CRATERS IN THE CLASSROOM: MEASURING LEARNING FROM MAKING CRATERS

With funding from Southwest Research Institute, NASA, University of Colorado at Boulder, and Colorado's St. Vrain Valley School District, an evaluation study was performed on the popular in-classroom "Experimenting with Craters" activity (Activity E-1 from ASP's "The Universe at your Fingertips" created by the GEMS program at Berkeley).

The activity instructs students to drop objects into a pan of flour and cocoa to form craters within the context of a learning module that explores the formation of craters in the solar system. Depending on grade level, students then describe and measure a variety of crater characteristics, as well as change specific variables (such as height or angle of impactor) to explore factors relating to crater creation. When possible, impact craters on Earth are compared to volcanic craters and impact craters on other solar system bodies.

This research focused on evaluation of learning that takes place from use of the activity in a variety of Colorado classroom settings (from primary grades through community college) using student pre-test/post-test data as well as teacher reflection information. Quiz instruments and rubrics were developed by the PIs and refined after teacher feedback at a professional development workshop. Two versions of the quiz were developed—a basic for primary grades and an advanced for middle and above. Scores for each student on each question were recorded by teachers on a score sheet provided by the PIs. Students were only identified by anonymous numbers on the score sheets and without any identifying information in the teacher reflection data.

Quiz scores were analyzed for increase or decrease between pre-test and post-test values. In order to identify particular content areas and to address the effectiveness of different items on the test, scores for each question were evaluated individually. Total test scores were summarized as well. Feedback from teachers on the quiz format also informed the evaluation; this information was received via the reflection instrument data and during a teacher debriefing session.

Recommendations for activity improvement are based on assessment instruments (pre- and post-activity), activity implementation, and teacher feedback.