Task: Look at the arrangement of fibres for four different paper towels, arrange an appropriate sequence of instructions, carry out the instructions and then communicate the data in an appropriate graph that will help answer the question. Different elements of the nature of science are embedded throughout the tasks. Assessment focus: planning and carrying out a fair test, using evidence to answer a question.
Students are assessed on their ability to find details that support them to identify the main idea in a text about an endangered species of New Zealand. Reading age 8.5-9.5. SJ-1-4-2005. Text provided.
Students are assessed on the ability to identify important information in order to establish the main idea of a narrative text about being judgemental. Reading age 10-12. SJ-4-3-1994. Text provided.
Students use the information in an article to interpret the body language of cats in nine different pictures. This task assesses student ability to bring together written and visual texts to show their comprehension. The text is reproduced in the Teacher information pages. SJ-3-1-1990. Text not provided.
Assessment focus: finding details to support the main idea of an informational text, and justifying why they agree or disagree with the main idea presented. The text used is about environmental issues to do with endangered native species.
Students conduct a statistical investigation about their prediction of the most common words used in English. They make graphs, describe their shape, and compare their own graph with ones that other students produce.
Task: Process and interpret data in a table to identify the best paper to use for a game. Evaluate the reliability of the collected data. Assessment focus: using evidence to answer a question.
Students formulate questions about glaciers and climate change to show awareness that informed opinions are based on inter-related aspects of evidence rather than individual instances.
Students look closely at a photograph taken on the beach and record their observations. They think and write about the consequences of the things they see.
Students compare drawings of a healthy and unhealthy plant and decide which quantitative and/or qualitative data distinguishes them. They draw conclusions from the data. This is a mathematics/science resource.
Task: Answer questions about what happens to water in open and closed containers and compare to the water cycle. Assessment focus: evaporation, the water cycle.
Task: Describe what happens to ice in a glass of water, giving reasons, and explain where water forming on the outside of the glass comes from. Assessment focus: changes of state.
Decide whether the photographed animals are reptiles or not, and justify responses. (A fact file giving the features of reptiles is given.) Answer a question about why scientists have an agreed way of grouping living things. Assessment focus: using science-based classifications.