Performance-Based Assessment: Making Math Relevant (Transcript)

Joan: The students have ownerships of the material, and it clearly demonstrates their knowledge.

Jeff: We ask our teachers is the performance that we want from kids short-term memory? Or do we want comprehensive understanding of big ideas? We use the term Performance-Based Assessment to challenge our teachers to put the measuring stick against the student demonstration of application. The performance of analysis.

Student: Did you remember to go from North first?

Student: Fifty-nine degrees and then eleven…

Jeff: Is the performance that I can solve an algorithm that was handed to me on a piece of paper? Or is the performance that I can solve a real-world problem that I have to determine the appropriate algorithms to use to begin with?

Joan: We wanted to come up with a Performance-Based Assessment, so we sat down at a table and just started saying these are the things that we wanted to assess. The law of sines, the law of cosines, right-triangle trigonometry, bearings.

Andrew: We had a discussion about, “Where can I integrate something relevant in this unit I’m doing on polar coordinates.”

Mary: Like the kind you would see on radar blips, you know, directing a plane or a ship.

Andrew: And we came up with the idea of mission relief, which not only uses polar coordinates, but reviews a lot of the trig concepts that they’re using throughout the year.

Joan: There are teams of three or four students. Some of them are air traffic controllers, some are pilots.

Mary: The project has physically two settings. There is a group of air traffic controllers housed in one of the classrooms.

Student: You’re going to go 66 degrees for 65 feet and 3 inches.

Mary: They provide coordinates to their copilots in the gym via FaceTime.

Charlotte: We used a map of the U.S. that was to scale of the gymnasium. And told our copilots the angle measures that they were to use and the distances they were to go to find the next mission.

Student: 43 feet 7 inches.

Joan: The missions are some kind of disaster.

Student: I think it’s that one.

Joan: And earthquake or flood. Someone needs to get to them to rescue them. When they scan the code, that will take them to a Wiki space that has the disaster described and what they need to do in order to rescue the people.

Student: A hurricane hit an oil rig situated on a platform off a 1500-yard long sandy beach on the shore of Louisiana from which end of the beach did the worker leave? Okay, so I labeled 1500 as B, so then that’s the side opposite the rig. That’s angle-side angle.

Student: I think that’s the law of sines.

Student: I think you’re right, because we have two angles.

Student: It’s the law of sines.

Mary: Throughout the course, they keep a list of formulas that are useful in solving the trig problem, so they have to decide what formula to use to successfully complete their particular mission.

Joan: Each team has to solve four missions in order to score perfectly on the exam. Every member in the team gets the same grade, so they are dependent on each other.

Student: 38 feet 3 inches.

Student: It’s a sine equation, so it says Y equals sine action, and the vertical change is the number in front of the sines.

Student: Okay, so it would be 10 cosine of 250x.

Charlotte: It helped pull together different concepts that we had worked on all year, and use them in a real-life application.

Student: Think we can say sine angle cosine?

Student: It’s making a function…

Joan: We’re looking for the accuracy of how they used the trigonometry to solve the mission. The copilots have to turn in all of their calculations. They can’t just give an answer. Air traffic controllers will submit all of their work also.

Joan: Mission six was the forest fire in Oregon.

Mary: They did this correctly. Most people I think their error is in not taking the bearing from north/south line.

Student: All right, I’m done with all my calculations, if you guys need help.

Mary: We observe how well they are communicating with each other. We will not help them solve the problems. We’re guiding them.

Mary: Think about how you calculate amplitude.

Student: Oh, so it would be like zero like, time minus zero over two, so it’s actually five.

Mary: Okay.

Jeff: Four point averages…

Charlotte: Even though we had some difficulties, it was a learning experience that I wouldn’t take back.

Joan: One of the student we talked to, who’s in the calculus class this year, he said it was his favorite final. And we said, “Yes, but what did you retain from it?” And he could tell us the exact problems, and he could tell us the math that he used.

Schools That Work

Hampton High School