Activity 1.1 - Systems and Scale Unit Pretest (20 min)

Target Student Performance

Students show their initial proficiencies for the overall unit goal: Questioning, investigating, and explaining how matter and energy changed during combustion of organic materials.

Students complete a pretest to assess their understanding of what happens to matter and energy during combustion.

Resources You Provide

  • Pencils (1 per student)

Resources Provided

Setup

Print one copy of the 1.1 Systems and Scale Unit Pretest for each student.

1. Explain the unit pretest.

Explain the purpose of the unit pretest to students:

  • It will help you as a teacher understand how students think about what happens when ethanol burns.
  • It will help them think about what they know and what questions they have.
2. Have students take the unit pretest.

Distribute copies of 1.1 Systems and Scale Unit Pretest to be completed with paper and pencil.

Use the 1.1 Systems and Scale Unit Pretest to assess students' understanding of combustion in terms of learning progression levels. You should not give your students grades on the pretest or expect your students to know the correct answers. The document 1.1 Assessing Systems and Scale Unit Pretest has assessment guidelines, and identifies correct responses and explaining how students’ responses reveal their learning progression levels.