Discovery Inquiry Test in Science (DIT)

Supplemental Information:

n/a

Assessment Type:

29 multiple choice items (11 focusing on life science, 8 on physical science, 6 on earth and space science, and 4 on the nature of science); 20 items involve solving problems or conducting inquiry.

Scale:

NA

Publication Date:

Nov 07, 2008

Respondent:

Initial study: 6th-8th graders

Domain(s) Evaluated:

Content, Competence

Sample items:

A small animal with dry skin and no legs that hatches from an egg is probably (a) a snake (b) a worm (c) an eel (d) a lizard. Juan thinks that water will evaporate faster in a warm place than in a cool one. He has two identical bowls and a bucket of water. He wants to do an experiment to find out if he is correct. Which of the following should he do? (a) Place two bowls with the same amount of water in a warm place. (b) Place a bowl of water in a cool place and a bowl with twice the amount of water in a warm place. (c) Place a bowl of water in a cool place and a bowl with half of the amount of water in a warm place. (d) Place a bowl of water in a cool place and a bowl with the same amount of water in a warm place.

Reliability:

Cronbach's Alpha: 0.94

Validity:

Present & acceptable

Frequency:

frequently

Administration time:

30 minutes

Requires a Computer:

No

Requires Internet Access:

No

Primary reference:

Kahle, J.B., Meece, J. & Scantlebury, K. (2000). Urban African-American middle school science students: Does standards-based teaching make a difference? Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 37(9), 1019-1041.

Comments:

DIT was developed in 1994 by a group of university science faculty, members of Ohio's SSI academic leadership teams, and other Ohio teachers. DIT is exclusively composed of NAEP 1990 and 1992 publicly released questions.