Formative Assessment in Hands-On STEM Education

This chapter serves as an introduction to transdisciplinary learning, Integrative STEM Education, and current methods for infusing formative assessment into hands-on instruction at the elementary level. Subscribing to the approach that formative assessment is a process that takes place in the classroom to enable learning, the chapter discusses the use of engineering notebooks, competency-based assessment, and qualitative assessment (rubrics and portfolios) in the context of formative assessment while facilitating hands-on learning opportunities. In addition to introducing each of these topics from a research and literature perspective, examples are provided and discussed from a practical perspective. No one formative assessment is better than another, however, one type may be more practical due to the teacher's willingness to try new things, development of students, standards teacher is measuring, type of lesson/unit, time, available resources, and associated costs.