This pre-assessment activity enables you to gauge students’ current knowledge on the topic of energy in ecosystems. Remember to save the completed pre-assessment student pages for later comparison, as the post-assessment exercise at the end of this unit contains the same questions. This repetition allows teachers to effectively evaluate knowledge gains over time.
Time Considerations
Getting Ready: 10 minutes
Doing the Activity: 20–40 minutes
Materials
- Copies of Energy in Ecosystems — Pre-Assessment student page
Getting Ready
- Make copies of the student page.
Doing the Activity
- Give each student a copy of the Energy in Ecosystems — Pre-Assessment student page and allow students time to complete it. Explain to students that their responses will be used to guide instruction over the coming weeks and to help them see how much they have learned; it will NOT be graded. Encourage students to do the best they can to answer the questions. Collect all responses after students have finished.
- Explain to students that over the next few weeks they will be exploring the topic of energy in ecosystems. Ask students what they know about ecosystems and what questions they have about them.
Answer Key
See the Pre- and Post-Assessment Answer Key teacher page for the correct responses to the student page questions.
