SPACE SCIENCE STUDENT ASSESSMENTS

The test in this section contains items related to the four K–4 standards in astronomy and space science. The standards are stated below. The source of each standard is given in parentheses: NSES = National Research Council's "National Science Education Standards"; Benchmarks = American Association for the Advancement of Science's "Benchmarks for Science Literacy."

K–4 Astronomy Standard 1:

“The sun, moon, stars, clouds, birds, and airplanes all have properties, locations, and movements that can be observed and described.” (NSES)

K–4 Astronomy Standard 2:

“The sun provides the light and heat necessary to maintain the temperature of the earth.” (NSES)

K–4 Astronomy Standard 3:

“There are more stars in the sky than anyone can easily count, but they are not scattered evenly, and they are not all the same in brightness or color.” (Benchmarks)

K–4 Astronomy Standard 4:

“Objects in the sky have patterns of movement. The sun, for example, appears to move across the sky in the same way every day, but its path changes slowly over the seasons. The moon moves across the sky on a daily basis much like the sun. The observable shape of the moon changes from day to day in a cycle that lasts about a month.” (NSES)

Test items for the K–4 astronomy and space science standards were developed with funding from NASA's Science Mission Directorate, via the Universe Education Forum at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.

Listed below are some student astronomy and space science misconceptions. The list is not intended to be exhaustive, but rather a summary of some of the more common prior ideas we identified from our analysis of the student response patterns to the items on the tests.

• Locations closer to the equator always have more hours of daylight than do regions farther north or south.
• If the Earth had no moon, there would be no tides.
• The distance to stars is small, with some other stars in our solar system in addition to the Sun.
• Stars and constellations do not rise and set, but remain in the same location throughout the night.
• The same stars and constellations are in the same place in the sky throughout the year, e.g., if you went out every clear night at 9 p.m. and looked south you would see Orion.

The following resources are useful for additional background information about students' science misconceptions:

Comins, N., Heavenly Errors; Misconceptions About the Real Nature of the Universe, New York: Columbia Press (2001).

Driver, R. (Ed.), Children’s Ideas in Science, Philadelphia: Open University Press (1985).

Driver, R., Pupil as Scientist?, Philadelphia: Open University Press (1983). Agan, L., “Stellar Ideas: Exploring Students’ Understanding of Stars” in Astronomy Education Review: http://aer.noao.edu/cgi-bin/article.pl?id=95.

Agan, L. & Sneider, C., “Learning About the Earth’s Shape and Gravity: A Curriculum Guide for Teachers and Curriculum Developers“ in Education Review: http://aer.noao.edu/cgi-bin/article.pl?id=65.

The tests in this section contain items related to six grades 5–8 standards in astronomy and space science. The standards are stated below. The source of each standard is given in parentheses: NSES = National Research Council's "National Science Education Standards"; Benchmarks = American Association for the Advancement of Science's "Benchmarks for Science Literacy."

5–8 Astronomy Standard 1:

“The earth is the third planet from the sun in a system that includes the moon, the sun, eight other planets and their moons, and smaller objects, such as asteroids and comets. The sun, an average star, is the central and largest body in the solar system.” (NSES)

5–8 Astronomy Standard 2:

“Most objects in the solar system are in regular and predictable motion. Those motions explain such phenomena as the day, the year, phases of the moon, and eclipses.” (NSES)

5–8 Astronomy Standard 3:

“Gravity is the force that keeps planets in orbit around the sun and governs the rest of the motion in the solar system. Gravity alone holds us to the earth's surface and explains the phenomena of the tides.” (NSES)

5–8 Astronomy Standard 4:

“The sun is the major source of energy for phenomena on the earth’s surface, such as growth of plants, winds, ocean currents, and the water cycle. Seasons result from variations in the amount of the sun’s energy hitting the surface, due to the tilt of the earth’s rotation on its axis and the length of the day.” (NSES)

5–8 Astronomy Standard 5:

“The patterns of stars in the sky stay the same, although they appear to move across the sky nightly, and different stars can be seen in different seasons.” (Benchmarks)

5–8 Astronomy Standard 6:

“The sun is many thousands of times closer to the earth than any other star. Light from the sun takes a few minutes to reach the earth, but light from the next nearest star takes a few years to arrive. The trip to that star would take the fastest rocket thousands of years. Some distant galaxies are so far away that their light takes several billion years to reach the earth. People on earth, therefore, see them as they were that long ago in the past.” (Benchmarks)

Test items for the grades 5–8 astronomy and space science standards were developed with funding from NASA's Science Mission Directorate, via the Universe Education Forum at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.

Listed below are some student astronomy and space science misconceptions. The list is not intended to be exhaustive, but rather a summary of some of the more common prior ideas we identified from our analysis of the student response patterns to the items on the tests.

• Stars and galaxies are evenly distributed throughout space.
• The laws of nature are different for different places in the universe.
• All the galaxies, stars, planets, and atoms of all elements were formed in the Big Bang.
• Different forms of electromagnetic radiation travel at different speeds.
• The behavior of different forms of electromagnetic radiation, such visible, infrared, x-ray, and ultraviolet radiation, differ from one another, e.g., only visible light can reflect off of objects.

The following resources are useful for additional background information about students' science misconceptions:

Comins, N., Heavenly Errors; Misconceptions About the Real Nature of the Universe, New York: Columbia Press (2001).

Driver, R. (Ed.), Children’s Ideas in Science, Philadelphia: Open University Press (1985).

Driver, R., Pupil as Scientist?, Philadelphia: Open University Press (1983). Agan, L., “Stellar Ideas: Exploring Students’ Understanding of Stars” in Astronomy Education Review: http://aer.noao.edu/cgi-bin/article.pl?id=95.

Agan, L. & Sneider, C., “Learning About the Earth’s Shape and Gravity: A Curriculum Guide for Teachers and Curriculum Developers“ in Education Review: http://aer.noao.edu/cgi-bin/article.pl?id=65.

The test in this section contains items related to six grades 9–12 standards in astronomy and space science. The standards are stated below. The source of each standard is given in parentheses: NSES = National Research Council's "National Science Education Standards"; Benchmarks = American Association for the Advancement of Science's "Benchmarks for Science Literacy."

9–12 Astronomy Standard 1:

“The origin of the universe remains one of the greatest questions in science. The "big bang" theory places the origin between 10 and 20 billion years ago, when the universe began in a hot dense state; according to this theory, the universe has been expanding ever since.” (NSES)

9–12 Astronomy Standard 2:

“Early in the history of the universe, matter, primarily the light atoms hydrogen and helium, clumped together by gravitational attraction to form countless trillions of stars. Billions of galaxies, each of which is a gravitationally bound cluster of billions of stars, now form most of the visible mass in the universe.” (NSES)

9–12 Astronomy Standard 3:

“Stars produce energy from nuclear reactions, primarily the fusion of hydrogen to form helium. These and other processes in stars have led to the formation of all the other elements.” (NSES)

9–12 Astronomy Standard 4:

“The stars differ from each other in size, temperature, and age, but they appear to be made up of the same elements that are found on the earth and to behave according to the same physical principles. Unlike the sun, most stars are in systems of two or more stars orbiting around one another.” (Benchmarks)

9–12 Astronomy Standard 5:

“Eventually, some stars exploded, producing clouds of heavy elements from which other stars and planets could later condense. The process of star formation and destruction continues.” (Benchmarks)

9–12 Astronomy Standard 6:

“Increasingly sophisticated technology is used to learn about the universe. Visual, radio, and x-ray telescopes collect information from across the entire spectrum of electromagnetic waves; computers handle an avalanche of data and increasingly complicated computations to interpret them; space probes send back data and materials from the remote parts of the solar system; and accelerators give subatomic particles energies that simulate conditions in the stars and in the early history of the universe before stars formed. Mathematical models and computer simulations are used in studying evidence from many sources in order to form a scientific account of the universe.” (Benchmarks)

Test items for the grades 9–12 astronomy and space science standards were developed with funding from NASA's Science Mission Directorate, via the Universe Education Forum at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics