KinderNature was created to help preschool teachers, child care staff, and parents in learning, developing, and implementing a well-balanced environmental education (EE) preschool program. Materials available here include an extensive selection of activities for younger children; links to information on child development, cognitive development, multiple intelligences and learning styles; educational ... Full description.

This resource provides guidelines for the needed components of a young child's portfolio, decisions regarding the content of the portfolio, using the portfolio in evaluation, and a bibliography. This resource is intended for use in the elementary school classroom. Full description.

This is a checklist designed to help elementary school users critically evaluate web resources. By answering the questions in the checklist, students can then assess if the site would be a good one to use for their science research projects. There is a series of "How does it look?" questions and a series of "What did you learn?" questions that challenge students to think critically about what they ... Full description.

This site contains printable rubrics for science assessment. Assessment ideas include conferences, interviews, contracts, portfolios, and group and self assessment. It also has ideas for performance assessment tasks and evaluation rubrics on heat, matter, and plants. Full description.

This article describes a multifaceted curriculum for use in earth science classes from secondary school to undergraduate level. The centerpiece of the curriculum is a project-based investigation of greenhouse warming that can be conducted during one or more lab sessions using off-the-shelf materials. This process provides students with the opportunity to gain a deeper understanding of the climate ... Full description.

This excerpt from Reading Teacher's Book of Lists describes alternative ways to assess students, including using journals, portfolios, re-tellings, reading logs, and checklists. Descriptions of the best practices to use with any of these evaluation techniques and how to make the process work for both students and teachers are provided. This resource is aimed for use in the classroom and is intended ... Full description.

This is a technical report from the Center for the Study of Evaluation about the integration of research and education. The authors propose the use of students' science notebooks as one possible unobtrusive method of examining some aspects of teaching quality. They conducted a study in fifth grade classrooms, analyzing notebooks according to the characteristics of the activity, quality of the student's ... Full description.

This searchable resource contains a list of performance assessment tasks, aligned with and linked to National Science Education Standards. The resources are collected from a variety of reputable sources, such as the Third Annual Math and Science Study (TIMMS) and the NY State Education Department. The tasks include student directions and response forms, administration procedures, scoring rubrics, ... Full description.

A portfolio is a purposeful collection of student work that exhibits the student's efforts, progress, and achievements in one or more areas of the curriculum. This resource discusses the characteristics of an effective portfolio, types of portfolios, and the phases of portfolio assessment. It offers guidelines for how to get started using portfolios, how can a portfolio be evaluated, and some additional ... Full description.

This article describes why portfolios may be useful for improving assessment and for motivating and involving students more in their own learning. Topics include instructional uses, assessment uses, tracking growth over time, accountability, and references for further reading. This resource is intended for K-12 teachers to use in the classroom. Full description.