A scavenger hunt quiz?

[Glen Westbroek]

Today my students used the ActivExpression's self-paced option differently than I have done before. Students previously how to measure the mass and volume of different objects. They also had learned to calculate the density using mass and volume.

 

I set up a “Performance Assessment” that involved the ActivExpressions. The classroom had 21 “Stations” labeled A-U.  Each station had the materials needed for the assessment question assigned to it. Questions were assigned to be sent randomly to students. The question might say, “Go to Station J and text in the mass of the black rubber stopper.” All answers used only number answers and included a “variance” appropriate to what was being measured. It was enjoyable to watch students moving between Stations as they worked to solve the problem associated with it. Students received a “correct” or “incorrect” response as soon as they submitted their answer to a problem. Students who did a problem incorrectly received that “Station” again later as a “redo.”

 

The classroom almost felt like a scavenger hunt as students located the correct “Station” and then solved the problem given there. Each student was up and moving most of the period. (A HUGE win for Middle School students.)

 

I surveyed the students on how well they liked this quiz and 96% said it was much more fun than doing a paper and pencil quiz. The exciting part for me was how engaged they were and how many correctly solved the problems they were given.