The next step is grouping intended learning outcomes into skill and non-skill categories. A science skill is something that students are expected to be able to do at the end of the unit of teaching. Skills include physical abilities such as measuring the volume of water using a graduated cylinder, as well as mental abilities including describing the physical properties of rocks, inferring past events from from fossil evidence, solving mechanics problems, and writing chemical equations. Skills represent the behavioral outcomes of learning, and can often be measured by having students do what was intended, e.g. write chemical equations, measure volumes.
There are non-skill outcomes that cognitive scientists and social psychologists claim are important in science courses. Nonskills are ideas (earthquakes, valence, momentum, force, uniformitarianism, dominance) and values (truth, openness, uncertainty) that are not necessarily directly observable outcomes, yet to many represent the heart of science courses. Posner and Rutnitsky put it is this way: "Generally speaking, nonskills comprise the knowledge and attitudes with which we think and feel. Skills comprise what we can do with this knowledge and how we can act on these feelings."
Categorize your intended learning outcomes into non-skill and skill categories. You might have to add skills and non-skills to your original list. You should end up with two lists of outcomes as shown here.
Non-skill
Outcomes Skill
Outcomes respects the
environment energy webs and food
chains pollution knows how acids affect river
water understands
biodegradable ability to analyze a sample of
water can measure the pH of
liquids can write equations for
chemical processes