JoinUncovering Student Ideas Probes
Physical Science
Latest Physical Science Probes
Physical Science Probes
Lesson Plan
The purpose of this assessment probe is to elicit students’ ideas about respiration. The probe is designed to find out whether students recognize respiration as a process that all living things use in order to obtain energy or whether they have a r...
By Page Keeley
Lesson Plan
The purpose of this assessment probe is to elicit students’ ideas about circular motion. The probe is designed to determine whether students recognize that an object will move in a straight line unless acted upon by an outside force. ...
By Page Keeley
Lesson Plan
The purpose of this assessment probe is to elicit students’ ideas about crystalline solids. The probe is specifically designed to determine how students think atoms are arranged and move in a crystalline lattice. ...
By Page Keeley
Lesson Plan
The purpose of this assessment probe is to elicit students’ ideas about conservation of matter in a closed system after a transformation of matter from seed to seedling has taken place. The probe is designed to reveal whether students can transfer ...
By Page Keeley
Lesson Plan
The purpose of this assessment probe is to elicit children’s ideas about how light interacts with an object to form a shadow. The probe is designed to reveal children’s ideas about the size of a shadow in relation to the distance from a light sou...
By Page Keeley
Lesson Plan
The purpose of this assessment probe is to elicit students’ ideas about the density of a solid object. The probe is designed to find out whether students recognize that in this phenomenon, air is not displaced, such as when there is a hole in a boa...
By Page Keeley
Lesson Plan
This probe is designed to elicit students’ ideas about changing the direction of motion in the absence of air. Many students will have seen movies or television shows in which spaceships turn by banking or using wing flaps. In outer space, where th...
By Page Keeley and Rand Harrington
Lesson Plan
The purpose of this assessment probe is to elicit students’ ideas about weight and pressure. The probe is designed to determine whether students think their weight changes when the force exerted per unit area (pressure) on a scale changes. ...
By Page Keeley
Lesson Plan
The purpose of this assessment probe is to elicit students’ ideas about dissolving. The probe is designed to find out what students think happens to sugar when it dissolves in water. ...
By Page Keeley
Lesson Plan
The purpose of this assessment probe is to elicit beginning ideas about forces. The probe is designed to reveal whether students generally identify forces as pushes and pulls. ...
By Page Keeley and Rand Harrington