Of the 12 units, we chose A Lesson 6: Phases and Eclipses of the Moon@ to start the process.
This particular lesson was picked primarily for a couple of reasons. First, there is a fair amount
of research available on student ideas about the phases of the Moon, so we hoped to utilize this
information in forming the analysis. Second, in preliminary experimentation with the questions
used in the mini-quizzes for a few of the lessons, it was found that a large percentage of students
have well-established alternative ideas (misconceptions) about what causes the lunar phases.
Since our ultimate goal is to help students incorporate accepted scientific thought into their ideas
16 about nature, we felt that this was an area that needed attention.