#3 Light and Shadow

To know if a student understands a benchmark, I would like to see the student demonstrate their knowledge to me. Students can do this by explaining in their own words what they learned from a specific benchmark. If a student can re-explain a concept, I think it gives a good indication as to whether or not they understand a concept. Another way of knowing if a student understands a benchmark would be to have the student apply what was taught to their own lives. This would let the teacher know if the student can make sense of what was supossed to be learned and actually apply it in a relevant way that is meaningful. By applying a benchmark to their own life, a student would have to take what he or she knows and then “do it.” The students would have to take the key concepts and apply them to a real-world context. We can help students to do this by having a positive and ethusiastic attitude towards science, and by giving students pre-tests in order to help clear student’s misconceptions.