NGSS phenomenon-based assessments, sensemaking tasks, and bell ringers for grades 6–8. Built by a 24-year veteran science teacher. Aligned to OpenSciEd. Three-dimensional from the first question.
Three product tiers for every OpenSciEd unit. Each one tested in real middle school classrooms before it lists.
Three-question bell ringers that hook students into a unit's anchor phenomenon. Print and go, with answer key. Free for every OpenSciEd unit.
Mid-investigation formative checks with embedded graphs, novel-context questions, modeling tasks, and a full teacher key with common misconceptions.
Transfer phenomenon assessments. Students apply unit understanding to a new context with multiple choice, free response, and a 12-point modeling task.
A look at how three of our highest-rated assessments use real-world phenomena to drive student sensemaking.
Students apply what they figured out about plate boundaries to a transfer phenomenon: the Mid-Atlantic Ridge running through Iceland. Why are there volcanoes here? How is the island still growing?
Why does Manhattanhenge happen on specific days each year? Students use what they figured out about Earth's tilt, rotation, and orbit to model the phenomenon — then explain it to a hypothetical tourist.
Anchor: maple syrup. Transfer: a whale fall. Students trace a single carbon atom through 4+ organisms in a deep-sea ecosystem that exists only because of the death of one whale. Matter never disappears — it cycles.
If a question can be answered without thinking about the phenomenon, it doesn't belong in our products.
Every assessment opens with a real-world image and a specific question students can't answer from recall. The phenomenon comes first. The standards come naturally.
SEP, DCI, and CCC in every assessment — not just listed in the standards. Questions are color-coded so teachers can see exactly which dimension each item targets.
Full rubrics with point allocations. Common student misconceptions mapped to specific questions. "Look for" lists for free response items. Built so a substitute could grade them.
I'm David Rosvally, a 7th grade science teacher at Weston Middle School in Connecticut. I've been teaching middle school science for 24 years, presenting at NSTA conferences on inquiry-based instruction, and training teachers on NGSS-aligned assessment and OpenSciEd implementation. I'm a TEAM CT certified mentor and an alumnus of the Exploratorium's Institute for Inquiry. My students score 88% proficient and above on the NGSS 8th grade state assessment.
Every product in this store has been tested in real middle school classrooms — mine — before it goes live. If it doesn't work with my own students, it doesn't get listed.
Start with any one of our free phenomenon-based bell ringers. If they work for your students, the full assessment series is waiting on TPT.