Learning outcomes are an essential element in curriculum development because they describe what students should be able to do by the end of a course or program and they provide a roadmap for designing assessments. This article describes the development of competency-based learning outcomes for a one-semester undergraduate introductory human…

Nitrate is a crucial parameter for assessing water quality, owing to its dual function in ecological systems. These functions can be beneficial or detrimental depending on whether nitrate concentrations are low or high, respectively. The ultraviolet spectrophotometric method (standard as 4500-NO[subscript 3]--B) is a classic method for determining…

Practical skills in chemistry are considered an essential outcome of an undergraduate chemistry degree. To achieve this, chemistry curricula are designated a substantial number of hours in teaching laboratories. However, the general method of a summative assessment of these sessions is through a written laboratory report and not through the actual…

Goal 2 of the "APA Goals for Undergraduate Major in Psychology," Scientific Inquiry and Critical Thinking, addresses the development of scientific reasoning and problem-solving, including effective research methods, in undergraduate psychology students. These skills serve as the foundation of not only introductory courses but also the…

Numerous options exist to assess student performance using standardized, multiple-choice exams at the course and department levels. This paper describes the development and implementation of an alternative department-level assessment for graduating chemistry majors. The assessment detailed here evaluates students' ability to transfer chemical…

Holt Primary School is a village school in which teachers work as a team within a climate of respect and trust. The teachers were fortunate to take part in the Bath Spa TAPS (Teacher Assessment in Primary Science) research project, which also overlapped with undertaking Gold PSQM (Primary Science Quality Mark). As a result, teacher confidence in…

The Qualifications Regulator in England (Ofqual) has decided that with the implementation of revised (linear) science specifications, first teaching from September 2015, the assessment of practical skills will not contribute to the overall qualification grade. This could have significant implications for post-16 science teaching. The decision was…

Increase in tuition fees means there will be renewed pressure on universities to provide "value for money" courses that provide extensive training in both subject-specific and generic skills. For graduates of chemistry this includes embedding the generic, practical, and laboratory-based skills associated with industrial research as an…

This article describes a first-grade research project that incorporates trade books and challenges misconceptions. Educators see the power of their students' wonder at work in their classrooms on a daily basis. This wonder must be nourished by students' own experiences--observing the moon on a crystal clear night--as well as by having…

It is evident that there is a need for assessment instruments that measure design and engineering design skills, knowledge, and ways of design thinking. These student assessments must be authentic to engineering design practices and measure key elements of the engineering design process. Kelley (2011) presented a rationale to include…

Assessments, understood as tools for tracking what and how well students have learned, play a critical role in the classroom. "Developing Assessments for the Next Generation Science Standards" develops an approach to science assessment to meet the vision of science education for the future as it has been elaborated in "A Framework…

The new National Curriculum Programme of Study for primary science in England includes most of the topics with which primary teachers are familiar. However, when looking at the science enquiry section, the changes are much more far-reaching. Science enquiry has been renamed as "working scientifically" and is integrated with developing…

Biochemistry and molecular biology (BMB) students should demonstrate proficiency in the foundational concepts of the discipline and possess the skills needed to practice as professionals. To ascertain the skills that should be required, groups of BMB educators met in several focused workshops to discuss the expectations with the ultimate goal of…

This article discusses the resources available for teachers to apply higher-level thinking and cognitive complexity to their instruction and assessments. While designing higher-level assessments might be a challenging task, doing so not only can improve student achievement in science, it also prepares students for a changing world. Students learn…

An environmental research project was carried out by a consortium established among scientists and university lecturers in collaboration with two high schools. High school students participated in a long-term study of the local temporal profiles of tropospheric ozone and the relationship to pollution and meteorological parameters. Low-cost…