The purpose of this assessment probe is to elicit students’ ideas about the life cycle of a product. The probe is designed to see how students apply the concept of life cycle analysis to determine the impact of a product on the environment. 

The purpose of this assessment probe is to elicit students’ ideas about trade-offs. The probe is designed to find out whether students recognize that trade-offs involve sacrificing one or more things in favor of another. 

The purpose of this assessment probe is to elicit students’ ideas about how engineers use designs from nature. The probe is designed to see if students recognize that designs from nature provide creative ideas for solving problems. 

The purpose of this assessment probe is to elicit students’ ideas about brainstorming. The probe is designed to determine the extent to which students understand the norms of good teamwork during the brainstorming process. 

The purpose of this assessment probe is to elicit students’ ideas about researching a problem. The probe is designed to determine the extent to which students are aware of the need to learn as much as possible about how others have solved a problem, and what the potential users want, before brainstorming possible solutions.

The purpose of this assessment probe is to elicit students’ ideas about criteria and constraints. The probe is designed to identify how students determine the criteria and constraints of a problem and whether one is more difficult to identify than the other.

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 problems that it can be used to solve.

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 needs of a number of individuals (in this case an animal as well) have to be understood when defining a problem. 

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 sometimes a more important problem that needs to be solved first.

The purpose of this assessment probe is to elicit students’ ideas about how engineers use an engineering design process to solve problems. The probe includes some common misconceptions about engineering design, and is designed to reveal whether students recognize that different approaches are used, depending on the problem.