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Lesson Plan
The purpose of this assessment probe is to elicit students’ ideas about creativity in engineering. The probe is designed to determine the extent to which students think that creativity is an important part of engineering. ...
By Page Keeley, Cary Snider, and Mihir Ravel
Lesson Plan
The purpose of this assessment probe is to elicit students’ ideas about the use of evidence and reasoning to support a claim. The probe is designed to see if students apply systematic methods of reasoning from evidence and controlled experimentatio...
By Page Keeley, Cary Snider, and Mihir Ravel
Lesson Plan
The purpose of this assessment probe is to elicit students’ ideas about using experimentation to solve a problem. The probe is designed to see if students recognize that (1) solving a problem in baking is considered engineering and (2) planned expe...
By Page Keeley, Cary Snider, and Mihir Ravel
Lesson Plan
The purpose of this assessment probe is to elicit students’ ideas about the importance of both engineering and science for creating technology. The probe is designed to determine if students recognize that working in the field of rocketry requires ...
By Page Keeley, Cary Snider, and Mihir Ravel
Lesson Plan
The purpose of this assessment probe is to elicit students’ ideas about an engineering design process. The probe is designed to show how students think of engineering design as a logical sequence. ...
By Page Keeley, Cary Snider, and Mihir Ravel
Lesson Plan
How Do Engineers Solve Problems?
The purpose of this assessment probe is to elicit students’ ideas about how engineers use an engineering design process to solve problems. The probe includes some common misconceptions about engineering design, and is designed to reveal whether stu...
By Page Keeley, Cary Snider, and Mihir Ravel
Lesson Plan
The purpose of this assessment probe is to elicit students’ initial response to an ill-defined problematic situation. The probe is designed to reveal whether students recognize that in a problem situation, there is sometimes a more important proble...
By Page Keeley, Cary Snider, and Mihir Ravel
Lesson Plan
The purpose of this assessment probe is to elicit students’ ideas about who needs to be consulted when solving a problem (the client). The probe is designed to reveal the extent to which students recognize that the needs of a number of individuals ...
By Page Keeley, Cary Snider, and Mihir Ravel
Lesson Plan
The purpose of this assessment probe is to elicit students’ ideas about how to approach a problem. The probe is designed to gain insight into how students think about an engineering design process (EDP) and the kinds of problems that it can be used...
By Page Keeley, Cary Snider, and Mihir Ravel
Lesson Plan
The purpose of this assessment probe is to elicit students’ ideas about criteria and constraints. The probe is designed to identify how students determine the criteria and constraints of a problem and whether one is more difficult to identify than ...
By Page Keeley, Cary Snider, and Mihir Ravel
Lesson Plan
The purpose of this assessment probe is to elicit students’ ideas about researching a problem. The probe is designed to determine the extent to which students are aware of the need to learn as much as possible about how others have solved a problem...
By Page Keeley, Cary Snider, and Mihir Ravel
Lesson Plan
The purpose of this assessment probe is to elicit students’ ideas about brainstorming. The probe is designed to determine the extent to which students understand the norms of good teamwork during the brainstorming process. ...
By Page Keeley, Cary Snider, and Mihir Ravel
Lesson Plan
The purpose of this assessment probe is to elicit students’ ideas about how engineers use designs from nature. The probe is designed to see if students recognize that designs from nature provide creative ideas for solving problems. ...
By Page Keeley, Cary Snider, and Mihir Ravel
Lesson Plan
The purpose of this assessment probe is to elicit students’ ideas about trade-offs. The probe is designed to find out whether students recognize that trade-offs involve sacrificing one or more things in favor of another. ...
By Page Keeley, Cary Snider, and Mihir Ravel
Lesson Plan
What Is a Product’s Life Cycle?
The purpose of this assessment probe is to elicit students’ ideas about the life cycle of a product. The probe is designed to see how students apply the concept of life cycle analysis to determine the impact of a product on the environment. ...
By Page Keeley, Cary Snider, and Mihir Ravel
Lesson Plan
The purpose of this assessment probe is to elicit students’ ideas about different types of models commonly developed by engineers. The probe is designed to reveal whether students recognize that just like scientists, engineers make and use a variet...
By Page Keeley, Cary Snider, and Mihir Ravel
Lesson Plan
The purpose of this assessment probe is to provide practice in using a decision matrix. The probe is designed to see if students are able to interpret a decision matrix and to help you determine difficulties they may encounter. ...
By Page Keeley, Cary Snider, and Mihir Ravel
Lesson Plan
Designing With Math and Science
The purpose of this assessment probe is to elicit students’ ideas about how science and math are both used in engineering. The probe is designed to get students to think about the various ways science and math are applied to designing a physical st...
By Page Keeley, Cary Snider, and Mihir Ravel
Lesson Plan
The purpose of this assessment probe is to elicit students’ initial ideas and attitudes about the procedure that should be followed when testing models to determine if a design solves the problem. The probe is designed to see if students recognize ...
By Page Keeley, Cary Snider, and Mihir Ravel
Lesson Plan
The purpose of this assessment probe is to elicit students’ ideas about different ways to optimize a design that has been successful in the past, but that still needs improvement. The probe is designed to see if students recognize that there are mu...
By Page Keeley, Cary Snider, and Mihir Ravel
Lesson Plan
The purpose of this assessment probe is to elicit students’ ideas about the product of photosynthesis. The probe is designed to reveal (1) whether students recognize that the food a plant makes is the food it uses and (2) whether students have a bi...
By Page Keeley
Lesson Plan
The purpose of this assessment probe is to elicit students’ ideas about reflection. The probe is designed to find out if students recognize that all objects we can see reflect some light. ...
By Page Keeley
Lesson Plan
Imagine you are sitting at a table with a red apple in front of you. Your friend closes the door and turns off all the lights. It is totally dark in the room. There are no windows in the room or cracks around the door. No light can enter the room. ...
By Page Keeley
Lesson Plan
The purpose of this assessment probe is to elicit students’ ideas about how we see objects. The probe is designed to find out if students know that light must be reflected from an object and enter the eye in order to see an object. ...
By Page Keeley
Lesson Plan
The purpose of this assessment probe is to elicit students’ ideas about conservation of matter (or mass). The probe is designed to reveal whether students think matter (or mass) is conserved during a change in state. ...
By Page Keeley
Lesson Plan
The purpose of this assessment probe is to elicit students’ ideas about conservation of matter. The probe is designed to reveal whether students think matter is conserved when a substance is dissolved in a liquid. ...
By Page Keeley
Lesson Plan
The purpose of this assessment probe is to elicit students’ ideas about conservation of matter. The probe is designed to reveal whether students think weight is conserved when a whole object is broken up into small pieces. ...
By Page Keeley
Lesson Plan
The purpose of this assessment probe is to elicit students’ ideas about conservation of matter in a closed system after a transformation of matter from seed to seedling has taken place. The probe is designed to reveal whether students can transfer ...
By Page Keeley
Lesson Plan
The purpose of this assessment probe is to elicit students’ ideas about the physical process of melting. The probe is designed to find out if students recognize melting as a change in state from solid to liquid that involves an interaction between ...
By Page Keeley
Lesson Plan
The purpose of this assessment probe is to elicit students’ ideas about matter. The probe is designed to reveal the characteristics students use to describe and define matter. ...
By Page Keeley
Lesson Plan
The purpose of this assessment probe is to elicit students’ ideas about molecules. The probe is designed to uncover whether students recognize that objects, materials, and substances of both a biological and physical nature are made of molecules. T...
By Page Keeley
Lesson Plan
The purpose of this assessment probe is to elicit students’ ideas about a common phenomenon—rusting. The probe is designed to find out what students think happens to the mass of iron nails after a chemical change. ...
By Page Keeley
Lesson Plan
The purpose of this assessment probe is to elicit students’ ideas about gravity. The probe is designed to determine whether students recognize that gravity is a universal force that exists everywhere on Earth and in space, regardless of whether air...
By Page Keeley
Lesson Plan
The purpose of this assessment probe is to elicit students’ ideas about energy. The probe is designed to find out whether students think “warm clothes,” like a mitten, produce their own energy, manifested as heat. ...
By Page Keeley
Lesson Plan
The purpose of this assessment probe is to elicit students’ ideas about temperature. The probe is designed to find out whether students recognize that non–heat-producing objects exposed to the same ambient conditions will have the same temperatur...
By Page Keeley
Lesson Plan
The purpose of this assessment probe is to elicit students’ ideas about animals. The probe is designed to find out what characteristics students use to determine whether an organism is classified as an animal. ...
By Page Keeley
Lesson Plan
The purpose of this assessment probe is to elicit students’ ideas about living and nonliving. It is designed to find out what attributes students consider when determining if something is living or was once living. ...
By Page Keeley
Lesson Plan
The purpose of this assessment probe is to elicit students’ ideas about cells. The probe is designed to find out how students think about matter composed of cells. ...
By Page Keeley
Lesson Plan
The purpose of this assessment probe is to elicit students’ ideas about levels of organization in the human body. The probe is designed to find out whether students recognize cells as the basic unit of both structure and function in living organism...
By Page Keeley
Lesson Plan
The purpose of this assessment probe is to elicit students’ ideas about life processes. The probe is designed to find out if students recognize that plants and animals share several life functions, even though they are seemingly very different orga...
By Page Keeley