Globe: Using Padi Templates As An Alternative Structure For Specifying Globe Investigation Strategies

Introduction

The Principled Assessment Designs for Inquiry (PADI) design system employs evidence-centered design (Messick, 1994; Mislevy, Steinberg, and Almond, 2003) as the foundation for guiding assessment development. As a use-case for the PADI design system, classroom assessment resources developed for the Global Learning to Benefit the Environment (GLOBE) program were reverse-engineered or translated into PADI design system components. Multiple design patterns and a task template were developed to shape assessments of the inquiry skills addressed in GLOBE. This paper briefly describes the process by which the GLOBE task template was reverse-engineered from the extant design and samples for assessing the GLOBE earth science concepts and investigation strategies.

GLOBE is a “worldwide hands-on, primary and secondary school-based education and science program” (http:www.globe.gov.). Students in GLOBE science classes take measurements related to earth science content investigation areas such as hydrology, atmosphere, and soils. These data are submitted to global data archives maintained by agencies such as NASA, NOAA, and EPA. The data are intended to be useable by scientists and also by students and teachers who participate in the GLOBE program. While working with the GLOBE program, SRI International conducted a project funded by the National Science Foundation to development classroom assessment tools for teachers. The assessment project developed an assessment framework and procedures for aligning GLOBE content and inquiry to national, international and state science standards. In addition the project designed a template to guide
teachers’ development of classroom assessments and sets of sample assessments for use at the elementary, middle, and secondary levels to test students’ use of GLOBE data collection protocols, concepts, and investigation strategies focused on using GLOBE data to solve authentic problems. The project developed generic scoring rubrics and task specific scoring keys for the sample assessments. The GLOBE task template developed in the PADI system can be used to support both the design of GLOBE assessments and the design of other science inquiry
assessments.

GLOBE is a particularly important use-case because it helps to demonstrate the capability of the PADI design system to accommodate assessments that address multiple components of science inquiry such as planning, data analysis, data interpretation, and communication. The GLOBE use-case is also a unique illustration of task template development because the reverse engineering was derived in part from a multi-layered assessment design system developed for the GLOBE program that included an assessment framework, template, and sample performance assessment tasks and rubrics. This paper begins by providing background on the PADI approach and GLOBE assessments. We then discuss the process by which GLOBE assessment resources were reverse engineered into a PADI task template. The final section of the paper presents the next steps for GLOBE assessment design using the PADI.