The following 8 Anchor Papers represent a range of score points and are used in conjunction with the rubrics to assess student responses.

Score for Anchor Paper #1: Rubric Score 1

Annotation: This response indicates little attempt to apply a reasonable strategy. The student designs a simulation with five marbles in a bag, each representing a different game piece. However, instead of conducting thirty trials, with each trial lasting until every piece is drawn at least once, the student simply draws a marble thirty times. Although the student recognizes that in this example it took 14 draws to get all five game pieces, there is a serious misunderstanding of how long one trial should last and of how many trials should be performed. The response demonstrates a minimal understanding and analysis of the problem.

Score for Anchor Paper #2: Rubric Score 1

Annotation: This response indicates little attempt to apply a reasonable strategy. The student begins describing a simulation using random numbers but does not indicate what numbers are being used, what they represent, or how they are generated. However, some correct information is given about how to collect and interpret the data. Thirty trials are performed and each trial lasts until every piece is generated at least once. The student also describes using the mode to estimate how many boxes of cereal you would need to buy (I would see the most frequent amount of times it took to get all the pieces). The response demonstrates a minimal understanding and analysis of the problem.

Score for Anchor Paper #3: Rubric Score 1

Annotation: This response indicates little attempt to apply a reasonable strategy. The student designs a simulation using a spinner with five equal sections. The student describes each trial lasting for thirty spins instead of until each section has been landed on at least once (spin it 30 times for each trial). This is a serious flaw in reasoning. Because of this misunderstanding the interpretation of the data is incorrect. The response demonstrates a minimal understanding and analysis of the problem.

Score for Anchor Paper #4: Rubric Score 2

Annotation: This response indicates an incomplete application of a reasonable strategy. The student designs a simulation using a random number generator, with two numbers representing each game piece. It is unclear whether there is an understanding that thirty trials, with each trial lasting until every piece has been generated at least once, need to be performed. The mode is used to interpret the data (which number of boxes had to be bought the most). The response demonstrates a conceptual understanding and analysis of the problem.

Score for Anchor Paper #5: Rubric Score 2

Annotation: This response indicates an incomplete application of a reasonable strategy. The student designs a simulation using a spinner with five equal sections, with each section representing a different game piece. The student understands that each trial lasts until each game piece is selected and that thirty trials should be conducted. The student begins the interpretation of the data but it is not fully developed (you could count how many spins it took to get all 5 toys and place those results in a table). The response demonstrates a conceptual understanding and analysis of the problem.

Score for Anchor Paper #6: Rubric Score 2

Annotation: This response indicates an incomplete application of a reasonable strategy. The student designs a simulation using five numbers in a bag, with each number representing a different game piece. The student understands how long each trial should last (untill you get 1 through 5) and that 30 trials should be conducted, but the student does not include replacing the numbers after each time a number is picked out of the bag. Although the student gives some interpretation by writing down (how many times it took to get all 5) and recording this in a frequency table, the interpretation is incomplete because no measure of central tendency is used. The response demonstrates a conceptual understanding and analysis of the problem.

Score for Anchor Paper #7: Rubric Score 3

Annotation: This response indicates application of a reasonable strategy that leads to a correct solution in the context of the problem. A simulation is designed using a random number generator and integers 0-4. The student understands that each trial should last until each of the numbers is generated (continue to hit the Rand Int (0,4) button until all 5 distinctive numbers will appear) and that thirty trials should be performed. The student records the number of integers generated in each trial and correctly interprets the data by finding the mean (adding the recorded data from each trial and dividing that sum by 30). The response demonstrates a complete understanding and analysis of the problem.

Score for Anchor Paper #8: Rubric Score 3

Annotation: This response indicates application of a reasonable strategy that leads to a correct solution in the context of the problem. A simulation is designed (by first getting 5 different color, same size slips of paper; place each slip into a hat). The student understands that each trial should last (until you get one of each color), and that thirty trials should be conducted. The student describes calculating the mean (add up the amount of tries it took to get all the colors for each trial and divide the total by 30), although the term "average" is used to describe the number of (cereal boxes it will take to recieve every game piece). The response demonstrates a complete understanding and analysis of the problem.

Additional Scored Student Responses