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Journal Article
The Journal of College Science Teaching’s editor shares thoughts regarding the current issue....
Journal Article
Summer research experiences have been identified as important vehicles for fostering the learning, skill development, and retention of undergraduates in the sciences. In the initiative described in this article, community college faculty and students...
Journal Article
Case Study: A Picture Worth a Thousand Words? Making a Case for Video Case Studies
This column provides original articles on innovations in case study teaching, assessment of the method, as well as case studies with teaching notes. This month’s issue discusses video case studies....
Journal Article
The authors describe a study in which an honors biology instructor implemented clickers as a mechanism for students to complete in-class quizzes....
Journal Article
This study documented the means by which STEM educators experienced the mathematics and science associated with understanding lunar phenomena. The article reports how well STEM education graduate students interacted with project-based materials as th...
Book Chapter
The purpose of this assessment probe is to elicit students’ ideas about series circuits. The probe is designed to determine what students think will happen to the brightness of light bulbs as more light bulbs are added to a circuit. This free sampl...
Book Chapter
Two-dimensional (2D) motion means motion that takes place in two different directions (or coordinates) at the same time. The simplest motion would be an object moving linearly in one dimension. An example of linear movement would be a car moving alon...
Book Chapter
Students have early childhood experiences with basic force concepts well before they encounter the word force in the science classroom. For example, it doesn’t take long for a child to figure out that pushing or pulling on a toy will cause it to mo...
Book Chapter
The purpose of this assessment probe is to elicit students’ ideas about electric forces. It is designed to reveal whether students recognize that electric forces can act at a distance without direct contact. The probe is best used with elementary s...
Book Chapter
The purpose of this assessment probe is to elicit students’ ideas about electric charge when they rub balloons on their hair. It is designed to reveal whether students recognize that objects charged in the same way repel each other. The probe is be...
Book Chapter
Can It Be Electrically Charged?
The purpose of this assessment probe is to elicit students’ ideas about electric charge. It is designed to reveal students’ thinking about the types of materials that can be electrically charged so it’s not important that they know which types ...
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...