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 Uncovering Student Ideas in Science Series (12 books)

Available for purchase through NSTA Press, amazon.com, and the major booksellers

The Uncovering Student Ideas in Science (USI) series includes purposefully designed, research-based diagnostic questions that reveal students’ initial ideas about a concept, principle, or phenomenon. After eliciting students’ ideas, the probe becomes formative when the data about students’ thinking is used to make informed instructional decisions. The probes are not grade level specific as we know from research that a tenaciously held “misconception” will often follow students from one grade level to the next, and often into adulthood, if not surfaced and worked through. Thousands of teachers (and teacher educators) throughout the U.S. and internationally have used these highly engaging, accessible questions as starting points for teaching and learning, checkpoints as students’ (and teachers) develop their scientific ideas, and for reflection, providing students (and teachers) with an opportunity to revise and modify their ideas while becoming aware of how their thinking has changed.

Each book includes an introductory chapter, a student probe page, a Spanish version of the student probe page (in the recent volumes), and teacher background notes that include the purpose of the probe, type of probe, concepts addressed by the probe, an explanation of the best answer choice, suggestions for administering the probe including appropriate grade levels and modifications, related disciplinary core ideas from the Framework for K-12 Science Education and the Next Generation Science Standards, research summaries describing studies of students’ common misconceptions, suggestions for instruction that addresses commonly held ideas and suggestions for additional assessment, and a selection of NSTA resources related to the probe.

Click on the title of each book to learn more about it and download a sample probe and chapter.