Teaching Misconceptions in Science

Teaching Misconceptions in Science

The following information was all notes taken based upon the lesson plan that Dr. Smirnova taught us about teaching misconceptions in science. Each student was placed into a group and offered the opportunity to come up with different student misconceptions regarding their topic. If you read below, you will find my group's misconceptions listed on the topics of Space travel, Rocks & Minerals, and Life in the Desert!

Fish is Fish Video Notes:

• Evolution of a fish 
• "Frogs are frogs and fish are fish and that's that"
• Children come to your class as fish with their own vision of things
• When you use words they picture the things that they know and have had an experience with
• Children comes with their misconceptions and in order to teach them well you need to help them to figure out and discover the real information

Back to Childhood with Misconceptions Group Topic:

Space travel

• The sun disappears at night.
• Black holes are like vacuums.
• The moon can only be seen at night.
• The earth is larger than the sun.
• The Earth is round like a pancake.

Rocks and Minerals

• Rocks must be heavy.
• Rocks are the same color on the inside as they are on the outside.
• Humans can make rocks and minerals.
• Rocks and minerals are the same thing.
• Minerals are always shiny and metallic. 

Life in the desert

• Deserts are always in a drought, it is dry land with no water or vegetation.
• The desert always has a warm/ hot climate, there are no changing weather patterns.-Antarctica is the biggest desert in the world.
• Temperatures in the desert do not fall below freezing.
• There is no rainfall in the desert.

What does this say about the misconceptions with which our students will come to our science classroom?

What will you do to help students change their mental models and deepen their understanding of the scientific concepts.

Collaborative Inquiry Presentation