#student misconceptions

[aayan1khan]

Our weaknesses - Misunderstanding

A story full of wisdom and with examples to elaborate that people create misunderstanding, misconceptions just due to the lack of communication difference.

A story full of wisdom and with examples to elaborate that people create misunderstanding, misconceptions just due to the lack of communication difference.

[story-of-my-teaching]

GIF retrieved from: http://animal-kid.com/falling-rain-animated-gif.html

LESSON 2 (JANURARY/08/2015): ALTERNATE CONCEPTIONS & BAD SCIENCE WATCH

Today in class we were asked to perform a visualization of a rain drop falling into a lake.  After the visualization was over, we were asked to draw what the rain drop looked like.  Many in the room of university graduates drew a classic tear-shaped cartoon-like rain drop.  The point of the activity was to see the power that prior knowledge and experiences have over our thoughts, and the challenge we face as educators to change student misconceptions.

For my future teaching practice, I want to remain mindful of the prior knowledge, experiences, and misconceptions that students are bringing into my classroom so that my teaching can build off of them, rather than ignore them.  Frequent and effective diagnostic assessments before beginning a new topic are one strategy I will use to accomplish this.

Today in class we also briefly discussed Bad Science Watch (http://www.badsciencewatch.ca/).  Bad Science Watch is an “independent non-profit consumer protection watchdog and science advocacy organization dedicated to improving the lives of Canadians by countering bad science”.  The website raises a discussion about what is “bad science” versus “sound science”, and presents current Canadian issues as examples.  

The Bad Science Watch website is a neat resource that I could potentially use in my future science classrooms to discuss the prevalence of “bad science” in the media and in our day-to-day lives, as well as how we can be informed consumers of information that is deemed scientific.