Administering the pre-assessment

On Friday, June 22, 2012, part 1 of the pre-assessment (20 of the 61 questions) was administered to the students attending the Summer Success Academy.  After gaining their consent (a required part of the IRB process), the students started to answer the questions. 

A few things came to light, (1) the students felt the survey was a "test" and this bothered some of them (perhaps stemming from a fear of being judged).  When I said it was more about what they knew and how they felt, there were some students who just circled any answer; (2) we have some non-readers in the group which required additional staff members to be involved in the assessment process (to facilitate reading the survey aloud); and (3) the vocabulary of the survey proved difficult, even for the older kids.  

Parts 2 and 3 of the pre-assessment will be administered on Monday, June 25 and Tuesday, June 26 (respectively). 

After part 1 of the assessment was administered, there was a discussion with the Summer Success instructors.  We talked about the unexpected issues that came up and  we developed a plan for how to handle the administration of the remainder of the pre-assessment (such as having smaller groups of students in a room and readers who are ready to facilitate). 

Given how part 1 of the pre-assessment went, there are doubts as to how effective the assessment will be at showing pre and post knowledge.  If the students simply guessed on the survey, it could be that the pre-assessment results show that the students knew more before the instruction than after the instruction.

In light of the fact that a written survey with 61 questions may not be the best way to assess knowledge, attitudes and behaviors (with this particular group of students), we have developed a creative way for the students to evidence their learning.

At the end of the energy literacy unit (July 17, 2012), the students will each create an energy literacy poster  There are three required elements for the poster: (1) What is energy?, (2) Why is knowing about energy important, and (3) What changes can I make in my energy usage.  The students will then be able to add any additional items which they can pull from the energy literacy learning unit they just completed.  The students will showcase their posters as part of the final day festivities on Friday, July 20, 2012).