Population
All questionnaires were given to students enrolled in an introductory Astronomy course at Montana State University
during the Fall 2010 Semester approximately 3 weeks after the lesson about gravity. There were three sections, two
Figure 1. A guiding concept map used to determine the types of questions that were given to students in the form of openended
questionnaires.
f which were taught by one of the authors. Section 1 included 190 registered students, 143 of which participated in
Version A of the gravity survey, giving a response rate of 75%. Section 2 included 191 registered students, 137 of
which participated in Version B of the gravity survey, giving a response rate of 72%. And, Section 3 included 54
registered students, 32 of which participated in Version C of the gravity survey, giving a response rate of 59%.
Because responses to Version C were low in number, interpretation of student responses to this version should be
viewed with caution. Students who typically register for this course are nonscience majors wanting to fulfill their
science requirement. Therefore, this may be the only science course these students take in college (Partridge and
Greenstein 2003). Approximately 38% of the students registered for the course were female, but the gender ratio for
those students who participated in the gravity questionnaires is unknown.