THE RELIABILITY AND VALIDITY OF A PERFORMANCE TASK FOR EVALUATING SCIENCE PROCESS SKILLS

The Diet Cola Test was designed as a process assessment of science apt itude. Investigations of the instrument's reliability and validity for that purpose led to the conclusion that the data did not support the use of the instrument for making decisions about aptitude for individu al students. Although the instrument was not suited for decision makin g for the purpose of identification, examination of the reliability an d the item content, and further investigation of the validity suggeste d that it might be a suitable instrument for assessing science process skills as part of program or curricular evaluation.