ACER eNews
Science Education Assessment Resource (SEAR) now available
The Science Education Assessment Resource (SEAR) is now available to teachers free of charge via the Curriculum Corporation website.
SEAR provides a wide range of assessment materials suitable for use across the compulsory years of schooling. The resource includes assessment tasks and items that can be used for diagnostic, formative and summative purposes. A key feature of the resource is rich marking keys to support teachers.
The materials were produced by ACER staff in conjunction with Curriculum Corporation, Edith Cowan University, The Australian Science Teachers Association and the Australian Academy of Science. Funding for SEAR was provided by the Australian Government through the Department of Education, Science and Training (DEST).
The resource has:
- More than1400 items in over 350 tasks
- objective and open-ended items
- summative and formative items in ‘pen and paper’, practical, research and diagnostic tasks.
A Scientific Literacy Progress Map was prepared to guide the development of items for the resource. The map shows an increasing complexity of understanding from Levels 1-6, as well as development in three domains (Process domains A and B, and Conceptual domain C). The underlying conceptual framework is complementary to and takes into account, the existing and proposed directions of State and Territory science education policies. The tasks and items in the resource have been directly linked to the progress map, and are spread approximately evenly across the six levels of the progress map and the four curriculum strands of Life and Living, Energy and Change, Natural and Processed Materials, and Earth and Beyond.
The resources are free to use and teachers need only register to gain access to the full range of tasks, which can then be downloaded as individual tasks in either PDF or Word format.
ACER would welcome teacher feedback, ideas and suggestions on the SEAR tasks and items. Please send any feedback to sear@acer.edu.au.
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