In 2009, NAEP administered TWO types of innovative science assessments that invited students to put their science knowledge into practice:

• Hands-on tasks (HOTs) provided students an opportunity to demonstrate how well they are able to plan and conduct scientific investigations, reason through complex problems, and apply their scientific knowledge in real-world contexts. Three HOTs have been released to the public. For more information on the released HOTs, see the complete task library.

• Interactive computer tasks (ICTs) required students to solve scientific problems in a computer-based environment, often by simulating a natural or laboratory setting. These tasks provided students an opportunity to demonstrate a broad range of skills involved in doing science, but without many of the logistical constraints associated with the hands-on tasks. A total of nine ICTs have been released to the public. All nine interactive computer tasks are available below.

Select an interactive computer task below, answer the questions, and compare your results to students in the nation.

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Students Able to Perform Simulated Investigations, Challenged to Explain Conclusions

Students’ performance on the hands-on and interactive computer tasks indicated several key discoveries across grade levels. This interactive feature shows some examples of students’ skills across grade levels.

80% of students at grade 4 could use a simulated greenhouse to test how three levels of sunlight affected plant growth. Students could use six different trays of the same plant type to test the three conditions, which allowed for a more straightforward observation. See an example from the Mystery Plants lab. 84% of students at grade 8 could use a simulated laboratory to test how much water flowed through two different soil samples. Students who did this correctly made the straightforward observation that one soil sample allowed more water flow than the other.  See an example from the Playground Soil lab. 75% of students at grade 12 could use test strips to test water samples for the levels of four pollutants, record the data, and interpret whether the results exceeded EPA standards. This part of the investigation was straightforward because students did not have to manipulate variables. See the in-depth results for Maintaining Water Systems.		35% of students at grade 4 could select from nine possible fertilizer levels to test and determine those best for growth of a sun-loving plant. However, students had only six trays available during any single test run; therefore, students had to make strategic choices to assure that an adequate range of data was sampled. See an example from the Mystery Plants lab. 24% of students at grade 8 could appropriately decide how to manipulate four metal bars made of unknown materials to determine which ones were the magnets. Because students could use only the four bars for this investigation, they had to apply their knowledge of how to test for magnetic properties. See the materials for Magnetic Fields. 25% of students at grade 12 designed and conducted an investigation using a simulated calorimeter, and related patterns in temperature changes in two different metals to decide which metal has the higher specific heat capacity. Students had to interpret this complex set of data and relate it to their knowledge that the metal with the higher specific heat capacity caused the temperature of the water to change more than the metal with the lower specific heat capacity. See an example from the Energy Transfer lab.		71% of students at grade 4 could select the correct conclusion about how volume changes when ice melts into water, while 15% could select the correct conclusion and support this conclusion with evidence from the investigation. See an example from the Cracking Concrete lab. 88% of students at grade 8 could select the liquid that flows at the same rate as water at a given temperature, while 54% of students could select the correct liquid and support this conclusion in writing using evidence from their investigation. See an example from the Bottling Honey lab.    55% of students at grade 12 were able to select the correct temperature changes that occur when a warm solid object is placed into cool water, while 27% of students were able to make the correct selections and explain how heat is transferred from a warmer to a cooler substance. See an example from the Energy Transfer lab.

See the percent correct statistics used to support the three key discoveries from the hands-on and interactive computer tasks. Science content experts examined all of the scored tasks to find the patterns in the results. The table shows the minimum, maximum, and median percent correct to demonstrate the ranges of student performances on the skills identified within each of the key discoveries.

Results for the interactive computer and hands-on tasks can be reported by race/ethnicity, gender, and eligibility for the National School Lunch Program. Many of the results for groups are consistent with the findings from the main paper-and-pencil NAEP science test, however there were some differences.

• Female students in all three grades scored higher than males on the hands-on tasks, though males scored higher on the traditional paper-and-pencil science assessment. There was no gender gap in interactive computer tasks.
• At grades 4 and 12, Hispanic students scored higher than their Black peers on both the hands-on tasks and interactive computer tasks.
• White and Asian/Pacific Islander students in all three grades scored higher than their Black and Hispanic peers on both the hands-on tasks and interactive computer tasks.
• There was no score gap between White and Asian/Pacific Islander students in any of the three grades on the interactive computer and hands-on tasks; however, on the main science assessment, White students scored higher at grades 4 and 8.
• There was an achievement gap at grades 4 and 8 between students from higher- and lower-income families in both the hands-on tasks and the interactive computer tasks.

See the overall percent correct scores for selected student groups for the HOTs and ICTs.

See results from the main paper-and-pencil science assessment at grade 4, grade 8, and grade 12.

As part of the main paper-and-pencil 2009 science assessment, students and teachers answered survey questions about science learning and instruction. See the questionnaires for students at grade 4, grade 8, grade 12 and for teachers at grade 4 and grade 8.

Below is a sample of results from the surveys that may provide some context for students' performance on the interactive and hands-on tasks in science.

Doing Science

• Approximately 92 percent of fourth-graders and 98 percent of eighth-graders had teachers who reported doing hands-on activities with students at least monthly. See the complete data at grade 4 and grade 8.
• Approximately 51 percent of twelfth-graders reported designing a science experiment at least once every few weeks. See the data table.

Writing About Science

• Approximately 39 percent of fourth-graders and 57 percent of eighth-graders had teachers who reported at least a moderate emphasis on developing scientific writing skills. See the complete data at grade 4 and grade 8.
• Approximately 28 percent of twelfth-graders reported writing a report on a science project once a week or more frequently. See the data table.
• Fifty-three percent of all twelfth-graders reported that they were currently taking a science course. See the data table.

See more results related to the classroom context of science education or explore other areas of interest in the NAEP Data Explorer.