From: SFPhysics@aol.com
Date: Sun, 7 Mar 1999 00:07:17 EST
To: pinhole@exploratorium.edu
Subject: STARS test problems!
For those of us public school instructors who must give the STARS test to our
students, guess what? Some of the test questions do not have any correct
answer. The most outstanding one involved a digital volt meter (DVM) reading
a value that none of the answers represent. There is another question where
the classic Galileo dropped-objects experiment is the focus. Not one of the
answers suggests that all objects fall at the same rate of acceleration;
instead, the "correct" answer as to why they simultaneously hit the ground
stipulates only that the velocity of the objects are the same at impact! With
velocity being speed in a particular direction this opens up all sorts of odd
speculation as to what the objects did from the time they were released until
they hit.
Look at the test and tell me if I am off-base in thinking that little
attention was paid to how the questions were formulated, phrased, and executed
on the new STARS.
Al Sefl
SFPhysics@aol.com