I find it helpful to review the student work as they go through the process, to make sure they do not get too off-track before they start the experiment and interpret the data. I do check-ins after they have their question and hypothesis, when they have designed their experiment and declared their variables, when they make their charts, and finally, after they have completed their finished project. These are not always on a rubric, sometimes I will just quickly ask, "tell me about your question" or "what data have you gathered so far?"

When you need to assess a project that students have been working on over time, it can be tricky. I do not think that you should only assess the finished product, but also pay attention to the whole process as well. Teachers should take notes throughout the process, notes of their observations. When planning the inquiry-based projects, teachers should have a clear idea of what they want their students to learn, what the goals are, and what they are going to assess.  A teacher can make rubrics before-hand of what exactly they want to assess. This might change along the way, but it is good to have something solid to start with.

Working with students on long term projects I find it's hard sometimes to assess the final project, because as a teacher I'm helping students along the way.  Students who struggle will receive support along the way to make sure they are moving on the right path, whereas other students won't need as much support.  At the end sometimes it's hard to look at the project  and assess just it because I know how much assistance each student needed or didn't need.  I think on my rubric my number scale will incorporate the amount of teacher assistance needed to be successful.  That way at the end hopefully most students will have met most of the requirements of the report, but I will be able to mark on the rubric if the student was able to produce the results with or without assistance.

I think the use of rubrics is very appropriate for project based learning. Peer feedback would also assist with evaluation of the project. Constructive feedback could be used by the student to improve the project prior to final evaluation used for final grade. An aside on rubrics- The quality of the rubric influences the quality and helpfulness it has as an evaluation tool. I think the rubric format used as the Assessment Rubric for 4th Grade Reports was the best.  Criteria were clear. The scale was specific. The format of the rubric was easy to use.  The teacher project rubric was the most difficult to use. It lead me to use more subjective, rather than objective decisions about overall scoring.

I think that the rubrics that we utilized during the quiz show that a strong foundation of the inquiry elements we discussed form the backbone of any kind of investigation.  These can also be directly taught.   All three rubrics focused mainly on the structure of the inquiry as well as the integration and reasoning behind each element.  If this is adhered to, assessment can be fair and carry over to other experiments, allowing the students to see patterns not just within inquiries, but across them as well.

I want to use more rubrics in class. when I do use them on projects the students are more open to creative solutions... sometimes they will prove to me why they chose to be assessed in that way. It always boild down to time -- when grading 350 student the time for each assignment is sprse. Incorporating more peer reviews will help with the process along with self evaluations on the rubrics.

My issue is I tend to grade everything. Which isn't necessarily valuable feedback. I know that I need to scale back on what I am grading and start truly assessing the process and skills being used. I plan to use these materials and build a portfolio during the process. My hope is that by the end of the semester, there will be at least one class investigation and one individual investigation. During that process, I would like to be focusing on writing skills, experimental design and brainstorming, variables and graphs, (how to read and which to use), research skills, and presentation skills. I am still mapping it out but in the end I would like to build a website, submit to bird-sleuth investigator, and possibly create a magazine which compiles their investigations, nature journaling, and creative writing as well.

Each year I hold a poster contest for 5th graders based on a theme. Students are to research the theme in some way and create a poster. I can use a rubric to assess the creativity of the poster, the amount of information shown on the poster can indicate how much accurate information the student collected and learned, and how well their creativity and information on the poster can inspire action upon others.

As an informal educator, I don't typically have opportunities to use rubrics or to grade the work of my students. I'd love to develop some kind of after school science club or camp where we would have more time to dive into report writing. Even if I didn't give out grades, having some form of a rubric would give the students a clear idea of what their project should look like and also give the students a chance for peer review, which I think would be the most helpful tool!

I thought the rubrics presented in this lesson were excellent. I have always been a supporter of using rubrics because they give students a clear guide for what they need to do and what information needs to be collected. This is valuable to students when they complete a project because it helps them to organize their thoughts and determine the best way to present the information. It also increases the chances for success for differently abled learners. I would use a rubric like these, or a variation of these depending on the project, to assess inquiry-based projects. As a mom of two differently abled learners I have experienced firsthand how hard it is for some students to be successful. A rubric is a great tool for all students to do their best work.

Totally agree that students should be able to decide how they want to present their results. Of course that would require students to have equal access to resources, or require in-class time to create their presentation. I found the 6th grade rubric most helpful as it contained examples of what the student report would include for each point valuie. Seems like a comment box would be good, to offer tips and suggestions for students to strength their report.

As a non-conventional teacher, it was really interesting to read the rubrics! I think it would be nice to develop a project that students/campers could work on outside of camp and then present after a summer of learning.

In Special Education, I think that my job as support staff may be in supporting the student understanding of the rubric and breaking it into manageable pieces that demonstrate their understanding of the subject.  I have observed for some students that how they feel about themselves influences their ability to ask questions.  I envision a lot of prompting to help get this process going.  I do think that a clear understandable rubric is a very important part of assessment which should be presented at the beginning of the project, but also revisited throughout the project.  I like the reflection piece which asks how the student could do better next time, isn't that an important goal for all learning?

For any level of inquiry-based project there does need to be formative, reflective and summative assessment. In initially starting out with any level of inquiry project formative assessment is helpful as a way to guide, support and help students understand what they are doing and how to frame it within the scope of an inquiry report. This means learning about the different facets of an inquiry project, documentation and how the entirety of the project is submitted as a project report. There is a lot of similarity to what is presentation for science fair projects. When students are initially taking up these types of projects I think it is important to have them engage in a reflective  self-assessment as a way of identifying their perception of how they think they did in terms of the rubric, what they did well, where they need to improve and what they learned through this process. I really like to create rubrics with students which often means they are a work in progress, but at the same time there are essentials that are part of the inquiry process and the variation in assessment may depend on the type of inquiry students engage in i.e. confirmation inquiry, structured inquiry, guided inquiry, or open inquiry. The elements of the rubric and assessment may differ in how they reflect any of these given types of inquiry. Also, this is a process that I want to be meaningful for my students to help them understand what is included and how to go about creating that.

At the first grade level, there are two assessments I like and find age appropriate and meaningful.  One is a nature journal the students have.  Students get very detailed as they sketch and label and have a lot to ask, wonder and record.  The other is a video recording.  We go outside to do an investigation and the students are paired.  They can take photos and then record on their shared iPad.  They may have questions and tell about what they have discovered.  Although we have not focused on rubrics, if we do, we would need to keep them simple.

This year we are considering having students record their presentation for science fair on Flipgrid and allow questions to be answered that way instead of in class presentations.   I have done posters before and it has been very successful for an invasive species project.

I plan to use competencies to assess the students. These assess the process rather than the product. It also gives guidance on what mastery looks like so there are no gray areas. We also use team norming to determine the scores of major pieces of work.

Assessment is a necessary tool used by formal educators to evaluate student understanding of classroom instructions. Inquiry based projects required different methods of  assessment that may not be simple or easy. Therefore, when doing inquiry based projects it is important to identify an assessment that supports this unique learning style.  Inquiry based projects give students a role in designing experiments. Students assume greater responsibilities in learning.  Students are not learning the same information in inquiry based projects, therefore standardized assessments are not applicable.  Many inquiry based projects are individualized so assessments must be individualized as well.  The rubrics shared in this unit are examples of how educators can make create some structure and definition to assess inquiry based projects.  Rubric are like road maps that help direct and lead students along a learning path.  Rubrics are objective and gives learners certain benchmarks to accomplish.  Benchmarks can measure student comprehension of the subject.  By assigning points for each benchmark, assessment is similar to grading.  Inquiry based projects allow students to deepen their knowledge of the subject beyond what typically is involved in a standard lesson.  When students create posters or presentations to explain  what they are learned, they are more invested in learning. Inquiry based project assessment can demonstrate what students actually know.  A rubric is a way to measure this learning. Although,  I  do not assess students as an informal educator,  I see when students are motivated to excel and grow in understanding.

I will use rubric as a guide for the process as well as a tool for assessment. It would be great to have the students participate in building it, but I don't have experience with this yet and not sure how it'd go. We will review the rubric at each step along the way to help the students breaking the tasks down to better manage them. Besides, I'm thinking about trying to not use numbers but worded levels as final marks (for example: "need improvements", "meeting expectations", "exceeding expectations"...). Also, peer and adult reviews as suggested would be a great way for the students both as help but also to share their work. Lastly, I'd like to find ways to encourage students to see their improvements along the process, and not just the final products as the assessment for their learning.

I think the key to success with student reports is starting with a rubric.  I always have students brainstorm in a whole group setting to develop the rubric.  They will be familiar with the expectations.  Also, peer review helps with students including all components when working with fourth graders.  When students read-aloud what they've written or have a classmate read the report can also help student identify misconceptions or missing information.

In terms of assessment, it's always a challenging one, as comprehension is sometimes hard to gauge. The rubrics presented are wonderful. I thought having the other students provide feedback was also a good idea. It would be interesting to have a "speciliast" come in an provide an outside opinion/advice as well.

I think even though a rubric may be used, grading (or judging) can oftentimes be subjective. I have been involved in all aspects of Science Fairs at local, county, and state levels. I think the feedback a student receives is more important than just the number or the grade. I often take the time to sit down with the student(s) and have them assess their project before the completion in front of me. Critiquing their project out loud is an important tool. They are more likely to look at it with a critical eye. I encourage students to talk about their projects with other teachers or staff members to get their feedback, throughout the inquiry process. Going through the rubric or assessment process, in the beginning, is fine but it has to be a continual process - every step needs assessing from the question to the conclusion. I encourage students to critique other students' writing or work. We go through the process of how to critique and offer valuable comments. Again, I really believe it is an ongoing process because then the student feels supported and has a better experience.

I think giving students choices of how they could present their results is important. Students could create videos, posters, PSA's or a traditional report to show learning. I think informal assessment throughout the time they are conducting their investigations is also very important. The rubrics I would use with my young students would be much simpler and the report would probably outlined or fill in the blank. Then after filling in the template, students would be given choice for how they would share their findings in a way that works best for them.

I was thinking through looking at the rubrics, that none of them allowed for anecdotal notes or comments, it was really hard for me not to comment on things I liked and what could use improvement.  As a 4-H educator we are all about the process and judging youth based on their years of experience in the project area and what they have learned through out the process.  Youth all have different learning abilities and I think it is very important to have meetings throughout the process to check understanding, this is a great way to ensure youth truly have an understanding of the topic and can make changes if necessary along the way.  I also think it is important to allow for a large variation of reporting, letting youth choose the best way to showcase their results.  If the assessment is based on whether their is understanding of a topic or the understanding of scientific method then trying to take down all other barriers is important.  Give youth as many opportunities as possible to show what they are learning.

Unfortunately, in my current role I don't foresee using any assessments of projects, but I will definitely make use of this information in the future! I feel confident with rubric assessments and I think that presentations are a great way to give kids ownership of their work and really ensure that they understand and can translate what they have done.