Preassessing student science knowledge

My idea is to have upper elementary students do more model making/diagrams to pre-assess their understanding.

I have taught MS Science for 30 years.  Models are a great way to see what things are and I would include the students explaining what is going on so you can see metacognition and if they understand what it is they made a model of or a diagram.  

I can see how model making/diagrams would work well for upper grades.

I think that's a great idea.  kadashika