Measuring Elapsed Time- Student Created Formative

Student-Created Formative Assessment: 

 Measuring Elapsed Time In My Life

Lead In:

We began together discussing the following:

° Do you think you spend more of your awake time 
with people from school or with your family in an 
average week?

° Do you think you spend more time reading printed 
materials like books or screen reading like on our laptops 
or ipads in an average week?

° How many hours a week do you think you spend at a 
table eating meals?

We shared our predictions and then possible strategies we could use to find out. 

We then brainstormed other possible questions we could investigate and came up with the following:

 ° Compare the amount of time you are awake to the amount  
of time you are asleep in an average week?

° What is the amount of elapsed time from when you leave 
home in the morning till when you return home on a usual day?

° Compare the difference in time between
a) The time you finish breakfast and begin lunch
b)   The time you finish lunch and start supper/dinner

° Estimate the amount of time you spend reading in a 
usual week.  (Include your reading time at school and at home)

° Do you spend more time at school or at home during a work week (Monday to Friday)?

With these ideas, we were ready to investigate...........

Investigation:

We had a choice of which to investigate and needed to present our mathematical process clearly so someone could easily understand what we did.

Most of us chose to use the 'mountain-hill-rock' strategy to show the measured elapsed time and to make it clear for the reader, most chose to include a key. 

Reflection:

We shared with a partner our investigation and asked them for feedback over how we approached the investigation.  

Formative Assessment Feedback:

I like to use Learner Profile attributes to assess and provide feedback to my students maths.  I like to think it takes away the 'tick / cross' mentality maths is usually given and instead give the thinking and the creativity involved more merit than whether a question is answered correctly or not.

A sample rubric and short feedback comment below:

Measuring Elapsed Time Investigation                  Mathematician: XXX

	Emerging	Developing	Consolidating	Expanding
Communicator: Ability to visually show mathematical thinking in a clear manner
Communicator: Ability to clearly explain thinking process (and neatly so it is easily communicated to the reader)
Risk-taker: Willingness to select an investigation that will challenge according to own level of understanding

XXX, you showed you able a good ability in investigation a situation in a logical manner.  Taking time to look back at your question and double-check you have answered it correctly is an important step when we are thinking mathematically.  Thinking about using a number line to visually show the maths could have been a helpful strategy, though I do understand that you prefer to work things out in your mind because that is easy for you. Sometimes we need to try to be creative in how to present our thinking visually.