Designing an Effective Assessment
You and three fellow Geoscience faculty members are teaching separate sections of a Paleomagnetism course. You
have each designed an assessment (graded assignment/project) to help students achieve the following key course
outcomes. You’ve decided to all use the same assessment for these outcomes.
Note: Common practice in Geoscience is to use existing data, especially at the undergraduate level.
Paleomagnetism Course Learning Outcomes: Successful students will be able to:
 Apply (use) field standard paleomagnetic sampling processes to determine relative age of ocean crust
 Determine tectonic plate movement/trends of ocean spread
Your Task
Analyze the following assignments for design features. Put answers to the 3 questions below on a white board, but
wait for instructions to display.
1. Which of the following assignments would be best in achieving above outcomes?
2. Identify 2 features of the assignment that make this better than others. Compare the assignments
(presented below) with the handout to determine best features.
3. When you (personally) create assignments that require students to apply content, what are key
considerations for crafting the assignment? What is the process you use to craft those assignments?
Assignments
A. Students work in teams to create a 3-D model (to scale) of relative age of the Juan de Fuca Ridge. Through
this process, they will become familiar with the fault lines, plate movement, and relative age of this ridge. It
also helps students develop teamwork and produce a work product that creates team pride. The 3-D models
will be given to local high schools for use in teaching HS geoscience courses. This assignment should take ~3
weeks to complete.
B. Using data from core samples from the Juan de Fuca Ridge, students will analyze phenocrysts, xenoliths, and
xenocrysts for mineralogy, chemistry, and petrography for all mid-ocean spread zones to identify markers
that enable geoscientists to determine age of ocean floor samples. This assignment will also help students
use math and geoscience knowledge. This assignment should take ~1.5 weeks to complete.
C. Students will use readily available data and figures of the Juan de Fuca Ridge to determine relative age,
direction of drift, location of major and minor fault lines, and subduction zone traits. Students will work in
teams using data available through the USGS databases. Ultimate goal of the assignment is to use the data to
predict the likelihood of a major earthquake at this site in the next 100 years. Four week assignment.
D. Since developing the ability to generate accurate and detailed field notes in the geosciences is a key skill,
students will collect and analyze samples of the area (onshore on the Washington coastline) to determine the
frequency of previous tsunami events created by earthquakes from the Juan de Fuca Ridge. Samples will be
used to analyze sediment created by previous tsunamis and predict likelihood of next event in this region.
Five week assignment.