Here are a number of strategies and activities you might use to help uncover student misconceptions, the level of student learning and areas in which students might need further instruction.

The use of graphic organizers can be used as pre-assessment activities (or formative assessments, if we use the results to help us plan!), as embedded assessment strategies and even as final assessment assignments. The most common graphic organizers are the KWL charts and Venn diagrams. The “freeology” website (http://freeology.com/) has a large variety of graphic organizers that are downloadable. This site also provides a very brief explanation of how to use each graphic organizer.

Video Post-Viewing Assessment:

The "Give One; Get One" (http://freeology.com/graphicorgs/page6.php) summary strategy is a useful tool to identify what the students have retained from the information in the video. Provide the students with a grid of twelve squares. In any three squares, the students record three different facts or ideas that they remember from the video. The students then begin to ask their classmates to fill in the other squares with information from the video that has not yet been recorded on the grid. Each classmate can fill in only one square on an individual's grid, but students can add information to as many different grids as they want. The grid can now be used in a variety of ways, such as notes for the students as they write a summary of the information addressed in the video.

Pre-assessment:

Before you review this episode with your students you might hold a brainstorming session with them. Ask them to come up with a list of words and terms that have a reference to Space and which we use in everyday language. Some examples are sunrise refers to morning, once in a blue moon, harvest moon, a rising star in reference to a person has become famous. After you develop this list (you can post the list and continue to add to it) you can discuss with your students the astronomical origins of the terms and phrases; or, the students can do a web search.

Another pre and post- assessment strategy would be to provide the students with a number of questions about the motion of celestial objects. Have them explain each phrase or expression. After you’ve completed your unit on astronomy give the students the same questions and see if they have improved their understanding of earth’s motion in space.

Some possible questions:

• Why is it cold in the winter and warm in the summer?
• What caused the phases of the moon?
• Why do we have day and night?
• Does everything is the Universe revolve around the sun? Explain
• Do people in the Southern Hemisphere see the same night sky as us? Explain!
• How do we know the earth is rotating of its axis?
• How do we know the earth is orbiting the sun?

Embedded Assessment:

Authentic assessment, seeing what the student can do, is often considered the best form of assessing student knowledge and ability. You can have the students build and use their own astrolabe and sundial to monitor motion of the sun.
The two web links below provide instructions for constructing an astrolabe and lesson plans for student use.
http://cse.ssl.berkeley.edu/AtHomeAstronomy/activity_07.html
http://cse.ssl.berkeley.edu/AtHomeAstronomy/activity_08.html

Activities for monitoring the movement of the sun across the daytime sky are found at http://www.nmm.ac.uk/gcse-astronomy/planet-earth/shadows-and-sundials/

Using a Frayer Model graphic organizer works well after students have viewed Episode 4, The World Doesn’t Revolve Around You. The Frayer Model has the student define the concept, write some important characteristics, give examples, and give non-examples. A Frayer Model blank template can be found at http://toolsfordifferentiation.pbworks.com/Frayer-Model. A Frayer Model challenges the student to think beyond a simple definition; the student needs to work with the topic at a much deeper level. In episodes 4 a good topic to use is "Everything in the Universe is moving."

Post Assessment:

You could use the website, Astronomy Without a Telescope, as an assessment tool. Have students use this site and develop a presentation on the motion of the earth, moon, stars and sun. The site has some animations and provides ideas on how to student can view the night sky. Astronomy Without a Telescope Here they discuss the celestial sphere, motions of the Sun (solar and sidereal days, time zones, equation of time, and seasons), motions of the Moon (phases and eclipses), and planetary motions.

Volume 2 of Uncovering Student Ideas in Science: 25 More Formative Assessment Probes (NSTA Press) contains a probe titled "Darkness at Night." This probe is designed to elicit students' ideas about the day/night cycle and to find out if students recognize that the rotation of the earth causes the day/night cycle. We've followed the model used by Page Keeley and coauthors in Uncovering Student Ideas in Science, Volumes 1, 2, and 3 (© 2005-2008 by NSTA Press) and created a similar probe to elicit student ideas about seasons around the world.

What to Wear? Probe and Teacher Notes. The formative assessment Probe assesses student ideas about how seasons vary in the Northern and Southern Hemispheres and at the equator. http://onramp.nsdl.org/eserv/onramp:463/What_to_wear_probe.pdf