4th Grade Performance Task
Contributed by: New York State Education Department (NYSED)
NYS Alternative Assessment in Science Project (1996)

Mystery Card 1 - Scoring Rubric

Standard: The student describes what happened to the bulb when each connection is made.

Criteria:

A to B and A to D

• 2 points if the student makes a statement describing that the bulb lit or glowed
  OR
• The student makes a valid statement about complete circuits it is a closed circuit/not an open circuit
• the foil (wire) is connected/attached
  
• 1 point if the student states "it worked."
• 0 points if the student states that the bulb did not light or nothing happened.

A to C

• 2 points if the student makes a statement describing that the bulb did not light or glow.
  OR
  • The student makes a valid statement about incomplete circuits
  • it is an open circuit or the foil (wire) is not connected/attached
• 1 point if the student states "it didn't work" or "nothing happened."
• 0 points if the student states that the bulb lit.

Standard: The student explains why the bulb did not light when A and C were connected.

Criteria:

• 2 points for any valid generalization about incomplete circuits.
  • A and C are not connected by foil (wire) under the card
  • It is an open circuit
  • The foil (wire) is not touching/attached between A and C.
• 1 point if the student makes an incomplete or partial statement about the mystery card.
  • It is not a circuit
  • There is no foil (wire)
  • It is not complete
• 0 points if the student only restates observations made in question 1.

Standard: The student makes a valid drawing based on his/her data from question 1.

Criteria:

• 2 points for a drawing with 2 correct connections.

• 1 point for a drawing with one correct connection

• 0 points if the drawing is not based on student's data or is illogical or inappropriate.

*** Evaluate the student's answer to item 3 in relation to the data recorded in item 1. If the drawing is correct based on these data (even if the data are not correct), credit should be given.

*** No points should be given if the student connects any terminal with terminal "C" and his/her data states that the bulb did not light up.

Scoring Form - Mystery Card 1

Student ID _____________

Male / Female (circle one)

Circle the student's score for each question. Add the points for each question and write the total score at the bottom of the scoring form.

Total Score ____________

Total possible score - 10 points