Skip to main content
  • Concept-Based Probes: The Justified List

    Journal Article |

  • Floating Balloon

    Lesson Plan |

    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…

  • Is It a Meteorite?

    Case Study |

  • Ice Cubes in a Bag

    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.

  • Burning Paper

    Lesson Plan |

    The purpose of this assessment probe is to elicit students’ ideas about conservation of matter during combustion. The probe is designed to find out if students think the mass changes as paper burns inside a closed…

  • Lemonade

    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.

  • Advancing Alloys

    Journal Article |

    The manufacture of metal alloys is ubiquitous, yet infrequently discussed in high school coursework as concepts related to them are often too complex or abstract for beginning science students. However, earlier…

  • Science That’s Out of This World

    Journal Article |

  • Hot and Cold Balloons

    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 recognize that the mass of a warm gas in a closed system is the same after…

  • Sugar Water

    Lesson Plan |

    The purpose of this assessment probe is to elicit students’ ideas about dissolving. The probe is designed to find out what students think happens to sugar when it dissolves in water.

  • Earth’s Mass

    Lesson Plan |

    The purpose of this assessment probe is to elicit students’ ideas about the cycling of matter. The probe can be used to determine whether students recognize that once-living matter breaks down and cycles through…

  • Learning by (seeing) osmosis

    Journal Article |

  • Patterns, Puzzles, and the Periodic Table

    Journal Article |

  • Is It Matter?

    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.

  • A Hands-on Activity to Understand the Nature of Science and Authentic Scientific Inquiry in Large Laboratory Courses

    Journal Article |

    Integrating authentic research practices into introductory laboratory courses to prepare tomorrow’s scientists has become increasingly prevalent over the past decade. However, an incomplete understanding of the nature…

Asset 2