Performance Based Assessment

Zack Bassman Stephen Chu Anand Thakker Performance Based Assessment

1 Organizing Idea (What is the overarching concept?) Big Idea (concept that organizes the unit): Mathematical Representation

Essential Question(s): Why do we need to look at a problem in more than one way? How can representing the world using mathematics help uncover its underlying structures?

2 Outcomes (What understandings are you trying to develop? Enduring Understanding(s): That a real life situation can be represented with mathematics in multiple ways. That simply using a new mathematical representation for a situation can unlock a previously inaccessible way to make progress on a problem.

Misconception(s) tied to that understanding:

Students believe that there are too many variables to solve a problem. Students expect the first representation they see or come up with to be sufficient for solving the problem, and thereby miss ways to make progress. (A.k.a. I dont need to draw a diagram.)

Performance Based Assessment

Factual Knowledge: Properties of quadratic functions. Proportions Skill(s): Students will be able to determine whats relevant in the description of a situation. organize the relevant information in a problem into a diagram. express facts about the situation (or the diagram) algebraically. use substitution to eliminate variables from a system of equations. factor a quadratic equation. use factoring to determine the zeroes of a quadratic equation. use a graph to represent the relationship between variables in an equation. interpret a graph or equation in the context of the situation it is being used to represent. ...use a calculator to find salient features of a function.

3 Assessment Evidence (What evidence do you have that the student understands?)

Performance Based Assessment

Performance Task(s): A farmer has 1000 feet of fencing with which to build a rectangular pasture for his cows. He decides to build the pasture up against the side of a cliff, so his fence only needs to take care of three sidesthe cliff will be the fourth side. Explain precisely how he can maximize the area of his pasture.

Other Evidence: That, when working on unfamiliar problems, students try using a variety of ways of setting up the problem without prompting by the teacher.

Please discuss each mathematical representation you used to solve the previous problem. [Note: the kind of response a student gives to this question should show us how conscious s/he is about the way in which different representations contribute to a solution.]

A golden rectangle is one in which, if you cut it down to a square by making one cut, then the rectangular scrap youre left with will have the same proportions as the original. Find the dimensions of a golden rectangle. Can you find more? The figure shows a bridge arching over route 83. To accommodate the road beneath, the arch is 100 feet wide at its base, 20 feet high in the center, and parabolic in shape. Is it possible to move a rectangular object that is 40 feet wide and 16.5 feet high (a wide trailer, for example) through the opening? Explain.

From Phillips Exeter Academys Math 1

Performance Based Assessment

Youre organizing a rock-paperscissors tournament, and youre trying to decide how much to charge. There are 300 people in your school. Lets assume that if you charge nothing, then everyone will play, but that if you charged $10, would only be one person who would be willing to pay. Precisely how much should you charge in order to maximize your profit? Nourredine wants to make a box (dont ask what for) out of an 8.5 by 11 sheet of paper. He will do this by cutting a square out of each of the corners , and then folding up the sides. Model this situation in at least two different ways, and find the length of the side of the square which will maximize the volume of the box. Feel free to use a calculator. [Note: what well look for here is, for example, the students use of pictoral, algebraic, and graphical representations during the process.]

Choose any three of the problems above. Reflect on the similarities and differences in the representations you used each problem and how they helped you make progress towards your solutions.

4 Rubric (How are you going to show that1 students understand?) Responses would be assessed primarily on the basis of whether students choose an effective representation to set up the problem, and then introduce new ones when necessary to make further progress. Technical errors with techniques (such as factoring, finding vertex, etc.) would be considered distinct from the bigger issue of whether students see the value of bringing new representations to bear on a problem.
1-Anand

Thakker