I was recently reading the November/December 2020 issue of “Science & Children” a publication of the National Science Teaching Association.  In this issue, I read the “Formative Assessment Probes“ column written by Page Keeley.  Her article was entitled “The Day-Night Cycle: Adding Models to Probe Explanations.”

As you select formative assessment probes to use with your lessons, consider ways to have students use a model to support their explanation.  In this example, students use the Earth’s motion and position in relation to the Sun to explain the day-night cycle and why it seems to us from an Earth perspective, that the Sun appears to rise, move across the sky, and set.  Models, such as a globe and a flashlight representing the Sun are used to explain the pattern of day and night.