Active Assessment for Active Science: A Guide for Elementary School Teachers

As an environmental educator I am always looking for new ways to express ecological concepts to children, as well as find evaluative techniques to track the learning of my students. This book introduces useful self-evaluative techniques to help the student track his learning and to chart the future course of inquiry. Having been familar with George Hein(one of the book's coauthors) as one of the leading constructivist educators in non-traditional environments ( science centers, museums, nature centers, etc), I was interested in the text, and how I might apply it to the after-school enrichment program I am currently conducting. The book has given me a few new tools to use in the evaluation of the students' learning, and some ability to incorporate those techniques/results in the final analysis to the grant committee, to prove to them that their money was well spent. Admittedly, some of the techniques employed are better suited to smaller class sizes because of the time they will require to be fully reviewed and evaluated by the teacher. Nevertheless, even considering the added time component, the tools/techniques offered are worth employing because of the "buy in" the students gain in charting their learning/academic future. Though you may not find every technique applicable to your classroom situation, you may find several that help you benchmark the progress of your students more usefully than standard testing, without completely "bucking the traditional system". It's a good read, and worth the expense on an educator's budget.