A typical BioLogica script will pose a challenge to the students and then set up the BioLogica interface to match the challenge. It will make available particular applets, for example, set up the screen layout for them, and add menu items and tools that match the investigation. This enables the script writer to record what the students are doing and to intervene at propitious moments. It may alter the functioning of BioLogica, for instance, prohibiting additional crosses until the students have answered a question. It can prompt the students to enter notes or screen shots into their personal portfolios, and it can record significant events automatically into the same portfolios.
Scripts are a powerful tool for producing active assessments.
The assessment items can be as linear or as open ended as one might wish. They can be embedded in teaching activities, or presented by themselves. They can be programmed to record appropriate data and can then use that data to calculate an overall numeric score. BioLogica is just now coming online and the process of writing scripts has only just begun. So we can't say, at this juncture, whether we will succeed in creating active assessments that really reflect a student's understanding and ability to reason about biology.