Table 1. Rubric for Evaluating Scientific Thought in Writing (REST-W)
Score 0
1
Description
Student Examples
No response
I guessed
Unintelligible response
Guessed
A guess without further explanation
I just guessed
Facts are listed without a supporting thought process
It is b/ the yellow ball floated
Explanation suggests a thought process took place, but the exact process is unclear to the reader
Research Based Support N/A
Because I learned heavy objects will sink, lighter objects float I chose this because I have learned this before and tested it myself before
This kind of writing would be classified as knowledge-telling writing, or writing existing knowledge to report information
Deep processing is shown by including the specific thought process
2
This would constitute I chose this answer because the less knowledge-transforming air inside an object, the less it will writing, or when students use Argumentation is used to float and it makes sinse [sic] that if the writing to organize, reformulate, communicate the claim being made red and green balls are more in mass and essentially transform inside then they have less of an air Knowledge is shared through existing knowledge into new pocket than the yellow explanation and counterclaims are concepts made Table 2. Participants’s Scores and Descriptives
Student
Gender
H1 H2 H3 H4 H5 L1 L2 L3 L4 L5
M M M F M F M M M F
Percent Correct 94.12 88.24 88.24 88.24 88.24 47.06 47.06 47.06 35.29 17.65
Short Answer 1 2 2 1 2 2 1 1 0 0 0
Short Answer 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 1 0 0 0
Short Answer 3 2 2 1 2 1 0 2 0 0 0
Note. IDs for high-achieving students begin with an H. IDs for low-students begin with an L.
test. For instance, H1, who scored 94.12% on the multiplechoice test, justified the question of why one ball might sink while the other ball floats through deep processing: “If the yellow ball’s mass is less than water and the red and green balls are greater, since they are exposed to the same gravitatial forces, that means the yellow ball is lighter.” H2 demonstrates explanation skills through his short answer: “I chose this answer because to find which fertalizer grows
plants better, you have to have them in the same place with multiple of the same plant for each fertalizer in case of one plant is in bad shape.” H3 also gives an example of effective argumentation: “because, the more similar the environment the better you can analyze the result.” For the low-achieving students, a score of 0 was most common. A trend we found in the study was that many low-
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