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.

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 they pose and that there is no fixed sequence of steps called the “scientific method” that all scientists use and follow rigidly.

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 differ from laws.

The purpose of this assessment probe is to elicit students’ ideas about falling objects. The probe is designed to find out if students think the weight or mass of an object affects how fast it falls.

The purpose of this assessment probe is to elicit students’ ideas about circular motion. The probe is designed to determine whether students recognize that an object will move in a straight line unless acted upon by an outside force.

The purpose of this assessment probe is to elicit students’ ideas about forces. The probe is designed to find out whether students recognize that balanced forces act on a stationary object.

The purpose of this assessment probe is to elicit students’ ideas about complete circuits involving lightbulbs. The probe reveals whether students recognize the pathway of electricity in a complete circuit, including its path through a lightbulb, in order to light a bulb using only one strip of wire and a battery.

The purpose of this assessment probe is to elicit students’ ideas about reflection of light. The probe can be used to examine how students use ideas about light to explain how we see objects in a mirror.

The purpose of this assessment probe is to elicit students’ ideas about conservation of matter. The probe is designed to reveal whether students recognize that the mass of a warm gas in a closed system is the same after it has been cooled, even though the volume it occupies has decreased.

The purpose of this assessment probe is to elicit students’ ideas about the mass of a gas. The probe is designed to reveal whether students recognize that an uninflated balloon will increase in mass when inflated with a gas, even though the balloon intuitively seems lighter when it floats in the air.