Spaceships

Lesson Plan | June 2021

This probe is designed to elicit students’ ideas about changing the direction of motion in the absence of air. Many students will have seen movies or television shows in which spaceships turn by banking or using wing…

Force and Motion Ideas

Lesson Plan | June 2021

The purpose of this assessment probe is to comprehensively elicit students’ ideas about the relationship between force and motion. The list of possible answers includes several distracters that are based on learning…

Is the Sun a Star?

Lesson Plan | July 2021

The purpose of this assessment probe is to elicit students’ ideas about the Sun and stars. The probe is designed to uncover students’ ideas about the nature of stars and their recognition that the Sun is an average star…

Case Studies in Environmental Justice

Journal Article | September 2020

Building Bridges

Journal Article | December 2020

We describe a hands-on, collaborative activity designed to illustrate general properties of evolution, provide practice for quantitative skills, promote creativity and collaboration, and enable student self-assessment…

Will It Form a New Substance?

Lesson Plan | June 2021

The purpose of this assessment probe is to elicit students’ ideas about chemical change. The probe is designed to find out how students determine whether a new substance with a different chemical makeup is formed when…

Mass, Volume, and Density

Lesson Plan | June 2021

The purpose of this assessment probe is to elicit students’ ideas about density. The probe is designed to find out whether students have commonly held ideas about mass, volume, shape, and other properties that interfere…

The Building Blocks of Language

Journal Article | October 2017

A Layered Approach to Scientific Models

Journal Article | August 2020

What’s Inside Our Solar System?

Lesson Plan | July 2021

The purpose of this assessment probe is to elicit students’ ideas about the solar system. The probe is designed to find out if students can distinguish between objects in the solar system and objects outside of the…

What Happens When You Bring a Balloon Near Wall

Lesson Plan | June 2021

The purpose of this assessment probe is to elicit students’ ideas about electrical interactions. The probe is designed to find out how students visually represent electrical interactions.