This student work was collected for educators to use as part of the Making Sense of SCIENCE professional development courses for their own professional learning.
The samples in this download are ideal to use with the first session of our Making Sense of Student Work protocol. They can also be used with many other protocols designed to support teachers looking collaboratively at student work.
This set includes work from students with high, medium, and low levels of understanding. They show an authentic variety of responses from a typical classroom. To protect students’ identities, their names have been removed, and each has been assigned an alias. Also included in this PDF is a blackline master of the task.
The “Massive Air” task promotes student thinking around the concept of gases having mass. This task is part of the larger Matter Formative Assessment Task Bank for grades 5–8. The full task bank and other task banks on different topics are available for download.
My students struggled with understanding that air has mass. This is a great task to see how students are thinking about gasses.
7th Grade Teacher
- Type: PDF
- Audience: For teachers and coaches
Companion Resources & Services
Matter Course Materials
This comprehensive set of materials supports the professional learning in our 5-day Matter course.
Matter Formative Assessment Task Bank for Grades 5–8
The formative assessments involve gathering and analyzing evidence of students’ thinking, then using what is learned to inform instruction.
Making Sense of Student Work PLC Protocol
This protocol supports professional learning communities in collaboratively analyzing student work and uncovering the value in high-quality formative assessment.