Capstone Assessment

For my capstone assessment, I decided to give my students an exit ticket that helped wrap up a lab assignment we did during my capstone lessons. The exit ticket was designed to test their knowledge of the purpose of the lab assignment and to identify whether they are able to determine the variables we used. The lab activity had students swab different areas around the school and culture the bacteria they collected in petri dishes. Each group had 2 petri dishes. 1 was designated to help answer the question where is bacteria found, and the other was designated to answer one of two possible questions, how do we get bacteria off of us or how do bacteria get on us. For the second petri dish, students had to create their own investigation to help answer their question. Students were able to use their petri dish in any way they chose and could divide it up however they pleased. Before the lab students had to identify how their investigation would answer the question. The assessment was intended to get them to think about the science basics of lab experiments and think about the different variables that were associated with the lab as well as the purpose.  

For this example, the students was able to identify one of the variables they used in the experiment however, they were not able to identify the control as the other variable. The other two questions I think gave proficient answers and showed an understanding of the content. When giving the student feedback I would have asked them, what are we using to compare the swabbed sections to see if bacteria is actually growing? This would hopefully guide the student in the direction of thinking of the control as a variable.