Recycled Insect Models
December 2007
This article presents an engaging activity in which high school students use a dichotomous key to guide the creation and classification of model insects from recycled plastic lids and containers. Besides teaching the use of a dichotomous key and the effect of evolutionary descent upon groupings of organisms, this activity focuses on an often-neglected area of science teaching: creativity (Yager 2000). The activity described here involves students in studying real organisms.
Knowing When You Don't Know
April 2006
This article describes an alternative way of testing—a performance assessment—that is different both in process and goals from typical tests, but closer to what teachers believe assessment should be. Teachers who have helped to create, refine, and use this new generation of tests find them valuable because they measure the skills and concepts that they believe are most important for students to develop.