Great Resource for Performance Tasks/Activities

greenspun.com : LUSENET : Middle School Science : One Thread

The Oregon State Education Department's PALS (Performance Assessment Links in Science) has collected an assortment of performance tasks on all areas of science. Performance tasks of course are part of the NY State Intermediate Level Science Exam (ILSE). The tasks can be used as assessments or adapted as instructional activities. Here's their description of themselves:

"PALS is an on-line, standards-based, continually updated resource bank of science performance assessment tasks indexed via the National Science Education Standards (NSES) and various other standards frameworks."

http://pals.sri.com/pals/

Tasks are broken down by grade level but you might also look at all the grade levels and adjust. I found a really cool activity in the K-4 section with a literacy (writing) component related to the ecology topic I'm teaching now - students examine a pattern of animal tracks and write a story about what might have happened (It's a predator/prey story). Here's a link to that activity:

http://pals.sri.com/pals/tasks/k-4/Follow1/

Mike

-- Michael W Gatton (mgatton@vzavenue.net), September 24, 2003

Answers

Sorry for the error, but PALS is NOT a product of the Oregon State Education Department but rather SRI International's Center for Technology in Learning.

("SRI International is an independent, nonprofit research institute that conducts client-supported research and development for government agencies, commercial businesses and nonprofit foundations.")

Mike

-- Michael W Gatton (mgatton@vzavenue.net), September 24, 2003.


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