Classroom-Based Assessment Classroom-Based Assessments are the occasions when the teacher assesses the students in the specific assessment(s) that are set out in the subject or short course specification. Level 2 junior cycle short courses will have one Classroom-Based Assessment. Classroom-Based Assessment: Exploring a mock crime scene Preparation for the Classroom-Based Assessment This Classroom-Based Assessment can be undertaken following completion of strand 4. In the time leading up to it, the student is presented with an unfamiliar mock crime scene (physically/ orally/using sign language/visually/in written format). While the mock crime is new it can share some features in common with one the student has investigated during the short course. The student listens/reads/observes closely and identifies one or more pieces of physical evidence which could be tested to help solve the crime in this new case. The student is required to select the most appropriate measurement tools and/or technology to record and preserve evidence from the crime scene. A list of ‘suspects’ may be drawn up based on the evidence in the mock crime scene and/or on information provided to the student by the teacher. Those ‘suspects’ may be interviewed. The Classroom-Based Assessment The Classroom-Based Assessment asks the student to recall – in a format of their choice (storyboard, using pictures to sequence, in interview with the teacher, as a newsreader, oral storytelling, writing….) what has happened so far in this new investigation. The student is asked to identify appropriate scientific or investigative practices which could be used to examine one source of evidence that has been identified as the most significant and the one which will solve the crime. The student discusses or produces a basic plan, or uses pictures to represent the steps that need to be taken, to examine this source of evidence. They are then asked to carry out that experiment/investigative action to solve the crime.
