There are three sets of tasks available, intended for use by schools with pupils throughout key stage 3 who are thought to be capable of demonstrating performance at level 8 and above in the national curriculum. They are intended to be used flexibly, and not as 'tests'. Experience has shown that pupils made most progress on the tasks if they were allowed to discuss issues with others, as a precursor to completing the tasks.

The tasks are designed to provide assessment information which should be used alongside that already collected by the school to help teachers of year 9 pupils make secure judgements in their end of key stage teacher assessment. In themselves, the tasks will not provide a complete picture of pupil attainment, but they can provide additional evidence to back up teachers' judgement about individual pupils.

Evidence from these tasks may be used to support teacher assessment of level 8 and EP. The results of extension tasks have shown that fewer than one in 100 pupils who achieve level 8 also reach EP. It is likely that a similar ratio will be found in teacher assessment.

The 2003 set of materials entitled Exit Planet Earth consists of two tasks, Gravitational Pull and Exit Planet Earth Challenges.

The 2004 set of materials entitled The Olympic Quests consists of three tasks related to javelin flight, athletic performance and comparison of different Olympic events.

The 2005 set of materials entitled Sea chemistry consists of three tasks related to chemicals dissolved in the sea, desalination and the use of icebergs as a source of drinking water and fossil formation.

Although there are three distinct contexts, teachers may choose to use any combination of tasks to support their judgement of high level performance in science.

Flexibility of application

The tasks are flexible in use. Each task can be used either freestanding or as part of an integrated series of activities. They can be used in class or in an extracurricular science club during lunchtime or after school sessions. Each quest is also designed to fit into one or two 50- to 60- minute lessons. However pupils may extend the activity beyond this time by completing tasks at home.

One of the trial schools used a higher attaining class within each of two bands. These classes were timetabled to work on the tasks over a series of lessons. The tasks were slotted into science lessons directly following national curriculum tests, the aim being a relaxed followup to the pupil-testing experience. Although pupils working at level 6 found the tasks challenging, they were still accessible to most of these pupils.

Two of the school science departments in the trial sample devised opportunities for themed project work between the science and PE departments to deliver the tasks to a selected group of year 9 pupils.

One of the trial schools used the tasks to form the basis of an extracurricular science masterclass club for their gifted and talented year 8 pupils, as part of the whole school enrichment programme.

Teachers at all trial schools noted that the tasks proved to be a stimulus to meaningful pupil discussion (with other pupils, and with teachers). Talking together or with the teacher allowed pupils to express their opinions, clarify their ideas and think creatively, thus maximising pupil involvement.

However, several teachers were concerned about how to assess ephemeral evidence (eg pupils' verbal responses). For pupils who are potentially able to attain level 8 and EP, whilst teachers may have collected and recorded such ephemeral evidence throughout the year (annotations to pupil work; notes in record-keeping systems), it is expected that hard copy (including written, word-processed, digital or recorded) evidence will be obtained from pupils working on these tasks. This could then be used to confirm earlier judgements about pupils' high attainment.

An important consideration before attempting the tasks is that pupils need to spend time thinking about what they are doing. Therefore when planning for what at first may seem to be a one hour task, much of the time will be spent researching and discussing possible answers. If teachers attempt to use a task within a one-hour time frame at school it may prove useful to set completing the task as homework.