Using Simulations for Formative Assessment

Using simulations for formative assessment means checking understanding while students are still learning, with the simulation as the evidence. Instead of asking "What is the period of a 1 m pendulum?" and getting a memorized formula back, you ask students to measure it, predict what will change, and explain what they saw. This guide shows you how to put a question set on a simulation link, write questions that are checked automatically, read the results across classes, and decide what to teach next. It ends with eight questions you can copy today.

What formative assessment with a simulation looks like

A typical check takes 10 to 15 minutes and runs like this:

1. Students open your link and type a first name or nickname. No account needed.
2. They answer one or two prediction questions. The simulation stays locked until they commit.
3. They run the experiment: change one variable, read a value, compare two settings.
4. They answer the questions below the simulation and get feedback right away, at the level you choose.
5. You open the results, see which questions most students missed, and adjust the rest of the lesson.

Unlike a worksheet, every answer is tied to something the student did, so a wrong number shows where the process broke down: the wrong readout, the wrong unit, or two variables changed at once.

Try it: turn on the period timer and see how fast you get a reliable reading.

How to set up questions on a link

In Simulic, questions belong to the share link, not to the simulation. That lets you use one simulation with several classes and different questions for each.

1. Open the simulation and set the starting values you want (screen, sliders, options). Each link pins the current settings and language, so every student starts from the same place.
2. Click Share, open the Questions tab and create a question set.
3. Write instructions for students: what to set up and what to measure before answering.
4. Add up to 5 questions. For each one, choose a type:
   • Short answer: free text. Add accepted answers to grade it automatically. Use * as a wildcard, so *equilibrium* accepts any answer that contains the word. Leave the list empty and you read the answers yourself.
   • Multiple choice: 2 to 5 options with one correct answer, or no correct answer for an opinion poll.
   • Number: graded automatically as an answer ± a tolerance (a value or a percentage), a range, or a list of accepted values, with an optional unit.
5. Choose what students see after submitting: only "Thank you", their score, which answers are right or wrong, or everything including the answers and your explanations.
6. On the Share Links tab, create one link per class and pick the question set. Several classes can share one set. Their answers stay separate.

Links, QR codes and present mode are covered in the classroom simulations guide. For LMS quizzes, see how to add simulations to quiz questions.

Prediction questions

Set up to 3 questions in a set to "Before, as a prediction". Students answer them before the simulation starts; it stays locked until they lock in their prediction. Predictions are not scored. That keeps them honest: students commit to what they really think.

For a multiple-choice or number prediction, tick Ask again after the simulation. After the experiment, students see their own prediction above the same question and answer it again. This second answer is scored. The results table shows a Prediction column and an After column side by side, so you can count how many students changed their minds and in which direction.

This is the core move of Predict–Observe–Explain. The Predict–Observe–Explain guide turns it into a full lesson routine.

Explanations and retries: feedback that teaches

You can add an explanation of up to 600 characters to a multiple-choice or number question, or a model answer to a short-answer question. Students see it once your feedback setting shows answers.

Write explanations that send students back to the simulation, not just to the formula. "Let the period timer complete a full swing before you read it" helps a student who typed 1.01 s far more than "T = 2π√(L/g)".

Allow up to 2 extra tries for wrong answers. Retries need feedback that shows right or wrong, and students can change only the answers marked wrong. Score plus right/wrong with one or two retries is a good default: students get a second look without being handed the answer.

Eight ready-to-copy questions

Each question names the simulation, the settings to pin and the answer, with values from the simulations' own models. A set holds five questions, so group them by simulation.

1. Physics: pendulum period (number). Simple pendulum – period, energy and measuring g, Intro screen, Earth gravity, length 1.0 m, no friction.

• Question: "Don't change the starting angle. Turn on the period timer. What is the period, in seconds?"
• Answer: 2.02, tolerance ± 0.05, unit s.
• Explanation: "The small-angle formula gives 2.01 s. The pendulum starts at 20° and the model is not simplified, so the period is slightly longer."

2. Physics: length and period (prediction, asked again). Same simulation.

• Question: "You change the length from 0.5 m to 2.0 m. The period will…" Options: stay the same / double / quadruple / halve.
• Answer: double. The period depends on √L, so four times the length gives twice the period (about 1.42 s to 2.84 s).

3. Physics: Ohm's law (number). Ohm's law – voltage, current and resistance.

• Question: "Set U = 6.0 V and R = 200 Ω. What current does the circuit show?"
• Answer: 30, tolerance ± 0.5, unit mA.
• Explanation: "I = U/R = 6.0 V ÷ 200 Ω = 0.030 A = 30 mA. Check the unit: the simulation shows mA."

4. Chemistry: diluting a strong acid (prediction, asked again). Diluting Acids and Bases – How Does the pH Change?, HCl, 0.1 M, 10-fold steps.

• Question: "The pH of 0.1 M HCl is 1. After one 10-fold dilution, the pH will be about…" Options: 0.1 / 1.1 / 2 / 7.
• Answer: 2. [H⁺] falls from 0.1 M to 0.01 M, and pH = −log[H⁺] rises by exactly one unit.

5. Chemistry: weak acid (number, then short answer). Same simulation, CH₃COOH, 0.1 M.

• Question: "What is the pH of the solution before any dilution?" Answer: 2.88, tolerance ± 0.05.
• Follow-up: "After one 10-fold dilution the pH rises by only about 0.5 (to 3.39). Why less than for HCl?" Accepted answers: *partial*, *equilibrium*, or leave empty and read them.
• Model answer: "Acetic acid is only partly ionized. When you dilute it, more molecules ionize, which partly replaces the H⁺ you diluted away."

6. Biology: enzyme denaturation (multiple choice). Enzyme activity vs. temperature, pH, substrate concentration and inhibitors, amylase, pH 7.

• Question: "Heat the amylase to 60 °C, then cool it back to 37 °C. What happens to the rate?" Options: it returns to the rate at 37 °C / it stays near zero / it becomes faster than before / it falls slowly over a minute.
• Answer: it stays near zero.
• Explanation: "In this model amylase denatures at 55 °C and above. Cooling does not reverse it; only Reset brings the enzyme back."

7. Math: quadratic vertex (number). Graphing quadratics – coefficients, vertex form, focus and directrix, Standard form screen, a = 1, b = −4, c = 3.

• Question: "What is the minimum value of y = x² − 4x + 3?" Answer: −1, tolerance 0.
• Explanation: "The vertex is at x = −b/2a = 2, and y(2) = 4 − 8 + 3 = −1. The roots 1 and 3 sit the same distance from the axis of symmetry."

8. Math: two dice (prediction, then number). Rolling two dice – sample space and probability.

• Prediction: "Which sum comes up most often with two dice?" Options: 2 / 6 / 7 / 12. Answer: 7.
• After: "Choose the event Sum = 7 and roll 1,000 times. What is the theoretical probability, to three decimal places?" Answer: 0.167, tolerance ± 0.001.
• Explanation: "6 of the 36 outcomes add up to 7, so P = 6/36 = 1/6 ≈ 0.167. Your experimental value will be close, but rarely exactly the same."

How to read the results across classes

Open the Share page and choose View answers on a link. You see each student's nickname, the time, their score, the number of attempts and their answer to every question, plus the percentage correct for each question. If you delete a question or switch the link to another set, the answers already sent stay under "Earlier questions".

When several classes use the same set, open the set and choose All classes. You get the percentage correct by class and the answers from all classes in one table. Download CSV exports the answers for a spreadsheet.

On the free plan you can collect 100 student answers per month across all your links. Pro removes the limit. Answers are deleted after 12 months.

How to act on the results

Use simple thresholds to decide what happens next:

• Under 50% correct: stop and reteach before moving on. First look at the wrong answers for a pattern. In question 3, a cluster of 0.03 means students calculated in amperes and ignored the mA readout; that is a units lesson, not an Ohm's law lesson.
• 50–80% correct: pair students who got it right with students who didn't, and have them run the simulation together for three minutes.
• Over 80% correct: move on, or add a harder follow-up such as "find the length that gives a period of exactly 1.5 s".
• Prediction wrong, After right: the simulation did its job. Ask a few of those students to explain what changed their mind.
• Prediction wrong, After still wrong: the misconception is sticky. Run the experiment for the whole class in present mode and talk through each reading.

If one class does much worse on a shared set, create a separate question set for that class in the Questions tab (with extra instructions or an easier first question) and choose it for that class's link on the Share Links tab. The other classes keep the shared set.

Privacy: nicknames only

Students answer with a first name or nickname. Tell them before they start: no full names, no email addresses, no student ID numbers. Don't write questions that ask for personal details either. Student pages set no cookies, and answers are deleted after 12 months. You can delete them sooner with Delete all answers. If you plan to delete a link, download the CSV first, because deleting a link deletes its answers.

To match answers to students, agree on a convention such as first name plus seat number ("Maya 14").

FAQ

Do students need an account to answer?

No. Students open the link, type a first name or nickname, and answer below the simulation.

Are prediction questions graded?

No. Predictions are never scored. If you tick "Ask again after the simulation", the second answer is scored and appears next to the prediction in the results.

How many questions can I add?

Up to 5 questions per set, and up to 3 of them can be predictions. Use several links with different sets if you need more.

Can several classes use the same questions?

Yes. Attach one set to each class link. Answers stay separate per link, and the All classes view compares them.

What happens when I reach the free limit?

Students still see the questions, but new answers are not collected until the next month. Pro collects unlimited answers; see pricing.