Course: Communication Research Methods. Objectives: This activity provides students with an experiential introduction to measurement theory and the methods for assessing measurement reliability. First, multiple measurements of a person's height are interpreted according to classical test theory. Second, the measurement of human height is used as…

Concept inventories (CIs)--typically multiple-choice instruments that focus on a single or small subset of closely related topics--have been used in science education for more than a decade. This paper describes the development and validation of a new CI for astronomy, the "Star Properties Concept Inventory" (SPCI). Questions cover the areas of…