HR: 09:45h
AN: ED11A-06    [Abstracts]
TI: Developing a Space Physics Concept Inventory
AU: * Doxas, I
EM: doxas@colorado.edu
AF: Center for Integrated Plasma Studies, University of Colorado, UCB 390, Boulder, CO 80309 United States
AU: Klymkowsky, M
EM: klym@colorado.edu
AF: Department of Molecular Celular and Developmental Biology, University of Colorado, UCB 347, Boulder, CO 80309 United States
AU: Garvin-Doxas, K
EM: garvindo@colorado.edu
AF: ATLAS Institue, University of Colorado, UCB 74, Boulder, CO 80309 United States
AU: Willis, C
EM: courtney.willis@unco.edu
AF: Department of Physics, University of Northern Colorado, Greeley, CO 80639 United States
AB: Misconceptions are deep-seated models that students hold about the way the physical world works. They are an impediment to learning, and they can be best addressed with specifically designed instructional tools and methods. Mapping the dominant misconceptions in a field is critical for the development of research-based teaching and assessment tools in that field, because they make the most reliable distracters in multiple-choice instruments. This paper will describe how we use Latent Semantic Analysis (LSA) with unsupervised clustering of the LSA vectors to identify and classify misconceptions in various science disciplines, will present previous results from Astronomy and Biology, and will describe current efforts to develop a Concept Inventory for Space Physics.
DE: 6605 Education
SC: Education and Human Resources [ED]
MN: 2005 Joint Assembly