By Mary Bigelow
Posted on 2008-03-28
Page Keeley, NSTA’s President-Elect, guided us through the use of probes (the written kind, not the electronic ones!) to uncover student’s knowledge and misconceptions about science concepts. She shared several examples of the probes: Ice Cubes in a Bag, The Mirror on the Wall, Is It Food for Plants. She also shared a list of non-threatening formative assessments to get students involved and to find out what they are learning. By the time the final exam or the state test is given, some misconceptions get set in stone unless we get inside the students heads.