ABOUT THE MOSART PROJECT

The acronym MOSART stands for: Misconceptions-Oriented Standards-based Assessment Resources for Teachers.

This web site was developed to make MOSART's assessment instruments available to individuals involved in science education at no cost. Each MOSART assessment instrument comprises a set of multiple-choice items that are linked to the K–12 physical science, life science, and earth science content in the NRC National Science Education Standards and the Next Generation Science Standards, as well as to the research literature documenting misconceptions concerning science concepts.

The tests available on this web site were developed by a team of researchers in the Science Education Department of the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian. Research scientists in specific content areas evaluated draft questions for scientific accuracy. Subsequently, an educator with expertise in literacy reviewed the tests for readability and grade appropriateness. The project team then pilot and field tested each instrument. The result of these efforts is more than 2,500 multiple-choice test questions.

A detailed article on our test development methodologies and some of our findings, focused on development of the K–12 astronomy/space science items, but describing our overall process, can be found in the online journal, Astronomy Education Review.