Formative assessments and lessons

The author use the discrepant events as formative assessments to determine student prior knowledge of particle theory as well as lessons to help them to understand the nature of particle the... See More

The author use the discrepant events as formative assessments to determine student prior knowledge of particle theory as well as lessons to help them to understand the nature of particle theory through self-discovery. The class discussions after each provide students with the opportunity to share what they understand and to develop a more sophisticated mental model of particles. I have done several of these but never combined them in this way - I like the way it encourages students to build their own concepts.

I Can't See Them But They Are There

Particles in matter are so small that students have a hard time accepting that there is something there when they can’t actually see it. The activity described in this article is designed ... See More

Particles in matter are so small that students have a hard time accepting that there is something there when they can’t actually see it. The activity described in this article is designed to have students draw from their own experiences to explain how matter is made up of tiny particles and to observe four different discrepant events and to describe how they occurred by using the particle theory of matter. Everything is provided in the article including a simple assessment piece.