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:

There are some common misconceptions about the solar system. Present the following questions to your students and record their response to each statement. (All statements are false.) While the video, Planets Are Spatial does not address all of these misconceptions it should stimulate students to rethink their understanding of our solar system.

The Solar System http://www.astro.illinois.edu/~jkaler/class/miscon.html

• The solar system is very crowded.
• The solar system contains only the Sun, Moon, and planets.
• Meteors are falling stars.
• Comets sweep across the sky like meteors.
• Comet tails stream behind the comet as the comet moves.
• Comets are burning.
• Planets are close together or are large compared with the distances between them.
• The planets are always arranged in a straight line away from the Sun.
• Alignments of planets are dangerous and can affect the Earth.
• Your personality and future are determined by the positions of the Sun, Moon, and planets.
• Planetary orbits are circular.
• Mercury is hot everywhere on its surface.
• Giant planets have solid surfaces.
• Saturn is the only planet with rings.
• Jupiter and Saturn are made of gas.
• The Sun is made of molten lava and is solid in parts.
• The asteroid belt is crowded and dangerous.

Embedded Assessment

Episode 5, Planets Are Spatial, lends itself well to the compare/contrast matrix graphic organizer. A blank template can be found at
http://www.dcn-cde.ca.gov/CRT/graph/Compare-Contrast/Matrix.pdf.

Use this matrix as an alternative to a Venn diagram to show similarities and differences between two concepts or topics. For Episode 5 students could do a compare/contrast matrix (limitations) of scale modeling in science or a compare/contrast matrix of a galaxy and the Universe.

How to Collect Solar System Trading Cards is an online activity from the Amazing Space website. The accompanying Teacher Page provides teaching suggestions that can be used to assess student knowledge of the planets and the solar system.
http://amazing-space.stsci.edu/resources/explorations/trading/directions.html

You could have the students carry on an astro-treasure-hunt on the Internet to search for what’s in the solar system and develop their own picture of what a busy, richly structured and interesting place our celestial neighborhood is. We suggest using some of the bulleted statements from the pre-assessment activity on common misconceptions.

Have your students answer this question about space travel:

Knowing about these distances in our own solar system, what do you think about traveling to other galaxies? Explain why you think this!

Students should investigate the farthest ANY man-made object has traveled. Voyager spacecraft has left the Solar System, but has a long, long way to go before it even approaches the next nearest star.

Post Assessment:

Math Scale Model Resource – use of proportions.
Students select a size of the earth than calculate the proportionate size of other objects in the universe. The web resource provides six “Jobs” with answer keys. These “jobs” could be used as student activities and assessment.
http://www.cavendishscience.org/phys/howfar/howfarhm.htm

Do The Sun and Earth Size Comparison on the Athena Project website to assess student understanding. In this activity, students explore the size comparison of Earth and Sun using measured values and by making a scale model using pennies. Students are asked to assess the results of both comparisons in writing. http://www.k12.wa.us/EdTech/Athena/curric/space/sun/sunearth.html