Unit Plan and Assessment of Student Learning

By: Megan Willis

Unit Plan Purpose/SOLs covered

● Purpose:

– Throughout the course of the unit, students will

understand how plate tectonics occur on Earth and

how the resulting geologic features occur.

● Virginia SOLs:

– ES.7 The student will investigate and understand

geologic processes including plate tectonics. Key

concepts include:

a)geologic processes and their resulting features;

b)and tectonic processes.

Days 1, 2: The History of Plate Tectonics

● Engage:

– Formative assessment on plate tectonics

● Explore:

– Pangaea puzzle

● Explain:

– Class discussion on Pangaea Puzzles

– Lecture

● Elaborate:

– Continental drift flip book – shows how continents drift over time

– Primary plate puzzle – shows that continents and plates are not the same thing

● Evaluate:

– Check the Pangaea Puzzles for completion, not accuracy

– Both it and the Primary Plate Puzzle are counted as daily participation if turned in

– Students can keep the Pangaea flip books

Pangaea Puzzle Student Examples

Continental Drift Flip Book

Primary Plate Puzzle Student Examples

Days 3, 4: Introduction to Plate Tectonics

● Engage:

– Venn diagram on solids versus liquids

– Silly putty

● Explore:

– Earth's layers lab

● Explain:

– Lecture on the Earth's layers

● Elaborate:

– Pie Slice of the Earth GeoBlox

● Evaluate:

– Check GeoBlox and activity sheets for completion, but correct the

activity sheets so that they can study them.

Earth's Layers Activity Sheet Student Examples

Pie Slice of the Earth GeoBlox Student Examples

Days 5, 6: Tectonic Plates

● Engage:

– The cookies sat at the front of the class during the quiz to pique student interest

● Explore:

– Students demonstrated the 3 main types of plate boundaries using the Oreos

– Students then made flip books on the three main types of plate boundaries

● Explain:

– Lecture on plate boundaries and their geologic features

● Elaborate:

– Based on the information in the lecture, students can fill in the rest of their flip

books

● Evaluate:

– Students are given rubrics for the flip books so that they know exactly what they

need on the particular tabs

Plate Boundary Flip Book Student Examples

Plate Boundary Flip Book Student Examples

Rubric

Days 7, 8: Products of Plate Tectonics

● Students finished up the plate boundary flip books from last

class

● Engage:

– Students watched a short YouTube video on the San

Andreas Fault in California

● Explore:

– Students were put into groups of three to complete

GeoBloxs on normal, reverse, and strike slip faults

– Class discussion on three types of faults

● Explain:

– Lecture on folds and faults

Fault GeoBlox Student Example

Fault Chart Student Example

Days 9, 10: Test Review

● Engage:

– The bingo boards sat in front of the class to pique student interest

● Explore:

– The class was separated into 4 groups, and each group worked on completing different

concept maps on the Popplet website

● Explain:

– After the groups finished their concept maps, they rotated around the room and saw the

other concept maps

– One student from each group stayed at their concept map and explain it to students as

they walk up

● The other students walked around to the other groups and listened in on what their

concept maps were about

● Elaborate:

– I hosted a Geo-Bingo tournament with bingo boards I created using concepts from the unit

– Students were allowed to use their notes and winners received either extra credit on the

test or candy

Concept Map Student Example

Concept Map Student Example

Days 11, 12: Test

● Students had 5-10 minutes to ask questions/study for their tests.

● Students took the test on Blackboard.

– They faced the back of the room so I could see their computer

screens. The questions were also in randomized order to prevent

cheating.

● As students finished, they had time to work on their homework that

was due the next class for Mrs. Dickenson.

● At the end of class, I passed out the same formative assessment that

I used at the beginning of the unit.

– This was so I could see how the students self assessed

themselves on how much knowledge they had gained.

● Finally, I passed out an exit slip that asked the students to explain

what plate tectonics is.

Assessment of Student Learning

At the beginning of unit plan on Plate Tectonics, I

administered a formative assessment to all of my ninth grade

students. This formative assessment was used as a way to

gauge the prior knowledge of my students before I started

teaching them. The purpose was for students to self-assess

themselves.

Provided below are the statistics for every class I taught.

The numbers of students shown in red indicate the numbers

BEFORE I taught my unit. At the very end of my unit, I

administered the exact same formative assessment to see if

the students had learned anything from the lessons and

activities. The numbers in blue indicate the numbers AFTER

I taught my unit. All answers were anonymous.

Formative Assessment

A-Day Block 2: (Pre-AP Earth Science)

● Plate Tectonics:

– I have never heard of this: 2 students, 0 students

– I have heard of this but I’m not sure what it means: 2 students, 3 students

– I have some idea what it means: 14 students, 5 students

– I clearly know what it means and I can describe it: 3 students, 12 students

A-Day Block 3: (Regular Earth Science)

● Plate Tectonics:

– I have never heard of this: 2 students, 0 students

– I have heard of this but I’m not sure what it means: 5 students, 0 students

– I have some idea what it means: 6 students, 4 students

– I clearly know what it means and I can describe it: 5 students, 11 students

Formative Assessment Continued

A-Day Block 4: (Pre-AP Earth Science)

● Plate Tectonics:

– I have never heard of this: 1 student, 1 student

– I have heard of this but I’m not sure what it means: 1 student, 0 students

– I have some idea what it means: 16 students, 4 students

– I clearly know what it means and I can describe it: 6 students, 14 students

B-Day Block 1: (Pre-AP Earth Science)

● Plate Tectonics:

– I have never heard of this: 0 students, 0 students

– I have heard of this but I’m not sure what it means: 3 students, 0 students

– I have some idea what it means: 15 students, 4 students

– I clearly know what it means and I can describe it: 5 students, 16 students

Formative Assessment Continued

B-Day Block 4: (Pre-AP Earth Science)

● Plate Tectonics:

– I have never heard of this: 0 students, 0 students

– I have heard of this but I’m not sure what it means: 2 students, 1 student

– I have some idea what it means: 16 students, 0 students

– I clearly know what it means and I can describe it: 4 students, 19 students

Assessment of Student Learning

The students' self assessments seem to indicate that they all

understood plate tectonics better after the completion of the unit. In

all of the classes, there was a huge increase of students who clearly

knew what it meant and could describe it. This data also indicates

that there was only one student at the end of the unit who still had no

idea what plate tectonics was. If I had more time and I had been with

my students from the beginning of the year, I might have figured out

another way of presenting the information to help that student.

I administered an exit slip at the end of my unit as well. I saw that

most students on their formative assessments indicated that they

clearly knew what plate tectonics was and could describe it after the

unit. This made me want to hear their own definitions and see what

they took away from the unit. Students couldn't use their notes, but

they had to come up with their own definition of it based off of

everything we went over. Below are some examples of student

responses.

Exit Slip Student Responses

Assessment of Student Learning

Some students were more general and vague with their

answers (slip 1), and some were much more specific (slip 2),

but both are correct answers. Some students remembered

specific events and tied it into plate tectonics (slip 3) and

some students still had some misconceptions (slip 4).

After the entire unit, I gave the students the unit test. I

administered this test on Blackboard (the school website).

Blackboard was a great way to incorporate technology in the

classroom. It also graded all of the tests for me and it

allowed me to pull up the statistics after they took it. I could

then see which problems students had the most issues with,

and which problems most of the class did well on.

Analyzing Student Performance

Analyzing the Test

Assessment of Student Learning

There were 50 questions and 100 possible

points. There seemed to be a normal bell-

curve distribution of grades. The average

score on the test was a 74.7%. The highest

grade was a 100% and the lowest grade was

a 34%. These analysis were performed by the

school BlackBoard website and were based

on 78 student attempts. It even showed that

the average time required for the test was on

average 24 minutes.