The familiar adage "seeing is believing" implies that children will recall a particular phenomenon if they had the experience of seeing it with their own eyes. If this were true, then most children would believe that one could see the Moon in both daytime and at night. However, when children are asked, "Can you see the Moon in the daytime?" many…

This column focuses on promoting learning through assessment. This month's issue uses concept cartoons to assess students' ideas about the moon. Concept cartoons, formative assessment tools that reveal students' preconceptions and probe for conceptual understanding, have recently become popular in the United States, with teachers…