In the project, we first set out to define a set of practices that when mastered give one a high level of competence in constructing graphs. The set of 17 practices, called the Graph Construction Competency Model, include skills like choosing variables to plot that are appropriate to the question being asked, choosing a type of graph appropriate to the form of the data being plotted, and drawing conclusions that are justified by the data being shown.

We will be working on GraphSmarts under our latest NSF grant through 2025, and welcome classes that would like to participate. If you give the GraphSmarts assessment to your class, we will in turn provide data on the strengths and weaknesses of your students making graphs. Write to us at research@simbio.com to learn more.
You can also see papers resulting from this project, including:
- Gardner, S.M., Suazo-Flores, E., Maruca, S., Abraham J.K., Karippadath, A., Meir, E. 2021. Biology Undergraduate Students’ Graphing Practice in Digital Versus Pen and Paper Graphing Environments. J Sci Educ Technol
The first publication from a large multi-institution effort to develop performance-based assessments of graphing ability among biology students, this paper compares the results from the SimBio-written digital graphing assessment to a pen and paper assessment.
This material is based upon work partially supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 1726180 and 2111150. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.