Earth System Science Analyses: Comparison of Events

How to Score Student Responses

For each of three "events" (Mt. Pinatubo eruption, Hurricane Georges, and Montserrat eruption), each student is asked to develop general conclusions about the effects of events on their sphere based on a comparison of their previous event analyses. Printable PDFs are below.

• t-Minus 3 Weeks/ Event Analysis Tool: Mt. Pinatubo eruption (compared to the Yellowstone fire "event").
• t-Minus 2 Weeks/ Event Analysis Tool: Hurricane Georges (compared to Yellowstone fire and Mt. Pinatubo eruption "events")
• Post-Mission/ Event Analysis Tool: Montserrat eruption (compared to Yellowstone fire, Mt. Pinatubo eruption and Hurricane Georges "events")

The objective of this exercise is to see if students can identify similarities among the events. This is called "making generalizations." Students need to use these generalizations to make predictions about what might happen on Montserrat in the short and long term. The specific generalizations they make will be dependent on the responses that each student provided for their previous analyses.

In order to score a student’s response to the comparison question, you should first review each of the responses to the analyses that have been completed. Use the following chart to rate the level of generalization that the student achieved.

Score/Description

2   The student identifies effects that occurred in each of the previous events and describes the effect in a general way.

1   The student identifies effects that occurred in each of the previous events, but simply lists the specific occurrences as they appear in the analyses.

0  The student lists no general effects nor effects that appear in select events.