ATLAST developed assessments in specific content areas in middle school science that were both meaningful and small enough to assess thoroughly with a relatively short assessment (i.e., requiring 45 minutes or less to administer).\u00a0 For each assessment, there is an accompanying “content clarification.”\u00a0 Clarifying (or specifying) the content domain can be thought of as defining the boundaries for an assessment, or specifying what content is “fair game” and what is not.<\/p>\n
For each content area, a subset of middle grades science benchmark(s) from the Benchmarks for Science Literacy<\/em> by AAAS (1993) was adapted to bound the content domain.\u00a0 The benchmarks for each area are listed below.<\/p>\n Food provides molecules that serve as fuel and building materials for all organisms.\u00a0 Plants use the energy in light to make sugars out of carbon dioxide and water.\u00a0 This food [sugars] can be used immediately for fuel or materials, or it may be stored for later use.\u00a0 Organisms that eat plants break down the plant structures to produce the materials and energy they need to survive.\u00a0 Then they are consumed by other organisms.<\/em><\/p>\n An unbalanced force acting on an object changes its speed or direction of motion, or both.<\/em><\/p>\n The outer portion of Earth\u2014including both the continents and the seafloor beneath the oceans\u2014consists of huge plates of solid rock.\u00a0 The plates move very slowly (a few centimeters per year).\u00a0 Plate movement causes abutting plates to interact with one another.\u00a0 Interactions between plates result in events and features that are observable on Earth\u2019s surface (e.g., earthquakes, volcanoes and mountain ranges); these typically occur along boundaries between plates.<\/em><\/p>\n To further specify the domain, the benchmarks were “unpacked” into sub-ideas, which can be thought of as the smallest assessable piece of information about the ideas. Sub-ideas were identified by content experts in each discipline and then reviewed by a three-person panel of content experts.\u00a0 The sub-ideas included ideas for students, as well as ideas for teachers.\u00a0 These sub-ideas fully specify the content domain for all instruments developed in each content area.<\/p>\nFlow of Matter & Energy in Living Systems (adapted from Project 2061 benchmark 5E\/M1)<\/h4>\n
Force & Motion (adapted from Project 2061 benchmark 4F\/M3)<\/h4>\n
Plate Tectonics (adapted from Project 2061 benchmarks 4C\/M11, 4C\/M12, 4C\/M13)<\/h4>\n