![]() When using a probe the second time to check for understanding, especially after students have engaged in the practice of using a model to understand a phenomenon, ask students to extend their explanation by describing a model that can be used to support their thinking. They are equally valuable when used a second time, after students have had the opportunity to explore and develop their ideas. ![]() Modeling the day-night cycle phenomenon can be followed by gathering additional information from text such as Emily Morgan’s, Next Time You See A Sunset ( Morgan 2013).īut how do you know whether students really understand what causes the day-night cycle after engaging in modeling activities and turning to text to further solidify their ideas? How do you know whether their initial alternative conceptions have changed as a result of using a model? How can you check to find out whether the model may have contributed to further misconceptions? Formative assessment probes are valuable tools to use at the beginning of an instructional sequence to understand the ideas and experiences students are bringing to their learning that can be addressed through informed instruction. Ideally it is best to have students manipulate the model rather than observing the teacher demonstrate the use of the model. Models, such as a globe and a flashlight representing the Sun, are used again to explain the pattern of day and night. Once these motion ideas have been developed, students can use Earth’s motion and position in relation to the Sun to explain the day-night cycle and why it seems to us from an Earth perspective, that the Sun appears to rise, move across the sky, and set. The physical axis extending on each side of the globe is there to produce the tilt on the model and helps us visualize the tilt of the Earth as it spins around. ![]() Be careful to help them understand the limitations of models by pointing out the Earth does not actually have a physical long pole that extends north to south through the Earth, such as is physically depicted on the globe. Furthermore, the concept of a north-south axis can be modeled by showing students a globe tilted on its axis. Each of these motions can be modeled for students either kinesthetically with their bodies or with objects representing the Earth and Sun. Both of these motions exhibit a pattern-a complete rotation every day (about 24 hours) and a complete orbit every year (about 365 days). The latter is important to address the commonly held alternative idea that the Sun is moving around the Earth, rather than the correct idea that the Earth moves around the Sun. Commonly held alternative conceptions, as well as others that make sense to children, can be uncovered using the probe, “What Causes Night and Day?” ( Figure 1 Keeley and Sneider 2012).Įxamining students’ initial ideas reveals that students first need to develop an understanding that the Earth is always moving in two ways: a rotation about its axis, and an almost circular orbit around the Sun. These include day and night daily changes in the length and direction of shadows and different positions of the Sun, Moon, and stars at different times of the day, month, and year,” ( NRC 2012), it is important to take the time to uncover students’ initial ideas about the day-night cycle. Watching the Sun rise and set and seemingly move across the sky from morning to evening may contribute to preconceived day-night cycle ideas in which the Sun is moving around a stationary Earth or moving upward in the day time and downward at night.īefore planning instruction to address the ESS1.B disciplinary core idea (grades 3–5), “The orbits of Earth around the Sun and of the Moon around Earth, together with the rotation of Earth about an axis between its north and south poles, cause observable patterns. Before they develop an understanding of the Earth spinning on its axis while moving around the Sun, their everyday experiences are likely to have contributed to initial Sun-Earth system ideas that do not involve a moving Earth. ![]() Elementary students learn to use Earth’s motion to explain the observable pattern of the day-night cycle.
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