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-Viewing Activity:

Prior to student viewing Episode 6, Cooking with the Stars -
Think-Pair-Share: Ask students to share with a peer about how astronomers and scientists determine what a star is made of. Have groups share their ideas with the class.

After the first viewing of Episode 6

Video Talking Points:

Show Episode 6 again, this time stopping the video at some of the “Talking Points” mentioned in the teacher video. Engage and challenge the students to explain what was just said. Ask them if they can provide any proof to validate the statements.

Brainstorming:

Engage students in an open discussion about light and the stars. For example, you could ask questions like -

• What do you know about light?
  
• What have you know about stars?
  
• Let’s recall what you’ve already learned about the elements, the periodic table, and the electromagnetic spectrum.

Embedded Assessment:

With the construction and use of the spectroscopes, teachers will need to provide students with constant feedback, encouragement, and suggestions. Throughout this unit of study student/teacher interaction is encouraged at every stage. Thus, teachers will know when and to what degree students grasp the concept. After the hands-on activities, students should be provided with some articles which speak to the use of the spectroscope and the Electromagnetic Spectrum. Through group reports or demonstrations, students can explain how astronomers are able to determine what elements are in an object hundreds of light years away. Teachers can also provide a sample of an element’s atomic spectra and ask students to explain what they are seeing.

Suggested article for students to read and report on:

Section of Book on Spectroscopy: The Key to the Stars. Reading should focus on pages 12 – 14 The Beginning of Spectroscopy
http://books.google.com/books?id=V6R1XAxr5o8C&pg=PA11&lpg=PA11&dq=spectroscopy+and+electromagnetic+spectrum+article

Conduct a class discussion on how science uses technology to understand the world around us. A key concept here is the Science standards dealing with the Scientific Ways of Knowing and Science and Technology.

Post-Activity Assessment:

It should be understood that what students need to master are the science skills and content as expressed in the Standards. Students should not be graded on their ability to identify the elements using a spectroscope (do not assign a grade of 60% to a student who correctly identified 6 elements out of 10 stellar spectra). Their grade should reflect the degree to which your students can

• explain how an element can be identified using emission spectra
  
• explain why spectroscopy is an essential tool for astronomers
  
• explain how the spectrum of a star can reveal the composition of the star

One grade assessment could be assigning these three essay questions to your students and grading their response using a rubric.

Or, you could assign groups of students to do a presentation on Stellar Identification – How Do We Know of What Stars Are Made?

Another alternative is to use a student lesson as a summative activity for each student. One such lesson can be found at http://www.baesi.org/Spec