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Book Chapter
The purpose of this assessment probe is to elicit students’ ideas about why the Moon appears to have different shapes at different times. The probe is designed to find out if students confuse the explanation for a lunar eclipse with the explanation...
Book Chapter
The purpose of this assessment probe is to elicit students’ ideas about the shape of the Earth. The probe is designed to find out if students grasp the idea that the spherical Earth applies to the actual Earth beneath their feet. ...
Book Chapter
The purpose of this assessment probe is to elicit students’ understanding of the Earth- Sun-Moon system well enough to explain the causes of Moon phases and solar eclipses and how these two phenomena are related. ...
Book Chapter
The purpose of this assessment probe is to elicit students’ ideas about the Moon’s motion. The probe is designed not only to find out if students know how long it takes for the Moon to make a complete rotation but also to uncover whether they thi...
Book Chapter
The purpose of this assessment probe is to elicit students’ ideas about Moon phases when observed from different locations. The probe is designed to determine if students are able to take the “space point of view” when thinking about Moon phas...
Book Chapter
The purpose of this assessment probe is to elicit students’ ideas about how much of the spherical Moon is lit by the Sun at any point in time. The probe is designed to reveal whether students recognize that at any point in time the Sun shines on ha...
Book Chapter
Does the Earth Go Through Phases?
The purpose of this assessment probe is to elicit students’ ideas about “Earth phases” and “Earth sets.” The probe is designed to find out if students understand the Earth-Sun-Moon system well enough to imagine how the Earth would appe...
Book Chapter
The purpose of this assessment probe is to elicit students’ ideas about gravity. The probe is designed to determine whether students understand the role of gravity in maintaining the Moon in its orbit....
Book Chapter
What’s Inside Our Solar System?
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 solar system and recognize that t...
Book Chapter
The purpose of this assessment probe is to elicit students’ ideas about representations of the solar system. The probe is designed to reveal students’ ideas about the overall shape of the solar system and the planets within it. ...
Book Chapter
The purpose of this assessment probe is to elicit students’ ideas about space travel. The probe is designed to reveal how far students think humans have traveled in space since the year 2000. The probe also gives a glimpse into students’ understa...
Book Chapter
Gravity in Other Planetary Systems
The purpose of this assessment probe is to elicit students’ ideas about gravity. The probe is designed to find out if students recognize the effect of mass on gravitational attraction, and that neither a planet’s spin nor its distance from t...
Book Chapter
The purpose of this assessment probe is to elicit students’ ideas about objects in the night sky. The probe is designed to uncover students’ understanding of the nature of meteors, comets, and stars. ...
Book Chapter
The purpose of this assessment probe is to elicit students’ understanding of stars in constellations. The probe is designed to find out whether students recognize that stars are distributed in space, that some stars are brighter than others, and th...
Book Chapter
The purpose of this assessment probe is to elicit students’ ideas about the size of objects in the sky. The probe is designed to see if students recognize that the Sun and other stars are much bigger than the Earth, Moon, or any of the planets but ...