How do we know our students understand concepts not covered thoroughly in class? This knowledge can be assessed traditionally with tests and quizzes, but do these assessments give us the full picture? Alternative assessments provide a different portrait of what students know and are able to do. In the case of Josh Barnett in Stephanie Zinn's biology class at Columbia Grammar and Preparatory School, he took the complexity of photosynthesis and created his own diagram for the process, without teacher direction and in preparation for a unit exam. Josh created this diagram on his own after determining the textbook did an inadequate job of portraying this complex set of steps. Taking Josh's lead, we can provide students with opportunities to demonstrate their knowledge of concepts by doing any of the following activities. For example, with photosynthesis, the students could be involved in: * creating a YouTube video * writing a magazine article * creating a diorama * writing an editorial * creating a short story * designing a scientific investigation * creating a skit * designing a cartoon * making a collage * designing a mobile * creating a sculpture, model, or portrait * designing, conducting, and analyzing surveys * creating a simulation, on paper, or animated * creating a board game or computer game * writing a song * writing a poem * creating an invention * designing a graph * conducting an interview * creating a calendar * creating a timeline * designing a mural * creating a logical argument The first time I read the explanation in the textbook for the light dependent reactions, I was very confused and didn't understand it. The diagram on the next page was even more confusing. Frustrated, I decided to compare this process to a factory and make my own diagram. For example, Photosystem II and I represent solar generators, taking the energy from the sun via chlorophyll, or their solar panels. I'm a very visual person, and making this diagram really helped to understand this complicated and fascinating process. Josh Barnett [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] ANN HALEY MACKENZIE is Professor, Department of Teacher Education, Miami University, Oxford, OH 45056; e-mail: mackenah@muohio.edu. STEPHANIE ZINN is a biology teacher at Columbia Grammar and Preparatory School, Manhattan, NY 10025; e-mail: szinn@cgps.org. How do we assess these projects? The most efficient way is to develop a rubric that provides all the criteria and the levels of accomplishment for each criteria. A rubric can easily be made by going to http://rubistar.4teachers.org. This Web site will help develop a rubric for all sorts of scientific projects as well as for other forms of learning assessments. For instance, in terms of Josh's diagram (if assigned by the teacher), the students would be given the following rubric prior to the project. Category 4 3 Title Title is informative, Title is informative and larger centered, and larger than other text. than other text. Labels Every item that needs Almost all items (90%) needing to be identified has to be identified have labels. …