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All Physical Science resources

Lesson Plan

Force and Motion Ideas

The purpose of this assessment probe is to comprehensively elicit students’ ideas about the relationship between force and motion. The list of possible answers includes several distracters that are based on learning research; thus the probe will te...

By Page Keeley and Rand Harrington

Middle School High School Assessment Physical Science

Lesson Plan

Spaceships

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

Middle School High School Assessment Physical Science

Lesson Plan

Making Sound

The purpose of this assessment probe is to elicit students’ ideas about sound. The probe is designed to reveal whether students recognize that sound is produced by vibrating matter. ...

Middle School Assessment Physical Science

Lesson Plan

Apple in a Plane

The purpose of this assessment probe is to elicit students’ ideas about force related to the interaction between inanimate objects. The probe is designed to determine which forces students think act on an object at rest when it is inside a fast-mov...

By Page Keeley and Rand Harrington

Assessment Physical Science

Lesson Plan

Does It Have to Touch?

The purpose of this assessment probe is to elicit beginning ideas about types of forces. The probe is designed to reveal whether students recognize that forces can act both in direct contact with an object and at a distance. ...

By Page Keeley and Rand Harrington

Assessment Physical Science

Lesson Plan

Talking About Forces

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

Elementary Assessment Physical Science

Lesson Plan

Will It Form a New Substance?

The purpose of this assessment probe is to elicit students’ ideas about chemical change. The probe is designed to find out how students determine whether a new substance with a different chemical makeup is formed when matter undergoes a change. ...

By Page Keeley and Susan Cooper

Middle School High School Assessment Physical Science

Lesson Plan

Equal and Opposite

The purpose of this assessment probe is to elicit students’ ideas about pairs of forces that fit Newton’s third law. The probe is specifically designed to reveal whether students can identify third law force pairs as involving different objects. ...

By Page Keeley and Rand Harrington

Middle School Assessment Physical Science

Lesson Plan

Ice-Cold Lemonade

The purpose of this assessment probe is to elicit students’ ideas about transfer of energy. The probe is designed to determine whether students recognize that heat flows from warmer objects or areas to cooler ones. ...

By Page Keeley

Middle School Assessment Physical Science

Lesson Plan

Shadow Size

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

Assessment Physical Science

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