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Book Chapter
The purpose of this assessment probe is to elicit students’ ideas about relative distance. The probe is designed to find out if students can apply the same scale used to represent the difference in sizes between the Earth and Sun to also repre...
Book Chapter
The purpose of this assessment probe is to elicit students’ ideas about eclipse phenomena. The probe is designed to determine if students have a mental model of the Earth-Sun-Moon system that allows them to figure out why we see more eclipses of th...
Book Chapter
How Long Is a Day on the Moon?
The purpose of this assessment probe is to elicit students’ ideas about the day-night cycle on the Moon. The probe is designed to find out if students can coordinate two concepts: the Moon turns once on its axis each month, and half of the Moon ...
Book Chapter
The purpose of this assessment probe is to elicit students’ ideas about Earth’s gravity. The probe is designed to find out how students think gravity acts inside the Earth. ...
NSTA Press Book
Uncovering Student Ideas in Astronomy: 45 New Formative Assessment Probes
What do your students know—or think they know—about what causes night and day, why days are shorter in winter, and how to tell a planet from a star? Find out with this book on astronomy, the latest in NSTA’s popular Uncovering Student Ideas in ...
By Page Keeley, Cary Sneider
Book Chapter
It is difficult to measure objects in the solar system because it is so massive. In this activity, students use a cross-staff to measure the angular diameter of a paper plate 4 m away. From this, they learn to measure the actual or true diameter of d...
Book Chapter
Understanding the causes of Earth’s seasons is quite challenging and is often misunderstood. Earth’s seasons are caused by the combination of its orbit around the Sun and the tilt of Earth’s axis in relation to that orbit. These factors cause t...
Book Chapter
Introduction to the Curriculum
In this chapter, the development behind this book is discussed. As well as the importance of performance-based assessment and preparing your students for inquiry labs. This chapters gives you an overview of what you will find in the book The Case o...
Book Chapter
Before delving into each individual activity presented in the book, The Case of Kirsten K. , it is important to understand an overall picture of the forensics case itself and what is expected of the students. This chapter will also explain how infor...
Book Chapter
The Cooler and Delivery Truck Evidence
Based on your students’ knowledge of chemistry, local police have asked for their help in solving a local missing-persons case. The victim in this case is Kirsten K. Your students will try to determine which of the suspects is most likely responsib...
Book Chapter
In this chapter, the police are asking your students to analyze new evidence to determine the type of chemical substances present and possibly match the substances at the crime scene to the suspects involved in the case. This performance assessment c...
Book Chapter
The Nuclear Radiation Evidence
The performance assessment, in this chapter, consists of four parts. In the first part, your students will analyze the soil samples collected at the crime scene and compare them to soil samples from each of the suspects’ shoes. In the second part, ...
Book Chapter
A second victim has been found! In this chapter, four performance assessments are presented. In part I of the assessment students will need to analyze fingerprints. Secondly, students will try to match the two types of guns with the aluminum and copp...
Book Chapter
Police have learned some additional information about the suspects involved in this case, and their relationship to the victim. In Part I of the performance assessment, Police have mixed up the infared spectroscopy (IR Spectra) for each of the chemic...
Book Chapter
As with all large projects, there are often many ways to approach the final assessment. Since the inception of this project, the authors have tried numerous methods to evaluate this yearlong performance assessment—some that worked, and some that di...
Book Chapter
Dimension 3: Disciplinary Core Ideas: Physical Sciences
This chapter reviews how the physical science section has been organized under the following four core ideas and 13 component ideas. This sample chapter also includes the Table of Contents and Index. ...
Book Chapter
Archimedes, the Syracuse (Sicily) Scientist: Science Rules Balance and Bathtub Basics
Learners, in this activity, are guided to discover simple, quantitative relationships that support their qualitative observations of playing on seesaws (with different-size children) and taking baths....
eBook
Buzz Into Action: The Insect Curriculum Guide for Grades K–4 (e-book)
Calling all aspiring entomologists, apiologists, and lepidopterists—as well as kids who just think bugs, bees, and butterflies are cool! ...
Journal Article
In this article the authors examine the nature of the instructional tools, strategies, and assessments they developed to convert a traditional senior-level biology course into a writing-intensive, capstone biology course....
Journal Article
Editor's Roundtable: A Tough Climate for Teachers
Science Scope’s editor shares thoughts regarding the current issue....
Journal Article
Why Did the Bald Eagle Almost Become Extinct?
The activity described in this article poses a question, provides evidence needed to answer the question, and uses a cooperative learning structure within which students analyze the evidence and create their own questions. Students see how a single c...
Journal Article
In this article the authors look in-depth at scientific practice number 2—developing, evaluating, and revising scientific models to explain and predict phenomena—and what it means for classroom teaching....
Journal Article
In this article the authors look in-depth at scientific practice number 2—developing, evaluating, and revising scientific models to explain and predict phenomena—and what it means for classroom teaching....
Journal Article
Natural Resources: The Naming Convention
This column helps bring the outdoors into your curriculum. This month’s issue talks about species identification....
Journal Article
Explaining Four Earth Science Enigmas With a New Hypothesis
Students learn group process skills and transferable ideas about how science works by researching and studying four enigmas....
Journal Article
Addressing STEM Retention Through a Scientific Thought and Methods Course
This article presents an innovative course, Scientific Thought and Methods, that targets students with low math placement scores. Course topics focus on development of scientific reasoning and the ability to engage effectively in all aspects of the s...
Journal Article
Role-play provides fifth-grade students with the opportunity to develop meaningful connections to environmental science concepts and understand how those concepts relate to their community....
Journal Article
Scope on Safety: Is Greener Cleaner?
This column shares safety information for your classroom. This month’s issue discusses cleaning the laboratory with green cleaners....
Journal Article
This project provies a unique opportunity for a partnership between two state colleges and two tribal Native American colleges. First, the authors developed a collection of interdisciplinary cases. Second they taught faculty how to teach with cases i...
Journal Article
Safer Science: Goodbye MSDS, Hello SDS
This column provides best safety practices for the science classroom and laboratory. This month’s issue discusses a proposed rule change to the Hazard Communication Standard, a national standard that addresses chemical management and employee safet...