JoinAll Resources
Book Chapter
What Happens When Your Bring a Balloon Near a Wall?
The purpose of this assessment probe is to elicit students’ ideas about electrical interactions. It is designed to find out how students visually represent electrical interactions. The most common representation used to account for electric interac...
Book Chapter
The purpose of this assessment probe is to elicit students’ ideas about conductors and insulators of electric charge. It is designed to determine whether students can distinguish between objects that allow the charge to move (conductors) and object...
Book Chapter
Does the Example Provide Evidence?
The purpose of this probe is to elicit students’ ideas about charged objects. It is designed to reveal whether students recognize that one can only make a limited conclusion about charge during an interaction where objects are attracted to each oth...
Book Chapter
Where Can You Find Electric Charge?
The purpose of this assessment probe is to elicit students’ ideas about electric charge. It is designed to determine whether students recognize that electrically charged particles are found in all matter. Its important students know that sunlight r...
Book Chapter
Where Does the Charge Come From?
The purpose of this assessment probe is to elicit students’ ideas about electric charge. It is designed to reveal students’ thinking about where charge comes from. The example provided is when sliding down a plastic slide on the playground and a ...
Book Chapter
The purpose of this assessment probe is to elicit students’ ideas about complete circuits. It is designed to reveal whether students recognize how just one wire can be used to make a circular pathway of electricity through the battery, bulb, and wi...
Book Chapter
The purpose of this assessment probe is to elicit students’ ideas about complete circuits and the structure of a lightbulb. It is designed to reveal how students think a battery and bulb need to be connected in order to complete a circuit. The prob...
Book Chapter
The purpose of this assessment probe is to elicit students’ ideas about complete circuits. It is designed to reveal how students think current flows in a circuit. The probe is best used with students in grades 3–8. Make sure students are familiar...
Book Chapter
How Do You Think About the Flow of Electric Current Through a Circuit?
The purpose of this assessment probe is to elicit students’ ideas about electric current. It is designed to identify the mental models students use to explain how electric current flows in a simple circuit. The probe is best used with middle and hi...
Book Chapter
The purpose of this assessment probe is to elicit students’ ideas about types of circuits—series and parallel. It is designed to reveal students’ thinking about the effect of circuit configuration on bulb brightness. The probe is best used with...
Book Chapter
How Would You Rank the Brightness of the Bulbs?
The purpose of this assessment probe is to elicit students’ ideas about different types of circuits. It is designed to find out the reasons students use to rank the brightness of bulbs in three different types of circuits. This ranking task probe i...
Book Chapter
How Does the Current in Each Battery Compare?
The purpose of this assessment probe is to elicit students’ ideas about batteries. It is designed to reveal students’ ideas about how the flow of current through a battery is affected by the type of circuit. The probe is best used with middle or ...
Book Chapter
Does It Matter if the Wire Has Knots?
The purpose of this assessment probe is to elicit students’ ideas about the flow of electric current through a wire. It is designed to reveal the limitations of analogies students use to explain the flow of electricity. The probe is best used with ...
Book Chapter
Does Electricity Leak From an Outlet?
The purpose of this assessment probe is to elicit students’ ideas about electricity. It is designed to reveal students’ ideas about how current leaves a wall socket. The probe is best used with middle and high school students. Point to an outlet ...
Book Chapter
The purpose of this assessment probe is to elicit students’ ideas about household (AC) current. The probe is designed to reveal students’ ideas about what happens when a two-pronged plug is placed in an outlet. If a two-pronged plug is available,...
Book Chapter
The purpose of this assessment probe is to elicit students’ ideas about chemical cells. It is designed to reveal what students think is happening inside a common battery as it gets “used up.” The word weight is used instead of mass in order to ...
Book Chapter
The purpose of this assessment probe is to elicit students’ ideas about electric charge. The probe is designed to determine how fast students think electric charges in a wire move. It is best used with high school students. If materials are availab...
Book Chapter
Can Magnets Push or Pull Without Touching?
The purpose of this assessment probe is to elicit students’ ideas about magnetic force. It is designed to find out whether students recognize that magnets can push (repel) or pull (attract) certain objects at a distance without touching the object....
Book Chapter
Can You Pick It up With a Magnet?
The purpose of this assessment probe is to elicit students’ ideas about magnetic materials. The probe is designed to find out which types of materials students think interact with magnets and whether they think all metals interact with magnets. Thi...
Book Chapter
Does a Magnet Pick up Any Kind of Metal?
The purpose of this assessment probe is to elicit students’ ideas about magnetic materials. It is designed to determine whether students recognize that only certain metals interact with magnets. Use a steel fork—not stainless steel—to demonstra...
Book Chapter
What Happens When You Wrap a Magnet With Aluminum Foil?
The purpose of this assessment probe is to elicit students’ ideas about magnetic force. It is designed to reveal students’ ideas about how magnetism passes through some materials. Before beginning show students how the magnet interacts with the p...
Book Chapter
What Happens If You Use the Other End of the Magnet?
The purpose of this assessment probe is to elicit students’ ideas about magnetic interactions. It is designed to find out whether students think the pole of a magnet determines whether it will attract or repel magnetic material. It is best used wit...
Book Chapter
Does a Magnet Work Without Air?
The purpose of this assessment probe is to elicit students’ ideas about magnetism. It is designed to reveal whether students think air is necessary for magnetic interaction. Because some students think gravity affects magnetism and also believe gra...
Book Chapter
The purpose of this assessment probe is to elicit students’ ideas about magnetic interactions. It is designed to find out whether students recognize that a magnet and magnetic materials attract each other. The probe is best used with middle school ...
Book Chapter
How Would a Magnet Work on the Moon?
The purpose of this assessment probe is to elicit students’ ideas about magnetism. It is designed to reveal whether students think gravity has an effect on magnetism. Before using the probe, it’s important that students know how conditions on the...
Book Chapter
What Happens When You Hold a Magnet Near a Refrigerator?
The purpose of this assessment probe is to elicit students’ ideas about magnetic interactions. It is designed to find out how students visually represent magnetic interactions. If materials are available, consider demonstrating the probe scenario a...
Book Chapter
What Happens When a Magnet is Brought Near a Charged Ball?
The purpose of this assessment probe is to elicit students’ ideas about magnetic interactions. It is designed to find out whether students confuse electrostatic effects with magnetic effects and is best used for discussion at the start of a unit on...
Book Chapter
The purpose of this assessment probe is to elicit students’ ideas about magnetic interactions. It is designed to find out whether students recognize that it’s a force between magnetic objects that causes them to “stick.” The probe is best use...
Book Chapter
What Happens When a Magnet Breaks?
The purpose of this assessment probe is to elicit students’ ideas about the properties of magnets. The probe is designed to find out how students would represent the poles of a broken magnet. It is best used with middle and high school students and...
Book Chapter
How Can You Represent a Magnetic Field?
The purpose of this assessment probe is to elicit students’ ideas about magnetic fields. It is designed to find out how students would represent a magnetic field using magnetic field lines. The probe is best used with middle and high school student...
Book Chapter
The purpose of this assessment probe is to elicit students’ ideas about magnetization. It is designed to find out how students would represent, at the particle level, a nonmagnetized versus a magnetized nail. The probe is best used with middle and ...
Book Chapter
How Can You Make an Electromagnet?
The purpose of this assessment probe is to elicit students’ ideas about electromagnets. It is designed to reveal where students think the magnetic effect comes from when wire is wrapped around a nail to make a magnet. The probe is best used with mi...
Book Chapter
Does the Type of Wire Make a Difference in an Electromagnet?
The purpose of this assessment probe is to elicit students’ ideas about electromagnets. The probe is designed to reveal whether students recognize that an electromagnetic effect can pass through an insulated wire. This probe is best used with middl...
Book Chapter
How Can You Make a Stronger Electromagnet?
The purpose of this assessment probe is to elicit students’ ideas about electromagnets. It is designed to reveal what variables students think affect the strength of an electromagnet. This probe is best used with middle and high school students. If...
Book Chapter
What Happens When You Bring a Compass Near a Current Carrying Wire?
The purpose of this probe is to elicit student ideas about magnetic poles. The probe is designed to reveal whether students think a magnetic field must always have magnetic poles. It is best used with high school students. If materials are available,...