Findings from the TIMSS 2019 Problem Solving and Inquiry Tasks

Ina V.S. Mullis, Michael O. Martin, Bethany Fishbein, Pierre Foy, and Sebastian Moncaleano

Chapter 4: Science Grade 8

Pepper Plants

Screen 7 – Experimental Setup: Final Check

Screen 7 provides students with an opportunity to review the choices they have made in setting up their experiment, and to make any necessary changes. In this screen, students could modify any fertilizer or water choice they wanted. To make a change to a tank’s settings, students clicked on the panel for that tank on the screen, and were taken to a tank-specific screen where they could modify both the fertilizer and water settings for that tank.


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Maximum Score Points: Excluded from Scaling and Analysis
Content Domain: Biology
Topic Area: Ecosystems
Cognitive Domain: Reasoning
Science Practice: Generating Evidence

Analyses of the process data revealed that on average across countries 26 percent of students made at least one change (5% changed both fertilizer and water, 14% only changed fertilizer, and 7% only changed water). About two-thirds of the students (67%) selected amounts of fertilizer and water (Screens 4 and 6) and did not make any changes to his or her experimental setup on Screen 7. These students’ responses were carried forward from Screens 4 and 6, respectively.