Envirothon Test Writing Recommendations
Description of the Envirothon Testing Experience: Good teamwork, cooperative decision making, free exchange of ideas, and information pooling is important. All test stations are staffed by a monitor. The five station tests will be 40 minutes in length.
One of the outstanding aspects of the Envirothon competition is its emphasis on hands-on, problem solving activities. In addition we want to encourage questions that involve site assessment. The intent is to make the most of the testing sites while actively involving participants
Missouri Envirothon Test Writing Guidelines:
Each of you needs 40 points worth of questions for your primary site, and 15 points worth of questions for the other sites.
All of the questions you write will be within your area of expertise.
For example, the forester will write 40 points of forestry questions at the primary Forestry site and 15 points of forestry questions at the Current Issue site, 15 points of forestry questions at the aquatics site, 15 points of forestry questions for the wildlife site and 15 points of forestry questions at the soils site. The purpose for this is so there is an opportunity for Forestry questions in a variety of landscape settings. You may tie the forestry question to the issue at each station (may want to ask a forestry question based on the soil survey, since soil surveys will most likely be at that site), but it is not required.
After the first draft of questions is submitted, any questions that seem to be duplicates will be addressed.
Each testing station will present numerous opportunities for teams to be active. Reading maps; interpreting charts and graphs; using mathematical formulas; using keys and locating information in resource manuals are all question topics that demand critical thinking from the team. Engaging teams physically and challenging them mentally using some of the suggestions given here will significantly impact the quality of station tests.
Bloom’s Taxonomy
Bloom’s taxonomy is a system of categorizing thought processes into six levels as follows:
Suggested Guidelines for % Category Breakdown for Station Tests
Questions written for stations tests can fall into many categories. Some of these categories may include current resource issues, technical skills and management planning. One way to break down a station test to more efficiently test student knowledge across all categories and all topics has been charted below.
Category % of Questions on Each Station Test
Terminology 5%
Identification 10%
Equipment/Career Information 5%
BMP and Management Planning 30%
Problem Solving and Technical Skills 50%
Site Specific Questions 30%
Some common problems
that occur in test development.Test is more like "Trivial Pursuit" than real understanding.
(example: What toothpaste is recommended by most foresters?)
The goal is to find those students that have skill in critical thinking. Try
to make questions short answer, site specific, case study, and/or problem solving. Do not use True/False. Multiple Choice, Matching or Fill in the blank questions can be used, but make sure they are based on problem solving,
or the application of a skill or knowledge or the understanding of a concept not
just rote memorization.
Questions are confusing
(example: If a and b and also sometimes c when d is present, what is the
result?)
Use common sense and have someone check and test the questions to make sure they are clear, fair and appropriate.
Multiple Choice Questions: Suggested Guidelines
On the negative side, multiple-choice questions are difficult and time consuming to construct well, especially when assessing at higher levels of thinking. And they do not evaluate how well students are able to communicate their understanding. Considering the number of tests that must be graded in a short period of time, however, multiple choice questions can be scored much more quickly.
- write the correct response first, then generate 3-4 reasonable alternatives
- write alternative responses of roughly equal length and parallel construction
- arrange the alternative responses in alphabetical order to avoid
establishing a pattern
Matching Questions: Suggested Guidelines
In general, matching items consist of a column of stimuli presented on the left side of the exam page and a column of responses placed on the right side of the page. Students are required to match the response associated with a given stimulus. However, it is difficult to write reliable matching items, and this type of question can subject to guessing.
Other Tips:
- Keep matching items brief, limiting the list of stimuli to fewer than 10.
- Include more responses than questions to help prevent answering through
the process of elimination. One of the lists should be approximately 2 or 3
items longer than the other list. This makes it difficult to mark correct
matches by the process of elimination.
Fill In the Blank/Short Answer Questions: Suggested Guidelines
Fill in the blank/short answer questions can minimize guessing as compared to multiple choices or matching, but they can also be ambiguous and can be difficult to construct so that the desired response is clearly indicated. They can also be difficult to score if the question allows two possible correct answers.
Scoring Tests
Active questioning will most likely take more time to grade. You may want to have a number of people to assist you in scoring. Each question needs to be scored by the same judge for each test. If you have 4 people assisting in grading, one can score questions 1-3 for each team, while another person scores questions 4-6 for each team. This is to insure consistency in scoring.
Develop objective criteria for judging answers. This could be a range of acceptable answers (however, you must also allow for novel answers that fit the problem presented) or you can use specific criteria for judging each aspect of the answer.
Example:
Question: Explain why the Red Cedar River may recharge the area’s aquifers at the highest water level or drain area aquifers at the lowest water levels. (4 points)
Answer: A seasonal water budget simple shows water flows from higher elevations to lower. During high river levels, the top of the aquifer is lower and water goes into the area aquifer. During lowest river levels, the top of the aquifer is above the river and the aquifer flows into the river, making the river both a recharge and discharge area.
(Rubric: Four points: 1 point for each aspect; a) at high river level water goes into aquifer and b) at low river levels, aquifer flows into river. 2 points for c) designating the river as both a recharge and discharge area.)
Example:
Question: Is this site suitable habitat for the Red Wolf? (3 points)
Answer: This site is not suitable habitat for the Red Wolf because its major food sources cannot survive here.
(Rubric: Three points: 2 points for determining if the site is suitable Red Wolf habitat and b) 1 point for the explanation why.)