Sal Cusmano

Space Race Formative Assessment Analysis

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Introduction and Formative Assessment Instructions

The formative assessment I gave my students was on the subject of the Space Race between
the Soviet Union and the United States during the 1950s to the 1970s. The assessment came
after a PowerPoint presentation to my students detailing triumphs from both the US and USSR
space programs. Following the presentation, I had my students write a response to the
following instructions:

“Using the information from the Space Race Presentation, write 2 paragraphs arguing who
you think won the Space Race. Be sure to include specific achievements and milestones (for
example, Sputnik being launched or the Apollo 11 mission) as well as the dates these
achievements and milestones took place and why these achievements and milestones were
important.”

The writing assignment was aligned with the learning objective and state standard of:
“Argue who in their opinion won the Space Race. (Michigan High School US History standard
8.1.2 Foreign Policy During the Cold War – compare the causes and consequences of the
American policy of containment including: the launch of Sputnik and the beginning of the
space race) “
Student Response Categories and Potential Lesson Improvements

Of the responses I received for this assessment 10% of the students either did not submit the
assignment or their submission included no/so little relevant information to the material (such
as key events or dates of said events) that the response showed me that they did not
understand the material. An example of this type of response can be found here:
“Everyone won the space race. At the same time, no one did. Everyone did make their great
achievements alone, but they could have gone even further if they worked together. After
the space race ended it was viewed as something humans did, not just individual countries.
If the countries came together on getting to space instead of competing to get there, they
could have gotten the research done sooner. It would have also let some places that had
intelligent people help contribute, even though their country didn’t have the funds to do it
alone. So, while humans did win by getting to space. They also lost by not coming together
and doing it the fastest way possible”
While this response contains a nice outlook on the capabilities of humanity when we all band
together towards completing a common goal, it contains no information regarding any of the
achievements made during the Space Race such as the launching of man-made objects into
space, the launching of animals and people into space, and the landing of a man on the moon.
While I can tell that the student understands the importance of the Space Race in terms of its
impact on human history it lacks any reference to what made the space race so important.

The next group of student responses accounted for 17% of total responses and could be
categorized as those who included important events and recognized the importance of said
events but failed to include the dates of when these events occurred and may have a lack of
understanding of the time frame we were dealing with when discussing the space race. An
example of this type of response would be this student’s:

“During the space race I believe that the U.S won over Russia but not by a large margin.
Russia did have the advantage at first due to them launching two Sputnik the first one being
the first aircraft launched into space and the second one being the first to carry a passenger.
Beside these achievements I believe that the U.S still one due to sending the first human into
space and putting one on the moon. This was a major step because while the soviets
launched an animal into space, they were not able to bring it back while the U.S were able to.
They also had the accomplishment of bringing a man into space which shown that humans
could travel through the solar system and the universe itself. They also had the first human
land on the moon which shown people that we can explore other planets and other sections
of our galaxy. Overall, I think the U.S achievement while few, were superior to the soviet
unions.”
This student does a great job at looking at the achievements of both the US and the Soviet
Union in regard to the Space Race. He makes mention of how although the Soviet Union beat
the US to many firsts the US was able to land the first human on the moon and that was
important because it opened up humanity’s possibilities for exploration of deep space more
than the Soviet Union’s contributions of launching animals into space but being unable to
retrieve them. This student (and other responses like his) only falls down in that there is no
mention of dates in his responses which makes me question if he and others understand the
timeframe we were discussing in class and if they understand just how fast paced the Space
Race was. Although I did mention in both my oral and written instructions to include dates in
their responses, I think something else I could have done to help my students understand the
parameters of the assignment better would be to write a simple mock answer and share my
screen to give my students an example of all of the parameters I was looking for. Another way I
could help my students improve their understanding of the timeframe would be to include a
timeline of major events from the Space Race in my PowerPoint.

The following group of student responses accounted for 15% of total responses and included
key events and their dates but failed to really explain why these events were important beyond
saying what the event was. An example of this type of student response would be this
student’s:
“I think the Soviet Union won the space race. they had launched a satellite into space on
October 4th, 1957 and also sent the first animal up to space on November 3, 1957. this made
them ahead from what the USA had done. The Soviet Union also launched Luna 2 which was
the first space probe to hit the moon in 1959. And although the USA was the first to send a
man to the moon, the Soviet Union had Yuri Gagarin orbit the earth in April 1961.”

While this student includes great information as to what the important events were and when
these important events happened during the Space Race, she fails to include information as to
why these events were important beyond stating what the events were. I can tell that this
student does recognize the importance of the events and that the student has a good grasp of
the timeframe we are dealing with when discussing the Space Race, but I don’t think she
understands why these events are important. I think a way I could change my lecture and
instructions for the assignment to better help these students in their responses would be to
first really stress how these events were important more throughout the lecture. I could say
how the Soviet Union being able to launch a satellite in the space not only showed their ability
to send things into orbit, but also showed increased missile capabilities which worried the US. I
could also mention how when Neil Armstrong landed on the moon for the first time in human
history, we as a species had set foot on a planet/moon other than Earth. The other way I could
help make sure these students understand what I was looking for when I asked them to explain
the importance of the key events would be to say something like “make sure you don’t just
mention that the event was the first ever” when saying why an event was important. I feel like
these changes would help make clear both the importance of each event and what I mean
when looking for what is important in their responses.

The final category of student responses accounted for 58% of total responses and represents
what I would call complete understanding. These responses seemed to possess both an
understanding for the timeframe of the Space Race and what made the key events truly
important. An example of this can be seen in this student’s thinking:

“From my POV I personally think that the US had won the space race. The US has achieved
and had more goals than the USSR. At first the soviets did strike first with launching an orbit
on October 4th, 1957 which was the first man made satellite to be launched onto earth’s
orbit to which why that was important because it was the first. It worried the US because it
showed that the soviet technological superiority and they proved that they could launch a
nuclear weapon into the US airspace. On November 3rd, 1957 the USSR sent sputnik 2
carrying a dog (Laika) into orbit. It showed that the soviets could send living beings into
space! In 1959 the soviets launched Luna 2 and it was important because it was the first space
probe to hit the moon. The last thing they did in April 1961 was Yuri Gagarin became the first
human to orbit the earth!

But! On the other hand, the US achieved some big goals to and is to why I think they won.
First the US decided to help NASA and increased its budget by 5X from 1961-1964. We all
know NASA is big so that has to be a big accomplishment and they did it for a while. NASA
then developed the Apollo program with the end goal of landing a man on the moon for the
first time. Apollo 8 was launched in December of 1968 and was the first manned spacecraft to
orbit the moon! Which was a huge part of the space race because nothing like that has ever
happened before. Then Apollo 11 was the mission that landed Neil Armstrong and Buzz
Aldrin on the moon on July 16th, 1969! The soviets never achieved like the way Apollo
mission did especially what they did up in space for the first time. Even though both US and
USSR did big things, the US did bigger and more convenient to space.”

This student shows complete understanding and has a firm grasp on the content. By not only
mentioning things like the first two sputnik launches, but she also mentioned how the first
sputnik launch worried the US because it caused US fears of Soviet technological superiority
and the ability for the soviets to launch a nuclear weapon into US airspace, and the fact that the
Soviets being able to launch a dog into space again showed Soviet technological superiority and
the ability to send living things into space. She also has a good grasp on the timeframe of the
Space Race by making constant references to the dates of key events during the Space Race.

Conclusion
In conclusion, I noted four main categories of student responses. The first were ones that
showed little understanding of the material in their responses by failing to mention key events
and dates of the events. This group represented 10% of all responses. The second category of
responses showed good understanding of the importance of the key events of the Space Race
but failed to include dates of the key events and seemed to lack an understanding of the
timeframe and the rapid speed of innovation during this time. This group represented 17% of
all responses. The third category of responses showed good understanding of the timeframe of
the key events but failed to really drive in deep on what made the events so important. This
group represented 15% of all responses. The final category showed what I would call complete
understanding of the material. This group made mention of key dates and seemed to have a
good grasp on the time frame, and they were able to explain in more detail what made each
event so important.