Along-standing energy lab involves dropping bouncy balls and measuring their rebound heights on successive bounces. The lab demonstrates a situation in which the mechanical energy of a system is not conserved. Although students enjoyed the lab, the author wanted to deepen their thinking about energy, including the connections to motion, with a new…

The study explored grade 12 students' understanding of reaction kinetics, a topic which has not been extensively explored in the chemistry education literature at this level. A 3-tier diagnostic instrument with 11 questions was developed--this format is of very recent origin and has been the subject of only a handful of studies. The findings…

We present a new system for automated scoring of graph construction items that address complex science concepts, feature qualitative prompts, and support a range of possible solutions. This system utilizes analysis of spatial features (e.g., slope of a line) to evaluate potential student ideas represented within graphs. Student ideas are then…