Formative Assessment

Do students understand that a ball of plastic modeling clay will weigh the same and displace the same volume of water no matter how it is reshaped?

The notebook will provide you with evidence of students’ understanding. Criteria you can use to interpret the entries are; Do students:

• predict that weight and volume will stay the same?
• use their measurements to support their claims?
• reason that if you don’t add plastic modeling clay or take it away, weight and volume should stay the same?
• do their measurements seem accurate?

Students may find small changes in weight (+/- 1 gram) after reshaping. Do students think this difference is significant? As a next step, you might look at class data and discuss possible sources of error such as inaccurate scales or forgetting to dry off the reshaped plastic modeling clay.