Level II Level I
(5 Points) (4 Points) (3 Points) (2 Point) (1 Point)
Organizational Included Included Included Included Attempted,
Levels Within accurate accurate accurate accurate but
Organism examples of examples in examples in examples in information
each of the at least five at least four three or less is
following of the of the of the inadequate
areas of specified specified specified or
organization areas. areas. areas insufficient
pertaining to
the selected
plant or
animal:
organelle,
cell, tissue,
organ, organ
system, and
organism
Organizational Included Included Included Included Attempted,
Within the accurate accurate accurate accurate but
Biosphere examples of examples in examples in examples in information
each of the at least five at least five three or less is
following of the of the of the inadequate
areas of life specified specified specified or
organization areas areas areas insufficient
pertaining to
the selected
plant or
animal:
Organism,
population,
community,
ecosystem,
 biome,
biosphere
Text Content All of the Most of the Much of the Much or all Attempted,
information information information of the but
included in included in included in information information
the the the included in is
presentation presentation Presentation the video is inadequate
is accurate; is accurate; is accurate; inaccurate or
no content there are one However, insufficient
mistakes or two there are 3-5
present mistakes mistakes
present
Relevant Presentation Presentation Presentation Presentation Attempted,
Images includes 10 includes at includes at includes 5 but
or more least 8 least 6 or fewer information
relevant relevant relevant relevant is
images images images images inadequate
or
insufficient
 Example and Feedback

Example

https://youtu.be/DMOrOZg-ubM

Teacher Feedback

Level V (5 Level IV (4 Level III (3 Level II (2 Level I (1

points) points) points) Points) point)

Organizational Included Included Included Included Attempted,

levels within accurate accurate accurate accurate but
organism examples of examples in examples in examples in information
each of the at least FIVE at least at least is
following areas of the FOUR of the THREE or inadequate
of organization specified specified less of the or
pertaining to areas. areas. specified insufficient
the selected areas.
plant or
animal;
organelle, cell,
tissue, organ,
organ system,
and organism

Organizational Included Included Included Included Attempted,

levels within accurate accurate accurate accurate but
the biosphere examples of examples in examples in examples in information
each of the at least FIVE at least at least is
following areas of the FOUR of the THREE or inadequate
of organization specified specified less of the or
pertaining to areas. areas. specified insufficient
the selected areas.
plant or
animal;
organism,
population,
community,
ecosystem,
biome,
biosphere
 Text Content All of the Most of the Much of the Much or all Attempted,
information information information of the but
included in the included in included in information information
presentation is the the included in is
accurate; no presentation presentation the inadequate
content is accurate; is accurate; presentation or
mistakes there are one however, is inaccurate. insufficient
present or two there are 3-5
mistakes mistakes
present

Relevant Presentation Presentation Presentation Presentation Attempted,

Images includes 10 or includes at includes at includes 5 or but
more relevant least 8 least 6 fewer information
images relevant relevant relevant is
images images images inadequate
or
insufficient

“16/20 = 80% WOW! What an expansive MineCraft world! You had from an organelle, to a

cell, to a tissue, to some organs, to organ systems, and to an organism of a sheep. You included

the organism, population, community (but said ecosystem), mentioned ecosystem (but not the

biotic and abiotic aspect), and referred to several biomes but never stated the vocabulary word,

biosphere. You had GREAT relevant images that accurately portrayed the levels of

organization.”

Findings

For the most part, students were able to complete the work as directed. Some groups

needed a little more one on one with teacher guidance to accomplish the technical aspects of the

task, but the design of the assessment lent itself well to fulfilling the needs of each student group.

Out of ten groups of students, 90% of them achieved a passing score based on the rubric, an

indication that the students mostly performed as expected on this performance task style
assessment. The assessment might be improved in future implementation by providing students

with concrete examples of a finished product to model expectations for completion.

Impact on Student Learning

Fig 1.1

This graph created from this table, which houses the complete data set:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1UN1SEcsIT5bUuO0mLGDwpNUXG5agpPZ/view?usp=sharing

This class worked in ten groups of two students each. All but one group achieved a

passing score of 70% or above on their performance on this task. 10% of the class earned half of

the possible points, (10 out of 20), 30% of the class earned 15 out of the 20 possible points, 30%

of the class earned 16 out of 20 possible points, 10% earned 18 out of 20 possible points, and

20% of the class earned 19 out of 20 possible points. None of the groups earned all the possible

20 points. For the class, the average score was 15.9 points out of 20, equivalent to an 80%.

As a class, the strongest categories achieved from the rubric were Organizational Levels

Within the Organism and Relevant Images with 90% of the groups earning all possible points in

those categories. The area of greatest weakness for the class was the Organizational Levels
within the Biosphere, with 40% of the groups earning two of the possible five points, 30% of the

groups earning three of the possible five points, 10% of the groups earning four out of the five

possible points, and 20% of the groups earning all five of the possible points for the category.

Subgroup Analysis

Figure 1.2

In Figure 1.2, the group names are replaced with the gender breakdown of each group.

All the groups were homogeneous as far as gender is concerned, with girls choosing to work

with girls and boys choosing to work with boys. 40% of the groups were sets of male partners

while the remaining 60% were comprised of female partners. The average score for the female

groups was 15 out of 20 points, equal to a score of 75%. The average score for the male groups

was 17.25 points out of the possible 20 points, or 86.25%. The groups of male students

performed higher than the groups of female students on this performance tasks, earning 2.25

more points in the average over the female groups.

Future Instructional Plans

 In reflecting on this assessment and considering future instruction, Mrs. Brown most

enjoyed the variety of presentations students submitted, and she enjoyed the fact that her students

thought outside of the box, with the students choosing a variety of media to deliver their

presentations such as PowerPoint, PowToon, Adobe Spark, Prezi, and even Minecraft! However,

Mrs. Brown stated that while this assessment allowed a great deal of student freedom and choice

as far as subject and platform for delivery, she feels that “as much as we encourage the use of

technology in the classroom, some [students] just aren’t good at it” and she feels that offering a

non-technology based method of assessment as an option would be a benefit in future instruction

and assessment. She did say that she would like to use this kind of assessment in the future as she

had more students attempt the technology-based assignment and “most of the students were able

to convey their mastery of the standard sufficiently and in a way that allowed them some

ownership.” She enjoyed the fact that her students thought outside of the box, with the students

choosing a variety of media to deliver their presentations such as PowerPoint, PowToon, Adobe

Spark, Prezi, and even Minecraft!

When asked about what should be done to revise instruction based on areas where

students did not perform well, Mrs. Brown stated that the solution “for any lesson where students

do not perform well is to reteach, revisit, and peer review, then have them try it again.” In this

case, many of the groups would benefit from this treatment pertaining to the second category on

the rubric dealing with the levels of organization from organism to biosphere. Mrs. Brown

further reflected that “The products were very enlightening about what they understood about the

organization of life. We had spent 9 weeks studying the organization of the biosphere and that

was the part that they had the most difficulty with explaining. I'm going to use their projects as a

learning tool. I'm going to use them as a warm up and have them figure out where the errors are.
Hopefully, through some more discussion, I'll be able to see where the misinterpretation

happened.” This would absolutely be an effective way to identify and address any further gaps in

understanding while utilizing the students’ creations in a positive and constructive way.