Seamless Assessment in Science: A Guide for Elementary and Middle School Teachers

Foreword by Rodger W. Bybee

When you open your science classroom to inquiry-based learning you must align your curriculum to assessment strategies that mirror the investigatory spirit, rather than rely solely on traditional, end-of-unit tests that eschew process for product. It's time for new ways of assessment that parallel inquiry-driven instruction and offer a variety of options and entry points. It's time for Seamless Assessment in Science.

Seamless Assessment in Science is your one-stop guide for assessing students' learning. Working with the popular 5E model as an instructional framework, Sandra Abell and Mark Volkmann have designed accompanying methods for embedding formative and summative assessment throughout any science unit. They've tested their ideas in real classrooms. Seamless Assessment in Science includes thirteen vignettes, written by practicing teachers in a variety of settings where assessment isn't merely a test, but an opportunity for students to share what they've learned. You'll observe inquiry-driven classrooms in action as primary, intermediate, and middle level students tackle topics in the life, physical, and earth sciences.

Mark J. Volkmann is Associate Professor of science education at the University of Missouri-Columbia. A former junior high and high school science teacher, Volkmann has collaborated with teachers and scientists on numerous projects in middle level science classrooms and in science teacher education. His science teaching ideas have appeared in Science and Children, The Science Teacher, and School Science and Mathematics, and his research on science teacher identity and teaching science through inquiry has been published in Science Education and the Journal of Research in Science Teaching.

Sandra K. Abell was Professor of science education and Director of the Science Education Center at the University of Missouri-Columbia. A former elementary school science teacher, Abell conducted numerous teaching and research projects in elementary and middle level science classrooms in collaboration with classroom teachers. She was the author of numerous articles for teachers and researchers, coeditor of the Handbook of Research on Science Education, and past president of the National Association for Research in Science Teaching (NARST).