Real-Time Formative Assessment of NGSS Mathematics Practices for High School Physical Science

Through previous grant awards from IES and the National Science Foundation and an ED/IES SBIR award, researchers developed a virtual laboratory with performance-based simulations aligned to Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) in physical, life, and earth science for middle school, as well as a dashboard to provide teachers real-time formative and summative assessment reports on students doing science inquiry. In this project, researchers developed a prototype of Inq-ITS for high school physical science, with a focus on students solving problems by doing mathematics as they conduct inquiry, not fill-in-the-blanks or multiple-choice questions. The prototype provides prompts to students who are struggling and provides data to teachers to inform instruction. At the end of Phase I, researchers surveyed 185 grade 9 students and found the prototype operated as intended. Students reported learning from teachers' feedback, driven by alerts of when they struggled. Teachers reported that the technology increased awareness of which students were having difficulty and how they struggled.