Reflecting on Unit 1 Assessment 3

This final assessment for Unit 3 was challenge for some of the students, unlike the earlier assessments where there really was ample time for all students to finish, for this one there was time for some students to finish the fourth part, but not for all. For those who didn't finish in class it became a homework assignment for them. While this was a challenge in its way, I think it reflects the quicker pace I feel like I need to for the assessments. Most won't be the quick two weeks this one was, but the time needs to be used more efficiently.

Beyond the time, the last section of this assessment was a challenge because it was math heavy. I did what I could to support all the students by providing examples on the board and showing how even the more difficult calculation for speed is solved for each value the same exact way. If they could follow the procedure they could get it.

Another challenge was in the graphing. The first two parts of the assessment involved working with real world data, and sometimes that can be hard to use. I believe that the benefit of working with this data was worthwhile, but it was a challenge.  In a way, it would be easier to give the students real data that I know would give good results.

Now, that being said, there is no reason the data shouldn't work, other than issues of scale with the wide range in masses. For the data from NASA they calculate the values using the equation for kinetic energy, so it should all line up. They take the magnitude (brightness), use that to estimate the size. They use the size and the average density of an asteroid to estimate the mass. Finally they take the mass and speed to find the energy. Basically the numbers should work. For my students who had graphs that didn't show a trend the issue tended to be mistakes in graphing, or mistakes in adjusting for scale.

And finally, while my students could certainly tell you with certainty that more mass and more speed equal more energy, I am not 100% sure how well they know this for application. In looking at the answers for some students in the final assessment I felt like their answers came across as more of a practiced response, than some deep thought out analysis. 

Positives
While that may sound like a lot of challenges, I did feel like this assessment went well. My students got the basic concept, the asteroid drop lab went well, and most students didn't seem overwhelmed by the math in the last part. While the challenges need to be remembered for next year, I don't know that I would specifically change anything for next year other than I might want to add some activity at the end to try to really assess their overall ability to apply this information in detail.