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  • What’s the Problem?

    Lesson Plan |

    The purpose of this assessment probe is to elicit students’ initial response to an ill-defined problematic situation. The probe is designed to reveal whether students recognize that in a problem situation, there is…

  • Who Can Become an Engineer?

    Lesson Plan |

    The purpose of this assessment probe is to elicit students’ ideas about who can become an engineer. The probe is designed to reveal whether students recognize that anyone can become an engineer as long as they study…

  • Why Coherence Matters for Multilingual Learners in Science Instruction

    Blog Post |

  • Making It Better

    Lesson Plan |

    The purpose of this assessment probe is to elicit students’ ideas about different ways to optimize a design that has been successful in the past, but that still needs improvement. The probe is designed to see if…

  • Science Education for Middle Level Learners

    Position Statement |

  • Is It a Technology?

    Lesson Plan |

    The purpose of this assessment probe is to elicit students’ ideas about what is and what is not technology. The probe is designed to find out if students have a broad understanding of technology as defined in the…

  • Who Needs It?

    Lesson Plan |

    The purpose of this assessment probe is to elicit students’ ideas about who needs to be consulted when solving a problem (the client). The probe is designed to reveal the extent to which students recognize that the…

  • Is It an Engineering Problem?

    Lesson Plan |

    The purpose of this assessment probe is to elicit students’ ideas about how to approach a problem. The probe is designed to gain insight into how students think about an engineering design process (EDP) and the kinds of…

  • Spaceships

    Lesson Plan |

    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…

  • Human Body Basics

    Lesson Plan |

    The purpose of this assessment probe is to elicit students’ ideas about levels of organization in the human body. The probe is designed to find out whether students recognize cells as the basic unit of both structure…

  • A Call to #retireELL in Science Education

    Blog Post |

  • Force and Motion Ideas

    Lesson Plan |

    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…

  • Changing Constellations

    Lesson Plan |

    The purpose of this assessment probe is to elicit students’ ideas about why the constellations change with the seasons. The probe is designed to find out how students use the Earth’s spin and orbit to explain why…

  • Grand Canyon

    Lesson Plan |

    The purpose of this assessment probe is to elicit students’ ideas about the formation of the Grand Canyon. The probe is designed to find out if students recognize the role of rivers and flowing water and connect them to…

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