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Book Cover for: Uncovering Student Ideas in Astronomy: 45 New Formative Assessment Probes, Page Keeley

Uncovering Student Ideas in Astronomy: 45 New Formative Assessment Probes

Page Keeley

What do your students know--or think they know--about what causes night and day, why days are shorter in winter, and how to tell a planet from a star? Find out with this book on astronomy, the latest in NSTA's popular Uncovering Student Ideas in Science series. The 45 astronomy probes provide situations that will pique your students' interest while helping you understand how your students think about key ideas related to the universe and how it operates. The book is organized into five sections: the Nature of Planet Earth; the Sun-Earth System; Modeling the Moon; Dynamic Solar System; and Stars, Galaxies, and the Universe. As the authors note, it's not always easy to help students untangle mistaken ideas. Using this powerful set of tools to identify students' preconceptions is an excellent first step to helping your students achieve scientific understanding.

Book Details

  • Publisher: National Science Teachers Association
  • Publish Date: Mar 15th, 2012
  • Pages: 288
  • Language: English
  • Edition: undefined - undefined
  • Dimensions: 10.80in - 8.30in - 0.70in - 1.70lb
  • EAN: 9781936137381
  • Categories: Space Science - AstronomyTeaching - Subjects - Science & TechnologyEvaluation & Assessment

About the Author

Keeley, Page: -

Page Keeley is the senior science program director at the Maine Mathematics and Science Alliance (MMSA). She directs projects in the areas of leadership, professional development, standards and research on learning, formative assessment, and mentoring and coaching, and consults with school districts and organizations nationally. She has been the principal investigator on three NSF-funded projects: the Northern New England Co-Mentoring Network, a school-based mentoring program that supported science and mathematics professional learning communities for middle and high school mentors and new teachers; Curriculum Topic Study- A Systematic Approach to Utilizing National Standards and Cognitive Research; and PRISMS- Phenomena and Representations for Instruction of Science in Middle School, a National Digital Library collection of Web resources aligned to standards and reviewed for instructional quality. In addition she is a co-PI on two statewide projects: Science Content, Conceptual Change, and Collaboration (SC4), a state MSP focused on conceptual change teaching in the physical sciences for K-8 teachers and a National SemiConductor Foundation grant on Linking Science, Inquiry, and Language Literacy (L-SILL). Keeley is the author of ten nationally published books, including four books in the Curriculum Topic Study series (Corwin Press), four volumes in the Uncovering Student Ideas in Science: 25 Formative Assessment Probes series (NSTA Press), Science Formative Assessment: 75 Practical Strategies for Linking Assessment, Instruction, and Learning (Corwin and NSTA Press), and Mathematics Formative Assessment: 50 Practical Strategies for Linking Assessment, Instruction, and Learning (in press).


Keeley taught middle and high school science for 15 years. At that time she was an active teacher leader at the state and national level. She received the Presidential Award for excellence in Secondary Science Teaching in 1992 and the Milken National Educator Award in 1993. She has served as an adjunct instructor at the University of Maine, is a Cohort 1 Fellow in the National Academy for Science and Mathematics Education Leadership, served as a science literacy leader for the AAAS/Project 2061 Professional Development Program, and has served on several national advisory boards. She is a frequent speaker at national conferences and served as the 63rd President of the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) for the 2008-09 term.