Kris Stutchbury

1
Assessment of Practical work at GCSE

• AQA in action

2
Background

• Millar York
• 21st Century Science
• Gateway
• Practical data analysis
• Case study/science in the news
• Investigation

• Gott Durham
• AQA
• Edexcel
• Practical skills assessment
• Exam board set tasks
• Investigation (Edexcel)

3
Rationale

• What do we want to assess?
• - procedural understanding
• - practical skills

• How can we keep it simple/fair/reliable?
• - tasks set by the exam board
• - short tasks that support teaching and learning
  in science

4
Procedural Understanding

• The thinking behind the doing

What question am I asking and how can I answer
it? What do I need to measure? How precise do I
need to be? How many measurements do I need to
make? How can I ensure they are reliable and
accurate? Is the equipment precise enough? What
is the most valid way to analyse the data? What
conclusions can I draw? Are they valid? Are they
reliable? How sure am?
5
Investigative Skills Assignment (ISA)

• Assesses AO3 and some of AO2 (QCA, 2005)
• Experiment done in class
• Written test set by the exam-board 45 mins
• Section A based on their experiment
• Section B based on a related experiment.
  Alternative data is presented.

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ISA

• Marked out of 34
• One ISA submitted do more than one and take the
  best result
• Dual Award use one from Physics, Chemistry or
  Biology
• Done as part of normal teaching
• Progressive

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Example ISAs

• Effect of acid rain on seed germination and
  growth
• Effort of human activity on distribution of
  organisms
• Testing the viscosity of different oils
• Finding the degree of unsaturation in food oils
• Investigating the rate of loss of heat from
  various containers
• Investigating the effect of surface area on the
  pd from solar cells.

8
Example ISAs

• Rate of photosynthesis and light intensity
• Investigating the best conditions for a compost
  heap.
• Effect of temperature on enzyme activity
• Factors affecting the rate of reaction
• Displacement reactions investigating the effect
  of the mass or concentration on the temperature
  rise.
• Measuring the terminal velocity of different
  parachutes
• Investigating changes in resistance

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Practical Skills Assessment(PSA)

• Mark out of 6
• Based on ability to carry out simple procedures
  accurately and safely.

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Moderation

• Cascade system
• Internal system varies according to school
• Each mark the work of their students
• Heads of department mark samples from each
  teacher
• Head of Science marks samples from each department

11
Progress?

• Definitely simpler to administer
• Good discriminator and therefore fairer
• Good use of time as the preparation for the ISAs
  is relevant to the exam.
• Driving HSW in the curriculum
• Implications for teachers subject knowledge

12
Issues for the future

• Opportunities for formative feedback are missed
• Security
• Inclusion levels of reading required?
• What will the long term effects be? Will it
  promote thinking or will students learn the
  answers?

13
References

• Roberts, R. and Gott, R. (2006) The role of
  evidence in the new KS4 National Curriculum for
  England and the AQA Specifications SSR, 87 (321)
  p29-39
• QCA (2005) Criteria for Science Downloaded on
  11/11/09 http//www.ofqual.gov.uk/files/11881_gcse
  _science_criteria_apr05.pdf