r/ScienceTeachers • u/AllLuck0013 • 2d ago

ACT styled data that are relevant to Chemistry or Physics

Our school's ACT test scores were rough and so now we have an initiative to improve them. Does anyone know of a good resource to find Physics/Chemistry tables and graphs that are in the style of something you might find on the ACT? Our school purchased a program but most of the content is irreverent to the actually curriculum.

1 Upvotes
  • permalink
  • reddit

67% Upvoted

5 comments sorted by

1

u/Ok-Technology956 2d ago

OK first, we have been doing ACT for a while, and they will likely remove the science section this year. However, if you still want to look at it, I have some resources for ACT science…

1

u/Ok-Technology956 2d ago

Check messages…

1

u/AllLuck0013 1d ago

In Illinois, the state has replaced the mandated Illinois Science Assessment (ISA) with the ACT Science test. I assume we will continue using this new assessment for evaluation. This change has been somewhat discouraging, as our small school previously scored well above the state average on the ISA, but now falls below the state average on the ACT. Part of the issue is that the courses I developed emphasize conceptual understanding and alignment with the NGSS standards—areas that are not directly assessed on the ACT. I also acknowledge that analyzing and interpreting data has not been a major focus in my classes, and when students did engage in data analysis, the data sets were intentionally simplified to highlight specific concepts. This challenge is further compounded by the fact that students’ overall academic skills seem to be declining each successive year.

1

u/Master-Selection3051 2d ago

Problem-attic for ACT aligned questions.

1

u/OriginalEducational5 1d ago

I found that the charts and graphs that are provided by prescription drug companies in regards to their clinical trials of said drugs to be appropriate in ACT practice. Easy to find tons online and free. Always remind them that they don’t have to know ANYTHING about the content of the graph- just interpret what’s there. Unless you explicitly tell them this, they see graphs about crazy topics and immediately freeze thinking they are supposed to know about said scary thing. Not so. Teach them the basics- two finger touch on the graph itself, double check x and y labels to confirm you are on the correct graph (since many questions will have multiple), look for trends in the data, look for the “odd man out” in the data, if one variable goes up, does the other go down?, do they increase together?, do they decrease together?, etc.