Assessing Science in the Primary Classroom

This book explains the purpose and nature of written assessment in science, illustrated through a description of material developed and used in the STAR project.

In considering the design of the written material for assessing children’s achievement levels in science process skills, it was important that the context be as close as possible to normal primary class activities. A class project was devised around the investigation of materials and objects to be found in an imaginary Walled Garden.

The authors describe the use in the classroom of the Walled Garden materials, and presented examples of children’s responses, together with a discussion of the interpretation and categorisation of such responses. The a