Experimental physics and astrophysics hinges on the ability to make reliable and accurate measurements. Physics Education Research is the same, you can only discover what is best teaching practing and improve teaching if you can measure student learning. Concept inventories as short, research-based, multiple-choice assessments which measure student understanding of a given topic.

Some conceptual assessments exist for astronomy and astrophysics, but tehy have acknowledged weaknesses and limitations in scope and validation. The objective of this project is to follow the methodology of Wendy Adams and Carl Wieman to develop an astronomy/astrophysics concept inventory. There are three key stages:

1.) Content definition - interviewing astronomers and astrophysicists to determine a consensus list of concepts which are considered essential.

2.) Item development - creatively designing questions to probe conceptual understanding of these core concepts. This involves conducting think-aloud interviews with students to supply realistic incorrection options.

3.) Validation - administering the inventory to student cohorts and classical test theory/item response theory to establish the reliability and validity of the test.

The scope is scalable. A first year student may concentrate on a single stage or focus on a single sub topic, while an honours student could complete the full inventory development cycle.

Students must have completed or take concurrently at least one astrophysics course.

Experience with Python or R is desireable.

Strong interpersonal skills and ability to conduct interviews is essential.