Dark Matter

The Cosmic Ray Observation Project (CROP) Curriculum, created as part of ITEST project Action at a Distance, provides information and resources to its school and staff participants to meet two goals: first, to study the patterns of arriving cosmic particles, and second, to interest high school students in careers in science (especially Physics). Through the use of detection equipment, CROP allows high schools to produce research quality data in a program that prepares their students for college level science and research.

The Science Motivation Questionnaire II (SMQ-II) contains 25 items regarding students' motivation to learn science in college courses. Students respond on a 5-point rating scale of temporal frequency ranging from (0) never to (4) always. The SMQ-II contains five montivation components: intrinsic motivation, self-determination, self-efficacy, career motivation, and grade motivation. Each component is measured with 5 separate items.

The Force Concept Inventory is an instrument designed to probe introductory physics students' beliefs on the central Newtonian concept of force and to probe how these beliefs compare with the many dimensions of the Newtonian concept. The Inventory categorizes Newtonian concepts and commonsense beliefs into six categories: kinematics, impetus, active force, action/reaction pairs, concatenation of influences, and other influences in motion (resistance, gravity).  

Each MOSART assessment instrument comprises a set of multiple-choice items that are linked to the K–12 physical science and earth science content, and K–8 life science content in the NRC National Science Education Standards, as well as to the research literature documenting misconceptions concerning science concepts.

Since its development in the 1970s, researchers, evaluators, and change facilitators have been using the Stages of Concern (SoC) Questionnaire to assess teacher concerns about new programs and practices. The purpose of this questionnaire is to determine what people are thinking about when using various programs or practices. It is intended to assess their levels of concerns at various times during the adoption process.

The link below provides access to the instrument as well as documentation about the instrument.

This scale measures students' views about the nature of knowledge and learning in the physical sciences along five non-orthogonal dimensions (structure of scientific knowledge, nature of knowing and learning, real-life applicability, evolving knowledge, & source of ability to learn.

Nationwide, middle-school youth from underrepresented communities have few opportunities to engage in authentic STEM investigations that build on the students' intrinsic interests in space science and robotics to increase their interests in both ICT and STEM careers.

The Youth Astronomy Network (YouthAstroNet) project will support and research the scaling-up, broadening of participation, and sustainable implementation of an innovative online platform for learners ages 11-14. It features customized access to robotic telescopes, support for authentic engagement with scientific and computational analysis tools and practices, opportunities to pursue space science-related activities and investigations of personal interest.

Music is a source of joy and identity formation in all cultures and socio-economic strata, and its connections with science, technology, engineering, and math are numerous. One important connection is with the physics of waves. Listening to Waves (LTW) is a program designed to increase adolescents’ interest in STEM through the science of sound and music. Based on LTW’s early experience performing STEM outreach activities in schools, LTW recognized the need to create easily accessible tools for visualizing and manipulating sound.