Welcome to Gear up – Preparing students for the Science short answer questions
• John Trerotola – Robbinsdale Adult Academic Program
(get picture from past presentation)

Providing students with the necessary skills and resources to draft the GED science short answer questions.

Session Objectives
 Give an overview of the 2014 GED Science short answer questions.
 Review strategies and resources to introduce students to content specific vocabulary.
 Discuss the necessary reading and writing skills students will need to effectively answer the short answer questions.
 Explore methods and strategies to incorporate the scientific method and experimental design while teaching the short answer questions.
 Show ways to model the extended response to students and have them draft their own essays for review and feedback.
 Give a brief overview of assessment and feedback strategies.

Science Practices
1. Comprehending scientific presentations
2. Investigation design (experimental and observational)
3. Reasoning from data
4. Evaluating conclusions with evidence
5. Working with findings
6. Expressing scientific information
7. Scientific theories
8. Probability and statistics
2014 GED Environmental, Earth, and Space Science, Steve Schmidt (schmidtsj@appstate.edu)

The Science short answer questions require the following skills …
• Cite specific textual evidence.
• Develop a logical argument.
• Using the evidence, present a line of reasoning.
• Apply understanding of a science concept.
• One short answer tests experimental design.
• Identifying a research question
• Designing an investigation
• Justifying a line of reasoning
GEDtestingservice.com • GED.com

HOW IS IT SCORED?
“Each short answer item has a unique 3-point rubric, emphasizing the science content and practice for the particular item.”
( GEDtestingservice.com • GED.com)
In other words, students can score up to 3 points on each of the
2 short answer questions. Responses are scored based on the content that should be in the answer.
MORE ON THAT LATER…

WHY THE SHORT ANSWER
QUESTIONS?
“Science, stripped down to its essentials, is just a method for figuring things out: you look at some situation, come up with a possible explanation, and try to see of it works. If it does, great, if not, try something else. Repeat until you find an explanation that works.”
Source: Chad Orzell, Everybody Thinks Scientifically, Uncertain Principles Blog

On the GED 2014 Science Test, students will have two
10 minute short answers to complete. The short answers are 15 percent of the total points possible on the test. The short answers tests the students’ abilities to analyze information and respond. The short answer tasks are designed to be like test takers would encounter in their everyday lives.

Only 10
Minutes?
The science short answer questions are embedded in the science test and are not timed separately.
Test takers need to use their time management skills to devote time to those items along with other items.

•
Students could be asked to complete one or both of the following types of writing tasks within a writing text box that will appear on the computer screen:
Cite specific evidence to support inferences, conclusions, or analysis of scientific information.
• Design a scientific experiment to test a hypothesis.

An example short answer test question

Don’t Panic…
• Fight “writer’s block” and don’t try to be perfect.
• All writing is expected to be “on-demand, draft” quality.
• Monitor your time but get something down on paper.
• Any points earned are points earned towards a passing score.

Take a look at two potential short answer questions:

“How can I write an answer if I don’t understand the science words.”
GED student at Sandburg Learning Center
• Before we review the reading/writing skills that are necessary for the short answer and discuss ideas for teaching experimental design, let’s talk science content vocabulary.
• First, a quick vocabulary review for us.
• Then, ideas and resources to teach science vocabulary to our students.

For us…
VOCABULARY
Hypothesis
Conclusion
Data
Analysis
Control
Independent Variable
Dependent Variable
Observation
Inference
Quantitative
Qualitative
DEFINITION
“I think” statement of an educated guess
End result; right or wrong
#’s, values, and observations
Examine data and summarize it
A trial in the experiment where nothing is changed
Variable that is only changed by person doing the experiment
Variable that changes depending on the independent variable
Any information collected with the senses
Conclusions or deductions based on observations
Measureable or countable (numbers)
Describable, not measurable (shape, size, color, etc.)

For the students…
• Try using content-related vocabulary cards
• For a “classroom ready” set of vocabulary cards that cover earth, physical and life science, go to (insert Schmidt web address here)

Or, make it into a game!
Science “Taboo” Anybody?

Here is another classroom idea from FOCUS ON
2014 GED® CONTENT: THE WONDERFUL WORLD
OF SCIENCE
(insert Focus web address here)

Remember, the short answer questions will ask students to respond to text and/or design a scientific experiment.
• Lets first look at some of the reading and writing skills that will be necessary for students to successfully respond to a question based on text, graphics, or a combination of the two.
• Here is an example prompt:

For these type of prompts, students are asked to:
• Draw and support conclusions
• Identify specific details in text
• Communicate a hypothesis or conclusion
• Derive evidence to support a conclusion
Basically, a student’s response should be complete, well-developed and contain specific facts, details or evidence from the source material.

Lesson Plan Ideas with Common Core
Correlations - ProCon.org

Welcome • Word Generation Download
Center • SERP Institute

ReadWorks.org | The Solution to Reading
Comprehension

http://www.pickens.k12.sc.us/RAETAC/Documents
/Instructional%20Resources/ABE%20and%20GED/t oprintSC_SCI_Workbook_2013.pdf

Graphic Organizers
• Find a science related article in a newspaper, magazine, blog etc.
• Students can use graphic organizers to make a visual map of what they are reading and to identify any unfamiliar vocabulary.

Time for students to practice!
• You will find multiple, short answer practice questions in the Steck-Vaughn GED
Science book series.
• For example:

Writing a Conclusion
(Step 6 Scientific Method)
• Restate your hypothesis (Main idea)
• Summarize your results (Summarize) and use it to support your conclusion (Supporting Details)
• Include key facts from your experiment to help explain your results (Paraphrase)
• State whether your results support or contradict your hypothesis (Compare and Contrast)
• State the relationship between the independent and dependent variable (Cause and Effect)
• Summarize and evaluate your experimental procedure
(can be Fact versus Opinion), making comments about its success and effectiveness (Drawing Conclusions)
• Suggest changes in the experimental procedure and/or possibilities for further study
(Synthesize/Evaluate Evidence)

Let’s now look at the second type of short answer question that students will encounter:
Creating an Experimental Design
Prompt (example)
A math specialist has designed a software tutorial program that she believes will help struggling students score better on a standardized state math test.
She hypothesizes that if struggling students use her program three hours a week for six months, they will see their test scores increase by an average of 10 percentage points.
Design a controlled experiment that the math specialist can use to test her hypothesis. Be sure to include how data will be collected and how the results will be analyzed.
Type your response in the box. This task may require 25 minutes to complete.

In a ten minute short answer question, students may be asked how they would design an experiment to test a hypothesis.
HOW AM I
GOING TO
TEACH THAT?

Start at the beginning
• Perhaps students have the
“dictionary” definition for
“hypothesis,” but need more context.
• Try this to give more meaning to the word:

The Scientific Method
There is a “method” to that writing
• This experimental design short answer question is based on steps outlined in the scientific method.
• Before students write, it is an opportune time to review, in more detail, the steps of the scientific method.
• The good news… there are plenty of resources to do so!

Science Stuff: Freebies

More good news… you do not need a laboratory to do so!

The Biology Corner

Another Resource:
Doing Science:
The Process of Scientific Inquiry
National Institutes of Health
National Institute of General Medical Sciences

http://www.pickens.k12.sc.us/RAETAC/Documents
/Instructional%20Resources/ABE%20and%20GED/ toprintSC_SCI_Workbook_2013.pdf

Remember what I said about not needing a laboratory…
• Think of questions that you can turn into simple, low cost experiments to teach experimental design.
• Here are some examples of low cost experiments and some graphic organizers that will help students to visualize the design process:

Putting it all together…
• By combining content related activities, students can practice with both evidence-based and experimental design short answer prompts.
• There are many opportunities for this type of practice in the
Steck- Vaughn, Kaplan,
Scoreboost and Writing for the
GED (New Readers Press) books.

SUGGESTIONS FOR ASSESSMENT AND FEEDBACK OF
STUDENT WRITING

Add potential slides regarding assessment (from GED) and/or example responses with annotations… maybe have participants review prompts, answers and score same

Resources are available from
GEDtestingservice.com. . .
Instructor Resources
• Item Samplers
– Includes complete answer explanations of the CR items with selected examples
• Assessment Guide for Educators
– Includes the “official rubrics” with annotations
• ER and SA Resource Guides
– Provide example responses at all score levels and score explanations
• ER and SA Scoring Tools
– Walk you step-by-step through the evaluation of a student response
GEDtestingservice.com • GED.com

Not an exhaustive list, but websites that will provide more ideas for multi-level classrooms that are both large and small in size.

www.commoncoreconversation.com

www.discoveryeducation.com

www.smithsonianeducation.org

www.pbslearningmedia.org

Thank you so much for your attendance!
• Any questions?
• Comments?
• Suggestions for other resources and/or classroom ideas?