We have not identified a single
study in which the researchers selected topics for study by first creating a list of national or state standards
on which we have little or no data. For example, we were unable to find any studies on students’
recognition that the same natural laws that can be observed on Earth apply throughout the universe;
understanding of the idea that the massive structures seen in the universe today have resulted from
the effects of gravity acting between atoms and subatomic particles when the universe was young;
understanding of Kepler’s discovery that planets—and all orbiting bodies—follow elliptical orbits;
and
understanding of gravity in Einstein’s general theory of relativity that explains orbital motion as the
result of distortions in space and time around massive bodies.