EBIA 2/12 Science Team CBE Reflection by Heather Harlen

sarahblair2 — 2025-02-12 22:48:53 UTC

Used competencies to update project expectations for 6th & 7th grade science

sarahblair2 — 2025-02-12 22:49:27 UTC

Added competencies to student facing documents, but I haven't fully introduced them to students

sarahblair2 — 2025-02-12 22:50:23 UTC

Sharing them with students and using them as a feedback tool - not to grade, but give students feedback on where their response falls and KEY things they need to improve them.

2025-02-12 22:50:40 UTC

Began the process of adding competency targets to my unit plans.

sarahblair2 — 2025-02-12 22:51:07 UTC

One of the competencies on planning an investigation felt redundant / teachers were unclear on what it meant

Implementation on Echo

masonbrown4 — 2025-02-12 22:51:07 UTC

How will we use competencies with grades and assignments in Echo?

Will need something streamlined enough that teachers are willing to switch over.

2025-02-12 22:51:11 UTC

Adding competencies to student reflections on their unit projects.

Reviewing the grade level competencies to set goals/ objectives for assignments and to assess the current levels of my students

2025-02-12 22:51:31 UTC

Collaboration

sarahblair2 — 2025-02-12 22:51:53 UTC

Collaboration is a valued skill - how do we assess this while using the competencies?

2025-02-12 22:52:04 UTC

Will competencies be added to ECHO rubric options

mfitts3 — 2025-02-12 22:52:54 UTC

Used competencies to add more depth to assignments and projects. Example 6th grade science fair projects with more data analysis prompts and adding a diagram option before writing a CER

SCI.3.3. Obtaining and Evaluating Information- trying to guide research!

2025-02-12 22:53:10 UTC

2025-02-12 22:53:40 UTC

Would like to think through the relationship between the competencies and the start of standards based grading that some STEM teachers have been developing

mfitts3 — 2025-02-12 22:53:59 UTC

Added a diagram option to a CER assignment. I did find that it allowed the students to better internalize the process we were studying before writing their evidence

mfitts3 — 2025-02-12 22:55:06 UTC

I envision using them the same way, to add depth to assignments and to incorporate more ways to use various skills in one assignment

2025-02-12 22:55:42 UTC

Reviewing our final projects from this trimester- as a self evaluation with the rubric in mind

mfitts3 — 2025-02-12 22:56:24 UTC

I need more study on all of them before I can answer this question. However, I do think so as I recall some of the depth of competencies would not be feasible in our unit timelines.

Alignment to AP Science Practices

masonbrown4 — 2025-02-12 22:57:19 UTC

How might we align the competencies to AP science courses for level 10-12 ?

mfitts3 — 2025-02-12 22:57:40 UTC

Using them for grading would require that they be fleshed out for each score level. I don't see them as a fit for grading but more as a tool for assignment development

mfitts3 — 2025-02-12 23:01:12 UTC

I would find it very difficult as a time sink for teachers and students to use it as a grading tool.

Group Discussion

sarahblair2 — 2025-02-12 23:01:27 UTC

Ari - Hasn't used it much out of meetings, but feels like it could be an easier way to plan / use as student feedback.

Sam - Feels like this school year, students can use it as a self reflection. This feels like a challenge for standards based grading. Too much back end grading structures. +NGSS aligned

Mason - Would need to streamline with echo grading. There are many moving parts to standards based grading. Students don't currently have a strong understanding of how their grade works / why they have the grade they do? Could be beneficial.

Sarah - Formative feedback

Michelle - Good planning tool, but not for grading. How could we use these to improve our current rubrics? Benefits to have categories in PLPs.

Could this be the tool for standards based grading?

Mason - Yes, but with a narrowed window
Sam - Standards based grading is challenging. All of the different systems.
Could we change a grading category to be Science competency?
Can we embed rubrics for students within echo? LMS - Rubric based assignments?

ADMIN

sarahblair2 — 2025-02-12 23:02:20 UTC

How could we incorporate this with echo?
Does everyone have to have the same categories?

mfitts3 — 2025-02-12 23:28:18 UTC

The challenge we have been running into is the expectation that one assignment has to have ALL of the strands in a standard in order for the student to achieve that level of competency.

mfitts3 — 2025-02-12 23:30:19 UTC

One possible use of the competencies is as a means of making benchmark assessments for each grade level.

Competencies and Benchmarking

masonbrown4 — 2025-02-12 23:34:41 UTC

The competencies have been really helpful as a teacher-facing tool for building and evaluating assessments.

Could this be a tool we use for school-wide benchmark assessments?

We worked in the past to make benchmark assessments for science, and the competencies seem like a perfect tool for us to use to evaluate student performance on those benchmark assessments.

This could give us data on grade-level performance on each competency as well as cohort data from year to year.