Science FCAT

1
ScienceFCAT
The Basics We All Need to Know
2
This Session Will Address

• Assessment Clusters
• FCAT Design
• What students are having difficulty with
• Keys to Success

3
FCAT Science Scoring Parameters

• Four reporting clusters
• Equal balance of points for each reporting
• cluster (not equal of test items)
• Two types of scores per student
• cluster scores and a total score
• Between 55-60 items including multiple
• choice and performance items (5-8 items)

4
Assessment Clusters (25 of pts. each)

• Cluster 1 Physical and Chemical SciencesA.
  Nature of MatterB. EnergyC. Force and Motion
• Cluster 2 Earth and Space SciencesD. Processes
  That Shape the EarthE. Earth and Space
• Cluster 3 Life Environmental SciencesF.
  Processes of LifeG. How Living Things Interact
  With Their Environment
• Cluster 4 Scientific Thinking H. The Nature
  of Science

5
Science FCAT Design

• Multiple Choice Items (1 point)
• Short Response Items (2 points)
• Extended Response Items (4 points)

6
Grade 5 FCAT Observations

• Areas students have difficulty with
• B.1.2.1. Tracing the flow of energy in a system
• D.1.2.4. Expressing an understanding of erosion
  and weathering
• E.1.2.1. Explaining rotation, revolution,
  seasons, and length of day, etc.

7
What Works for Long Term
Learning?
Teaching Others Practice Discussions Demonstration
s Audio Visuals Reading Alone Lecture Only
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
Retention
8
How We Prepare

• Use examples which relate science to daily life.
• Activate prior knowledge.
• Use hands-on activities.
• Ask probing questions that encourage discussion,
  prediction, or explanation.
• Design and conduct experiments to answer
  questions.
• Emphasize vocabulary development.
• Use graphic organizers (Thinking Maps).

9
Parent Tips!

• Strategies
• Encourage students to draw pictures to describe
  processes (food chain, water cycle, rock cycle)
• Practice reading charts and graphs
• Do not memorize definitions or recall
  information- teach terms with examples, use hands
  on activities, and illustrations.
• Read science-based literature such as realistic
  fiction and non-fiction literature. Students can
  better relate to and retain information in a
  story form as opposed to isolated facts.
• Stories and poems are often real-world based.
• Use newspapers, TV guides, cartoons
• By acting out or re-creating a story students can
  articulate or demonstrate comprehension.
• Use hands on/minds on experiments. Orally
  students can hypothesize or predict what will
  happen, describe and explain what occurred, and
  summarize the results.

10
Parent Tips

• Process Skills of Inquiry
• Observing- watching carefully, taking notes,
  comparing and contrasting
• Questioning- asking questions about observations
  asking questions that can lead to investigations
• Hypothesizing- providing explanations consistent
  with available observations
• Predicting- suggesting an event in the future,
  based on observations
• Investigating- planning, conducting, measuring,
  gathering data, controlling variables
• Interpreting- synthesizing, drawing conclusions,
  seeing patterns
• Communicating- informing others in a variety of
  means oral, written, representational

11
Websites to help you and your child

• Howard Hughes Medical Center
• http//www.hhmi.org/coolscience/index.html
• Science News for Kids
• http//www.sciencenewsforkids.org/
• Zoom PBS Kids
• http//pbskids.org/zoom/activities/sci/
• Science with Me
• http//www.sciencewithme.com/
• NASA
• http//kids.earth.nasa.gov/
• Science Experiments for Home
• http//www.fatlion.com/science/
• Kid Zone
• http//www.sciencespot.net

12
Science FCAT Tested Vocabulary

• Kindergarten
• energy
• environment
• force
• gas
• habitat
• heat
• life cycle
• light
• liquid
• matter
• moon
• planet
• solid
• star
• sun

• Second Grade
• condensation
• constellation
• deposition
• erosion
• evaporation
• food web
• friction
• gravity
• mass
• mixture
• pollution
• resource
• solar system
• volume
• weathering

• Fourth Grade
• adaptation
• carnivore
• decomposer
• earthquake
• force
• galaxy
• herbivore
• igneous rock
• lever
• magnetic
• organ
• population
• reflection
• solar system
• tissue

• Fifth Grade
• atmosphere
• compound
• density
• ecosystem
• fulcrum
• gravitation
• inertia
• life cycle
• microscopic
• organism
• protist
• solution
• topography
• universe
• volume

13
Check Your Vision for Curriculum

• (Cover One Eye)
• Use a Standards-based Curriculum

F CAT IS NOT A SUBJECT