JoinAll Archived Conference Sessions
Lesson Plan
The purpose of this assessment probe is to elicit students’ ideas about eclipses. The probe is designed to find out what students think happens during a solar eclipse. ...
By Page Keeley
Lesson Plan
The purpose of this assessment probe is to elicit students’ ideas about eclipses. The probe is designed to find out what students think causes a lunar eclipse. ...
By Page Keeley
Lesson Plan
The purpose of this assessment probe is to elicit students’ ideas about light and the Moon. The probe is designed to find out what students think is the source of a full Moon’s light. ...
By Page Keeley
Lesson Plan
The purpose of this assessment probe is to elicit students’ ideas about the distribution of land, oceans, freshwater, and ice. The probe is designed to find out whether students realize that most of the Earth is covered by oceans. ...
By Page Keeley
Lesson Plan
The purpose of this assessment probe is to elicit students’ ideas about an important fossil fuel used by humans. The probe is designed to reveal how students trace oil back to its original source of material. ...
By Page Keeley
Lesson Plan
The purpose of this assessment probe is to elicit students’ ideas about global warming. The probe is designed to find out what students think contributes to global warming. ...
By Page Keeley
Lesson Plan
The purpose of this assessment probe is to elicit students’ ideas about the effect of solar radiation on Earth’s temperature. The probe is designed to find out whether students realize the Earth continues to cool after sundown and up to sunrise u...
By Page Keeley
Lesson Plan
The purpose of this assessment probe is to elicit students’ ideas about the digestive system. The probe is designed to find out whether students realize a main function of the digestive system is to break food down into molecules that can be used b...
By Page Keeley
Lesson Plan
The purpose of this assessment probe is to elicit students’ ideas about infectious disease. The probe is designed to find out whether students use the germ theory to explain what causes an infectious disease like the common cold. ...
By Page Keeley
Lesson Plan
The purpose of this assessment probe is to elicit students’ ideas about natural selection. The probe is designed to find out how students interpret the commonly used phrase “survival of the fittest.” ...
By Page Keeley
Lesson Plan
The purpose of this assessment probe is to elicit students’ ideas about biological adaptation. The probe is designed to find out if students think animals intentionally adapt to a change in their environment. ...
By Page Keeley
Lesson Plan
The purpose of this assessment probe is to elicit students’ ideas about food, transformation of matter, growth and development, conservation of mass, and systems. The concepts underlying this probe are complex. It is not important that students kno...
By Page Keeley
Lesson Plan
The purpose of this assessment probe is to elicit students’ ideas about biological evolution. The probe is designed to find out if students distinguish the theory of biological evolution from ideas about the origin of life and the mechanism for bio...
By Page Keeley
Lesson Plan
The purpose of this assessment probe is to elicit students’ ideas about food. The probe is designed to find out if students use a scientific definition of food to distinguish food items from nonfood items. ...
By Page Keeley
Lesson Plan
The purpose of this assessment probe is to elicit students’ ideas about systems. The probe is designed to find out whether students can recognize that things with parts that interact or influence each other are systems. ...
By Page Keeley
Lesson Plan
The purpose of this assessment probe is to elicit students’ ideas about models. The probe is designed to find out whether students recognize that models can take a variety of forms besides physical replicas. ...
By Page Keeley
Lesson Plan
The purpose of this assessment probe is to elicit students’ ideas about magnetism. The probe is specifically designed to determine whether students believe air is necessary for magnets to work. ...
By Page Keeley
Lesson Plan
The purpose of this assessment probe is to elicit students’ ideas about weight and pressure. The probe is designed to determine whether students think their weight changes when the force exerted per unit area (pressure) on a scale changes. ...
By Page Keeley
Lesson Plan
The purpose of this assessment probe is to elicit students’ ideas about thermal energy. The probe is designed to find out whether students think cold things can have energy. ...
By Page Keeley
Lesson Plan
The purpose of this assessment probe is to elicit students’ ideas about temperature in the context of phases of matter. The probe is designed to find out if students recognize that the temperature of a substance does not change when two phases are ...
By Page Keeley
Lesson Plan
The purpose of this assessment probe is to elicit students’ ideas about crystalline solids. The probe is specifically designed to determine how students think atoms are arranged and move in a crystalline lattice. ...
By Page Keeley
Lesson Plan
The purpose of this assessment probe is to elicit students’ ideas about conservation of matter during a chemical change (oxidation). The probe is designed to find out if students think the mass changes as rust forms inside a closed system. ...
By Page Keeley
Lesson Plan
The purpose of this assessment probe is to elicit students’ ideas about conservation of matter during combustion. The probe is designed to find out if students think the mass changes as paper burns inside a closed system. ...
By Page Keeley
Lesson Plan
The purpose of this assessment probe is to elicit students’ ideas about atoms. The probe is specifically designed to determine whether students can use the idea of atoms to explain why a metal expands when heated. Furthermore, older students’ exp...
By Page Keeley
Lesson Plan
The purpose of this assessment probe is to elicit students’ ideas about dissolving. The probe is designed to find out what students think happens to sugar when it dissolves in water. ...
By Page Keeley
Lesson Plan
The purpose of this assessment probe is to elicit students’ ideas about stars. The probe is designed to examine students’ ideas about the location of stars in the daytime. ...
By Page Keeley
Lesson Plan
The purpose of this assessment probe is to elicit students’ ideas about light and shadows. The probe is designed to find out students’ ideas about how shadows change throughout the day. ...
By Page Keeley
Lesson Plan
The purpose of this assessment probe is to elicit students’ ideas about seasons. The probe can be used to determine whether students recognize the effect of the Earth’s tilt on its axis and the resulting intensity of sunlight as the reason for se...
By Page Keeley
Lesson Plan
The purpose of this assessment probe is to elicit students’ ideas about precipitation. The probe is designed to determine whether students understand what causes the water in clouds to fall as rain. ...
By Page Keeley
Lesson Plan
Where Did the Water Come From?
The purpose of this assessment probe is to elicit students’ ideas about condensation. The probe is designed to determine whether students recognize that condensation comes from the water vapor in the air. ...
By Page Keeley
Lesson Plan
The purpose of this assessment probe is to elicit students’ ideas about an everyday object in the sky: clouds. The probe is designed to determine whether students recognize that clouds are made up of tiny droplets of water or tiny ice crystals. ...
By Page Keeley
Lesson Plan
The purpose of this assessment probe is to elicit students’ ideas about the cycling of matter. The probe can be used to determine whether students recognize that once-living matter breaks down and cycles through ecosystems without subtracting or ad...
By Page Keeley
Lesson Plan
The purpose of this assessment probe is to elicit students’ ideas about decay and decomposers. The probe can be used to determine whether students recognize the need for a biological agent to break down once-living material as it uses it for energy...
By Page Keeley
Lesson Plan
The purpose of this assessment probe is to elicit students’ ideas about respiration. The probe is designed to find out whether students recognize respiration as a process that all living things use in order to obtain energy or whether they have a r...
By Page Keeley
Lesson Plan
The purpose of this assessment probe is to elicit students’ ideas about growth. The probe can be used to determine whether students recognize that growth occurs as a result of cell division, which increases the number of body cells. ...
By Page Keeley
Lesson Plan
The purpose of this assessment probe is to elicit students’ ideas about the size of cells. The probe can be used to determine whether students recognize how small a cell is relative to other things. ...
By Page Keeley
Lesson Plan
The purpose of this assessment probe is to elicit students’ ideas about life cycles. The probe can be used to determine whether students recognize that although life cycles vary in length and developmental stages, all multicellular organisms go thr...
By Page Keeley
Lesson Plan
The purpose of this assessment probe is to elicit students’ ideas about hypotheses. The probe is designed to find out if students understand what a hypothesis is, when it is used, and how it is developed. ...
By Page Keeley
Lesson Plan
The purpose of this assessment probe is to elicit students’ ideas about scientific investigations. The probe is designed to find out if students recognize that scientists investigate the natural world in a variety of ways depending on the question ...
By Page Keeley
Lesson Plan
The purpose of this assessment probe is to elicit students’ ideas about the nature of science. The probe is designed to find out if students distinguish scientific theories from the common use of the word theory and if they understand how theories ...
By Page Keeley