People think using ideas, not memorized facts; our tests probe for people's scientific ideas and how they compare to those of scientists. -Hal Coyle, Project Director
Project MOSART was funded by the National Science Foundation primarily to provide no-cost assessment support to NSF-funded MSP Institutes via test instruments for administration to teacher participants and to their students. Each instrument comprises a set of multiple-choice items that were developed linked to the K–12 physical science and earth science content in the NRC's "National Science Education Standards," as well as to the research literature documenting misconceptions concerning science concepts. (The life sciences and mathematics do not fall within MOSART's scope.)
MOSART tests probe for any conceptual shift(s) as a result of professional development activities or course work. MOSART also supports administration of the tests through an MSP to the students of its teacher participants to seek any effects on the conceptual state of students whose teachers participated in MSP professional development activities.
The MOSART team developed, field-tested, analyzed, and profiled items for the grades K–12 physical science content standards and the grades K–12 earth science content standards, including a separate set of tests for K–12 astronomy and space science. If you are a staff member of an NSF MSP, please visit the MOSART site on MSPnet.org to learn more about our program and to request tests.
In an effort to make MOSART's assessment instruments available to others involved in science education, this web site has been developed to provide parallel versions of the full range MSP tests. The tests on this site are free and can be accessed upon completion of an online tutorial, which explains test design, use, scoring, and interpretation.
Tests will become available beginning in late July 2006; the entire inventory should be complete by early 2007. Site registration and the tutorial are available now.
The MOSART team hopes that you will find these assessment resources useful.
Philip M. Sadler, Principal InvestigatorHarold P. Coyle, Project Manager
Nancy Cook-Smith, Project Psychometrician
Jaimie L. Miller, Testing Coordinator
How These Tests Were Developed
The tests available on this web site were developed by a team of researchers in the Science Education Department of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. The content of the questions is based on published studies of science misconceptions and the NRC National Science Education Standards. Research scientists in the specific content areas evaluated draft questions for scientific accuracy and the development team iterated revisions with all scientists until all comments were resolved. Subsequently, an educator with expertise in literacy reviewed the tests for readability and grade appropriateness. The project team then constructed pilot versions of these tests and administered each test question to 100+ students in the lowest grade level that the test would be given. For example, the middle school tests were administered to students in Grades 7 and 8. After the data were analyzed, over 1,000 students in several grade levels took alternative versions (or forms) of the tests. Thus, the middle school tests were given not only to students in Grades 7 and 8 but also to high school students. The result of these efforts across five years is more than 1,000 multiple-choice test questions addressing all of the NRC’s K-12 earth science and physical sciences standards. The team has developed tests that are available to educators at no cost for downloading from the Web as PDF files.