Astronomy Misconception Quiz

Yesterday I started the my 7th year at my current institution by teaching an Astro 100 class.  My students are all juniors and seniors in high school, but this is a dual credit college course taught at the freshman/sophomore college level.  Every year I begin with a short discussion on misconceptions but this is the first year I've started the semester with a short non-graded misconception quiz.  Each student completed an anonymous 6 question quiz that focused on common astronomy related misconceptions.  The questions asked were:

1.  What is the cause of Earth’s seasons (summer, winter, fall, spring)?

2.  Why is the sky bluish in color?

3.  Why does the Moon have phases (i.e. full moon, first quarter, new moon, etc.)?

4.  Where is the dark side of the moon?

5.  Approximately what century was it determined that Earth was round?  Who is credited with this discovery?

6.  Which star is the brightest in the night sky?

Each student response on each question received a score of full understanding, partial understanding, or no understanding.  As expected, there were many more "no understanding" scores than "full" or "partial understanding" scores.  Below is a graph I quickly put together illustrating all student responses of the 6 questions asked.

Number of responses on y-axis vs. score on x-axis.

Across all 6 questions, 62% contained a misconception, 17% had a partial understanding of the concept, and 21% had a full understanding of the concept.  This is not surprising on the first day of class and shows that there are many misconceptions that students have been taught in the past and continue to stick with them.  It's my job this semester to remove those misconceptions and replace them with the truth.  

Can you pass this test with full understanding on each question?  I've addressed a couple of these questions already.  You can read about lunar phases, and the blue sky in previous posts.  The other questions I'll address in future blog posts.  

You an help your children avoid these misconceptions in high school by working with them now.  I wouldn't give them the misconception quiz, but if they ask questions about the moon or the sky or seasons you can slowly work with your child and introduce the truth to them.  The more it comes up early in their lives the greater likelihood they'll recognize the misconception when it's presented to them.