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The U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) and the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science will support Rubin Observatory in its operations phase to carry out the Legacy Survey of Space and Time. They will also provide support for scientific research with the data. During operations, NSF funding is managed by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA) under a cooperative agreement with NSF, and DOE funding is managed by SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory (SLAC), under contract by DOE. Rubin Observatory is operated by NSF NOIRLab and SLAC.

NSF is an independent federal agency created by Congress in 1950 to promote the progress of science. NSF supports basic research and people to create knowledge that transforms the future.

The DOE Office of Science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States and is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time.

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  1. Education
  2. Educators
  3. Program Guide
  4. Assessments

Program Guide

  1. Our Education Products
  2. Audience
  3. Online Investigations
  4. Teacher Guides
  5. Standards Design and Support
  6. Assessments
  7. Accessibility

Assessments

There are five types of assessments for each investigation:

  • A pre/posttest
  • A summative assessment for the investigation
  • A summative assessment for the phenomenon
  • Formative assessment questions for checkpoints
  • A Key Questions document

Pretest/Posttest

The purpose of this short multiple choice test is to assess learning gains by administering the same test before and after the investigation. The test is designed to emphasize data interpretation instead of content knowledge. The file is downloadable and comes with an answer key that is correlated to NGSS three-dimensional learning.

Summative (for the investigation)

The summative assessment is provided as a downloadable file that is separate from the investigation. This assessment is more open-ended and may involve sketches or calculations. The file is downloadable and comes with a rubric and scoring guide.

Summative (for the phenomenon)

The summative piece for the phenomenon invites students to revisit what they have learned and apply it to address new questions or models.

Formative

In each investigation we identify some checkpoints—places where you may wish to pause to review your students’ thinking––and offer additional learning supports before proceeding to the next section. The suggested checkpoints are places where students should have acquired key skills and understandings needed in subsequent sections of the investigation. The checkpoints reference tables that pair key student understandings with questions or suggestions for assessment. Two versions of the table are provided, depending on if you wish to integrate formative assessment with the lesson phenomenon.

There are lots of great ways to do formative assessment, and we want you to have the flexibility to use the methods you and your students are familiar with. If you are new to formative assessment, here are some popular techniques:

  • Driving Question Boards
  • The BSCS 5E model
  • CER (Claims, Evidence, Reasoning) Model
  • KLEWS charts
  • Journaling–this could be in the form of a science notebook, a digital science notebook, or an exit ticket
  • Posters/ whiteboards
  • Discussion techniques
    • Talk moves
    • Socratic Circles
    • Gallery Walks

The Center for Astronomy Education lists numerous classroom resources such as instructional strategies and question banks that can be used for formative assessment.

Page Keely has compiled creative and engaging formative assessment strategies in a series of books, such as Uncovering Student Ideas in Astronomy.

Key Questions

Perhaps you're looking for an alternative way to assess student understanding without having to grade every question on a completed student answer sheet. The Key Questions table provides a short list of questions from the investigation that can be used as a spot check for summary understanding.

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