Do you need an interesting way to start a faculty meeting? Try the assessment crossword in this month’s Editor’s Roundtable. Even if you give your colleagues a word bank for their responses, the puzzle can be a discussion-starter. I occasionally gave this type of quiz to my students. They seemed somewhat surprised at this change of format, but they seemed to spend more time on figuring out and discussing the responses.
Although assessments are often seen as the “final” part of learning, assessments can actually be starting points. In the guest editorial Misunderstanding Misconceptions, Page Keeley discusses the use of formative assessment probes to identify students’ misconceptions. There is even a list of misunderstandings teachers may have about misconceptions—another topic for a faculty meeting.
The choice of words used in instruction can reinforce misconceptions, such as students assuming that the words guess, prediction, and hypothesis are interchangeable. More Than Just Guessing: The Difference Between Prediction and Hypothesis describes the nuances of these words and provides examples and definitions. For example, a prediction “reflects our thoughts about what will happen in the future, but it is based on patterns we have observed or on our prior knowledge.” A hypothesis goes further than a prediction, using “prior knowledge to create an experimental design that can be tested.” The author suggests an if-then-because format for a hypothesis statement. [SciLinks: Scientific Methods]
Another misconception held by students, parents, and administrators (and a few teachers) is that any hands-on activity is “inquiry.” Two articles address this issue. Folding Inquiry Into Cookbook Activities has suggestions for transforming traditional “labs” into higher levels of inquiry as students develop more ownership in the purpose and design of the investigation. An Integrated Instructional Approach to Facilitate Inquiry in the Classroom discusses inquiry as a continuum of approaches and describes a 7E learning cycle model integrated with a KLEW strategy (know-learn-evidence-wonder) in a unit on the water cycle. [SciLinks: Water Cycle, Scientific Investigations]

Creating Science Assessments That Support Inquiry has examples of assessment items that incorporate graphics, scenarios, and quotes as a context for student responses at the remembering, analyzing, and evaluating levels. Even so, when we use an assessment, many times we are so focused on how many students choose the correct answer, that we don’t see the patterns in and misconceptions in the incorrect responses. What were they thinking? Applying Scientific Principles to Resolve Student Misconceptions looks at a topic which students may struggle to understand (buoyancy) and has a graphic showing how students’ perceptions of sinking and floating have an impact on their responses to assessment items. Understading their responses can be helpful when planning instruction. [SciLinks: Buoyancy, Density]
The authors of Investigating Students’ Ideas About the Flow of Matter and Energy in Living Systems describe in detail student misconceptions about this topic—where food comes from and how it is used in the body. The list of ideas about food (i.e., matter and energy in living systems) includes related misconceptions students may have—an excellent resource for the topic, an analysis of student responses, and words teachers can use to enhance student understanding. [SciLinks: Food and Energy] In the realm of physical science, A Change for Chemistry differentiates between preconceptions (“coherent ideas prior to instruction”) and misconceptions (“scientifically inaccurate ideas”) and how teachers can learn more about student thinking from a pre-assessment than by checking wrong answers on a final test. A list of common misconceptions about the nature of matter is included. [SciLinks: Physical/Chemical Changes, States of Matter]
At the recent NSTA conference, I saw many teachers using iPads for not only checking email or finding information but also for taking photos of exhibits and presentation screens (rather than copying information). A Coruscating Star in the Cavalcade of Electronic Devices: The iPad has a overview of this tool and several science apps that are applicable for teaching and learning. (OK – I had to look up the meaning of coruscating: flashing or sparkling; brilliant or striking in content or style, which seems to describe the tool and its applications well!)