ONLINE RESOURCE 1

Supplement to article from

Journal of Science Teacher Education

Assessing Teachers’ Science Content Knowledge: A Strategy for Assessing Depth of Understanding.

[Authors’ information withheld for blind review]

Assessment Questions by Strand

Astronomy

General Questions

  1. Why do we see the moon go through phases, and why do they change? Explain clearly in words and support your explanation with a well-labeled diagram.
  1. Why is Venus only seen in the morning or in the evening, but never in the middle of the night? Explain clearly in words and support your explanation with a well-labeled diagram.

Application Questions

  1. One pleasant spring evening from their backyard in East Lansing, Louise and her young son noticed the moon shining high in the sky (see photo). Ethan looked at it thoughtfully and then asked his mother the following questions. Please help Louise by answering them and explaining why.
  1. “Will I see the same Moon tomorrow morning?”
  1. “What Moon will people in Australia see tonight?”
  1. “My favorite is the full Moon. How long do I have to wait to see the full Moon?”
  1. Danielle met her astronomy class in the East Lansing High School parking lot to watch a total lunar eclipse on the night of February 20, 2007. Totality began at 10:01 PM. At that time, Danielle called her cousin Sheri, in New Orleans, and told her to go outside and look at the eclipse.
  1. What, if anything, was Sheri able to see at that time? Explain.
  1. A half hour later, Danielle decided to call her Aunt Willa in New York. What, if anything, was Aunt Willa able to see at that time? Explain.
  1. One evening after sunset, Judy noticed Venus shining brightly high in the west. In space to the right, sketch what Judy saw when she looked at Venus through binoculars.
  1. On June 30, 2007, Trent took the following long-exposure photo looking west out of his bedroom window at 9:30 PM. On it he marked the positions of the Saturn, Venus, and some nearby constellations (Leo and Cancer). If he took another photo looking out the same window at the same time on June 30 this year (one year later), which of these four objects would Trent expect to see, and why?

Cell Biology

General Questions

  1. Cows are ruminants, having “vats” full of microbes. They can live off grass, which is indigestible in mammals. Explain how both cow and microbes extract energy from grass.
  1. Explain the energy transformations and transfers in a plant from sunlight to cellular work, such as active transport of ions across a membrane.

Application Questions

  1. Over six months, a compost pile is warm and is reduced in mass and volume. Explain the fate of the missing mass and changes in chemical potential energy.
  1. Brewing yeast grow faster in aerobic conditions compared to anaerobic conditions. Explain why.

Ecology

General Question

  1. Scientists have noted that the populations of some species have been declining. In some locations, the diversity of species has decreased, reflecting a complete loss of some species. Explain how various factors (BOTH NATURAL AND MAN-MADE) may be contributing to the decline of species and/or the loss of biodiversity.

Application Questions

  1. Shipshewanna Lake is surrounded by farm land, most of it used for livestock. The south shore of the lake is lined with rural homes, each with a septic tank. Organic waste from the homes and farms has entered the lakes through runoff and ground water. As a result the lake is no longer as productive for fishing as it once was.

Explain WHY the lake has changed, including chemical changes and the impact of the environmental changes on the types of organisms that might be found in the lake.

  1. Purple loosestrife is a plant introduced to the U.S. that thrives in marshes and along the shores of lakes and streams. It has overrun wetlands in the Midwest, eliminating cattails, a native plant that has been almost completely eliminated in some marshes.

a. Explain how loosestrife can “overrun” a marsh, and why the cattail population declines.

b. Explain why the change in the plants in the marsh might affect other species in the wetland.

  1. The following graph shows a species (species A) in an ecosystem. The dotted line shows a point in time when a new species (species B) that competes with species A for some resource was introduced into the ecosystem. Extend the graph showing what will happen to the population of BOTH assuming both species survive. Then explain why the population sizes will change in the pattern you drew.

Time

Genetics

General Questions

  1. Explain Mendel’s Law of Segregation and Law of Independent Assortment, using in your explanation what we now know about genes/chromosomes and traits/proteins.
  1. Explain the simple statement: DNA  RNA  protein

Application Questions

  1. If you ran two gels, one to separate proteins found in a liver cell and one to separate proteins found in a muscle cell, they would look different. Explain the mechanisms for the difference in protein content of the two cell types.
  1. Labrador retrievers “come in” three colors: black, chocolate and yellow. You can breed two black labs and get a litter with all three phenotypes. Explain how this could happen in terms of basic genetic principles and the production of pigments.

Geospherefor Elementary Classrooms

General Questions

  1. Explain (in full sentences) how people obtain and use materials from the solid earth. Give specific examples. Include minerals and rocks, benefits of mining, and impacts on the geosphere, hydrosphere, and atmosphere.
  1. Two major landform regions in the United States are the Rocky Mountains and the Central Plains. Explain (in full sentences):
  1. how these formed
  2. the types of rock in each region and how they form
  3. how these landforms will change over time

Include tectonic plates, constructive and destructive forces, and the energy involved in these forces.

Application Questions

  1. “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle” can apply to plastic water bottles. Using this example, explain the science concepts that underlie this phrase. Include natural resources, pollution, energy consumption, and conservation of matter.
  1. Fossils of marine animals have been found near the top of Mt. Everest in the Himalaya Mountains in India. Explain how sea fossils could end up thousands of feet above sea level and exposed for people to see.
  2. Describe two different ways (one involving the atmosphere and the other NOT involving the atmosphere) that rainwater falling in Michigan could end up in the ocean. For each, explain the energy involved in changing the location of the water.

Geosphere for Secondary Classrooms

General Question

  1. It is said that the history of the Earth is written in the rocks. How do rocks tell the geologic history of an area? Include the rock type, age, texture of the rock (at the hand specimen level as well as regional scale), the general composition, relationship to other rocks in the environment, and the rock forming processes involved.

Application Questions

  1. The theory of plate tectonics proposes that plates come together at convergent plate boundaries and spread apart at divergent boundaries. Explain how all the parts of the rock cycle happen at both of these boundaries:
  2. The East African Rift Valley (a divergent boundary)
  3. Japan (a convergent boundary)

Weather

General Question

  1. Using the words thermal energy and radiation explain why we have weather? (Think about seasons, the water cycle, air masses and predicting the weather.)

Application Question

  1. Using the diagram, explain why Holland experiences greater lake-effect snows than Lansing. In your explanation discuss phase changes in water, air pressure and density, land water and air temperatures, movement of air, air pressure and density.