STEM Marin Evaluation Tools and Rubrics
Click the button below to access the Google Doc:
We evaluate students' growth and progress in STEM Marin in a variety of ways. Here is a description of how students are graded:
Tests and Quizzes: 30% - Students will be given unit tests every 4 to 6 weeks as well as a cumulative final exam at the end of each semester. Students will solve math-based physics problems, answer short-answer (1-3 sentence) questions about major concepts, and answer multiple-choice questions. Students will also have short (1-10 question) quizzes approximately every 2 weeks.
Projects (40% consisting of the following 6 categories)
Project Collaboration: 7.5% - Students will be evaluated on their collaboration by both the teacher and the other members of their groups. The evaluations will be based on rubrics looking at whether students are meeting the group expectations which were set at the beginning of the project, working productively and sharing responsibility for work completion, staying on task and assisting others, sharing ideas, and creating a positive work environment for all group members.
Project Communication: 7.5% - Students will be evaluated using a rubric to see that they can communicate their learning clearly, show confidence, conciseness, and clarity in their speaking and writing, use technology appropriately to communicate, and express ideas accurately separating fact from opinion.
Project Critical Thinking: 5% - Students will be evaluated using a rubric looking at students’ abilities to modify thinking and actions based on evidence they gather, comprehend, analyze, and apply material they read, and use math and logic to solve problems.
Project Creativity: 5% - Students will be evaluated using a rubric looking at how they apply their knowledge in new ways to solve problems, demonstrate independent thinking, and explore and investigate questions that they have.
Project Work Ethic: 7.5% - Students will be evaluated by completion of worksheets and lab and class notebooks, edits and revisions of work, and attempting difficult problems
Project Content: 7.5% - Students will be evaluated by their final project submission and that the scientific content within the project is correct and evidence-based. All necessary content areas must be addressed and student understanding based on their project is clear and correct.
Labwork, Classwork, and Homework: 20% - Students will be evaluated on their completion of classwork such as worksheets, problem sets, and written assignments as well as their lab write-ups and lab notes of their problem questions, hypotheses, data gathered, tests conducted, and conclusions based on the data. Students will also complete written homework weekly in which they solve problems from the textbook that correspond with the content covered in class or watch videos and read supplemental material outside of class time.
Reflection on Learning: 10% - Students will write summaries of their learning and growth as well as major concepts learned from the project and each inquiry lab on their websites. At the conclusion of each project, students will document and describe their work on the project. They will describe the scientific concepts and practices that they learned about and how each concept was integrated into and used in their final product. They will also then reflect in writing upon their learning detailing major successes and failures in the project as well as their own ability to collaborate, communicate their knowledge, think critically and apply their knowledge to the project, and be creative. Students will use this writing to review their learning and progress as well as reflect on their growth. They will publish this writing as a 500 to 1000 word update to their website. Writing will be evaluated by its clarity and accuracy as well as its honesty as a reflective document.
You can access all of the necessary rubrics as Google Docs linked at the top of the page above, or read them embedded below:
Tests and Quizzes: 30% - Students will be given unit tests every 4 to 6 weeks as well as a cumulative final exam at the end of each semester. Students will solve math-based physics problems, answer short-answer (1-3 sentence) questions about major concepts, and answer multiple-choice questions. Students will also have short (1-10 question) quizzes approximately every 2 weeks.
Projects (40% consisting of the following 6 categories)
Project Collaboration: 7.5% - Students will be evaluated on their collaboration by both the teacher and the other members of their groups. The evaluations will be based on rubrics looking at whether students are meeting the group expectations which were set at the beginning of the project, working productively and sharing responsibility for work completion, staying on task and assisting others, sharing ideas, and creating a positive work environment for all group members.
Project Communication: 7.5% - Students will be evaluated using a rubric to see that they can communicate their learning clearly, show confidence, conciseness, and clarity in their speaking and writing, use technology appropriately to communicate, and express ideas accurately separating fact from opinion.
Project Critical Thinking: 5% - Students will be evaluated using a rubric looking at students’ abilities to modify thinking and actions based on evidence they gather, comprehend, analyze, and apply material they read, and use math and logic to solve problems.
Project Creativity: 5% - Students will be evaluated using a rubric looking at how they apply their knowledge in new ways to solve problems, demonstrate independent thinking, and explore and investigate questions that they have.
Project Work Ethic: 7.5% - Students will be evaluated by completion of worksheets and lab and class notebooks, edits and revisions of work, and attempting difficult problems
Project Content: 7.5% - Students will be evaluated by their final project submission and that the scientific content within the project is correct and evidence-based. All necessary content areas must be addressed and student understanding based on their project is clear and correct.
Labwork, Classwork, and Homework: 20% - Students will be evaluated on their completion of classwork such as worksheets, problem sets, and written assignments as well as their lab write-ups and lab notes of their problem questions, hypotheses, data gathered, tests conducted, and conclusions based on the data. Students will also complete written homework weekly in which they solve problems from the textbook that correspond with the content covered in class or watch videos and read supplemental material outside of class time.
Reflection on Learning: 10% - Students will write summaries of their learning and growth as well as major concepts learned from the project and each inquiry lab on their websites. At the conclusion of each project, students will document and describe their work on the project. They will describe the scientific concepts and practices that they learned about and how each concept was integrated into and used in their final product. They will also then reflect in writing upon their learning detailing major successes and failures in the project as well as their own ability to collaborate, communicate their knowledge, think critically and apply their knowledge to the project, and be creative. Students will use this writing to review their learning and progress as well as reflect on their growth. They will publish this writing as a 500 to 1000 word update to their website. Writing will be evaluated by its clarity and accuracy as well as its honesty as a reflective document.
You can access all of the necessary rubrics as Google Docs linked at the top of the page above, or read them embedded below:
This document gives a general description of student expectations:
This rubric is used to score products at the end of the project.
This is a description of what website updates should look like. Website updates will be completed at the end of each project.
This rubric will be used to evaluate how students collaborate with one another while working in groups during the project:
And finally, this rubric will be used to evaluate students' oral and visual presentations:
Tests and Quizzes
The goal of school is to learn and improve. With that in mind, if a student can show progress and demonstrate proficiency by the end of the semester, all test grades will be replaced by that proficient score. This means that your previous test grade can be updated with your latest test score about the same topic/skill. All tests and quizzes require corrections for every missed question. Here's how to do that:
The goal of school is to learn and improve. With that in mind, if a student can show progress and demonstrate proficiency by the end of the semester, all test grades will be replaced by that proficient score. This means that your previous test grade can be updated with your latest test score about the same topic/skill. All tests and quizzes require corrections for every missed question. Here's how to do that: