Submitted by Frank Foster
May 2015
In my many years as a science teacher, I have struggled with the following idea: How do I grade how a student gets results in a laboratory or activity? The work itself is graded separately, but I would like to grade them on how they got their answers. I used to simply give them points for doing the lab, and not messing up. However, in today’s world, documentation may be required for all class activities, including labs. When I searched, I found many rubrics on lab reports, but few to none on how to give points or a grade, in order to complete the lab. So, I put together a performance assessment for just this circumstance. This particular one is geared toward Honors science, or high school biology and chemistry classes, but it can be tailored to fit any level of science lab.
To view my rubric, please click here
This particular rubric can help gear students to proper behavior and conduct in lab, so that everyone can be safe. Safety is a huge concern for me, which was probably why more than one of my categories matched up with safety in some way (attire, safety, procedure, and clean up). I will use this kind of rubric in my future science classes, and my grade book will reflect two grades per lab: one performance score, and one on the report/questions. I believe that these scores should be worth the same amount, because I think that it is as important in science how you got to the answer, as it is whether or not that answer is correct.
