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Book Chapter
The purpose of this assessment probe is to elicit students’ ideas about how astronomers investigate the composition of stars. The probe is designed to see if students recognize that the colors from the light given off by a star (its spectrum) revea...
Book Chapter
What Happens to Stars When They Die?
The purpose of this assessment probe is to elicit students’ ideas about stars’ life cycle. The probe is designed to reveal what students think occurs at the end of a star’s life. ...
Book Chapter
The purpose of this assessment probe is to elicit students’ ideas about what happens to stars over time. The probe is designed to reveal whether students recognize that occasionally new stars are “born,” change over time, and eventually “di...
Book Chapter
The purpose of this assessment probe is to elicit students’ ideas about stars and the origin of the chemical elements. The probe is designed to reveal their thinking about the role of stars in transforming hydrogen and helium into heavier chemical ...
Book Chapter
The purpose of this assessment probe is to elicit students’ ideas about our home galaxy, the Milky Way. The probe is designed to reveal whether students recognize that our solar system is inside the Milky Way, that on clear moonless nights we can ...
Book Chapter
The purpose of this assessment probe is to elicit students’ ideas about the big bang theory. The probe is designed to reveal the extent of their qualitative understanding of what is expanding according to the theory. ...
Book Chapter
Is the Big Bang “Just a Theory”?
The purpose of this assessment probe is to elicit students’ ideas about the big bang as a theory. The probe is designed to find out if students can distinguish a scientific theory from the use of theory in everyday conversation. ...
Book Chapter
The purpose of this word use probe is to elicit students’ ideas about two commonly confused words in astronomy—rotate and revolve. The probe is designed to find out if students can conceptually distinguish between the two terms and how they use ...
Book Chapter
The purpose of this assessment probe is to elicit students’ ideas about the position of the Sun in relation to the Earth. The probe is designed to find out how students envision the Earth as a sphere in space and its relationship to the Sun by aski...
Book Chapter
The purpose of this assessment probe is to elicit students’ ideas about the apparent movement of the Sun. The probe is designed to reveal where students think the Sun rises and sets, and how it moves during the day. ...
Book Chapter
The purpose of this assessment probe is to elicit students’ ideas about the Sun’s motion during the day. The probe is designed to reveal whether students know that the Sun is never directly overhead as viewed from the continental United States. ...
Book Chapter
The purpose of this assessment probe is to elicit students’ ideas about relative distance. The probe is designed to find out if students can apply the same scale used to represent the difference in sizes between the Earth and Sun to also repre...
Book Chapter
The purpose of this assessment probe is to elicit students’ ideas about eclipse phenomena. The probe is designed to determine if students have a mental model of the Earth-Sun-Moon system that allows them to figure out why we see more eclipses of th...
Book Chapter
How Long Is a Day on the Moon?
The purpose of this assessment probe is to elicit students’ ideas about the day-night cycle on the Moon. The probe is designed to find out if students can coordinate two concepts: the Moon turns once on its axis each month, and half of the Moon ...
Book Chapter
The purpose of this assessment probe is to elicit students’ ideas about Earth’s gravity. The probe is designed to find out how students think gravity acts inside the Earth. ...