Misconceptions in Primary Science

The purpose of this book is twofold. Its chief aim is to help teachers raise standards in primary schools by recognizing and correcting their pupils’ science misconceptions as and when they arise in the classroom. It attempts to achieve this by creating an awareness of the multitude of misconceptions that have been uncovered by research, the rationale being that if one has prior knowledge of what pupils might be thinking then one is more likely to notice their misconceptions. As with any problem, a misconception has to be first identified and characterized before it can be dealt with.

Misconceptions in Primary Science Michael Allen Michael Allen MISCONCEPTIONS IN PRIMARY SCIENCE www.openup.co.uk This essential book offers friendly support and practical advice for dealing with the common misconceptions encountered in the primary science classroom. Most pupils will arrive at the science lesson with previously formed ideas, based on prior reasoning or experience. However, these ideas are often founded on common misconceptions, which if left unexplained can continue into adulthood. This handy book offers advice for teachers on how to recognise and correct such misconceptions. Key features include: • • • Michael Allen describes over 100 common misconceptions and their potential origins, and then explains the correct principles. He suggests creative activities to help students to grasp the underlying scientific concepts and bring them alive in the classroom. This easy to navigate guide is grouped into three parts; life processes and living things; materials and their properties; and physical processes. Michael Allen is Lecturer in Science Education at Brunel Univ er sity, UK and has a PhD in science education. Misconceptions in Primary Science Misconceptions in Primary Science pb_Misconceptions in Primary Science pb 18/01/2010 17:12 Page 1 Misconceptions in Primary Science Misconceptions in Primary Science Michael Allen Open University Press McGraw-Hill Education McGraw-Hill House Shoppenhangers Road Maidenhead Berkshire England SL6 2QL email: enquiries@openup.co.uk world wide web: www.openup.co.uk and Two Penn Plaza, New York, NY 10121–2289, USA First published 2010 Copyright © Michael Allen 2010 All rights reserved. Except for the quotation of short passages for the purpose of criticism and review, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher or a licence from the Copyright Licensing Agency Limited. Details of such licences (for reprographic reproduction) may be obtained from the Copyright Licensing Agency Ltd of Saffron House, 6–10 Kirby Street, London, EC1N 8TS. A catalogue record of this book is available from the British Library ISBN-13: 978–0–33–523588–9 (pb) 978–0–33–523587–2 (hb) ISBN-10: 0335235883 (pb) 0335235875 (hb) Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data CIP data has been applied for Typeset by RefineCatch Limited, Bungay, Suffolk Printed in the UK by Bell and Bain Ltd, Glasgow. Fictitious names of companies, products, people, characters and/or data that may be used herein (in case studies or in examples) are not intended to represent any real individual, company, product or event. Contents List of figures x List of boxes xv Preface xvi Acknowledgements xviii How to use this book xix The QCA primary science scheme of work xxi PA RT 1 Introduction 1 A How do people learn science? 3 What is constructivism? 3 What is a science misconception? 4 Can a misconception be corrected? 5 Summary 6 B How can we elicit, recognize and correct science misconceptions? 8 Elicitation 8 Recognition 11 Correction 11 Summary 13 PA RT 2 Life processes and living things 15 1 Concept of living 17 1.1 When is something ‘alive’?17 1.2 Seeds 18 2 Classification 20 2.1 What is an animal? 20 2.2 Is an insect an animal? 21 2.3 The similarity between amphibians and reptiles 22 2.4 Snakes and earthworms 24 2.5 What exactly is an insect? 25 2.6 More about insects 26 2.7 What is a plant? 27 3 Circulation 29 3.1 Location of the heart 29 3.2 Are the heart and muscles joined together? 31 3.3 The colour of blood 33 4 Breathing 35 4.1 Why do we breathe? 35 4.2 How are the heart and lungs connected? 36 4.3 What is in the air we breathe out? 39 5 Nutrition 41 5.1 Where exactly is the stomach located? 41 5.2 How the digestive system deals with food and drink 42 5.3 The body’s interior 45 5.4 Why do we have to eat food? 46 5.5 Why is eating proteins important? 47 5.6 Can eating fat be good for you? 48 5.7 The nutritional value of dairy foods 49 5.8 Which foods contain fats? 50 5.9 Do plants need food? 51 6 Feeding relationships 54 6.1 Food chain rules 54 6.2 Food chains and population numbers 55 6.3 Predators within food chains 57 7 Microbes and disease 59 7.1 Are all microbes harmful? 59 7.2 Bugs 60 7.3 What is inside a bacterium? 60 7.4 Are all microbes living things? 61 7.5 Can microbes exist inside the human body? 62 7.6 Spreading disease 63 7.7 How do you catch a cold? 64 7.8 Are antibiotics a cure-all? 65 7.9 How does vaccination work? 66 7.10 Can someone be healthy and ill at the same time? 67 7.11 What happens to make food decay? 68 vi CONTENTS 8 Heredity and variation 71 8.1 Same-sex-only inheritance 71 8.2 Why do giraffes have long necks? 72 8.3 The bodybuilder’s son 74 8.4 Are certain human characteristics dying out? 76 8.5 Why are organisms adapted to living successfully in their habitats? 77 8.6 Biological variation 78 PA RT 3 Materials and their properties 81 9 Chemical changes in materials 83 9.1 What is a material? 83 9.2 When something burns why does it disappear? 84 9.3 What happens when a candle burns? 85 9.4 Some confusing terminology surrounding chemical and state changes 86 9.5 Are some acids ‘safe’?87 9.6 What is rust made of? 88 10 Particles 90 10.1 Particles within solids and liquids 90 10.2 How can we best draw ‘particles’?93 10.3 How much air is in a flat tyre? 95 10.4 Lighter than air? 96 10.5 When you stir sugar into a cup of tea does it become heavier? 99 11 States of matter 100 11.1 Can something be hollow and solid at the same time? 100 11.2 The comparative weight of a powder 102 11.3 Which is heavier – ice or water? 103 11.4 What happens to water once it has boiled? 104 11.5 The disappearing puddle 106 11.6 What are clouds made from? 107 12 Earth science 110 12.1 Is there a difference between a rock and a stone? 110 12.2 What exactly is a rock? 111 12.3 What exactly is a mineral? 112 12.4 What causes earthquakes? 113 12.5 Which way is down? 115 12.6 How do underground creatures breathe? 118 CONTENTS vii PA RT 4 Physical processes 121 13 Forces 123 13.1 Does mass affect the speed of falling? 123 13.2 What are the forces on projectiles? 125 13.3 Does every force always have an opposing force? 128 13.4 A moving object has a large forward force and a small backward force acting on it 129 13.5 Reaction forces 132 13.6 Is there gravity in space? 137 13.7 Can gravity change? 140 14 Floating and sinking 143 14.1 Why do some objects float and others sink? 143 14.2 Can something be floating and sinking at the same time? 145 14.3 More about floating 148 14.4 Can an object lose its weight? 150 15 Electricity and magnetism 154 15.1 What are the different ways that a bulb can be connected to a cell? 154 15.2 How does electricity move around a circuit? 155 15.3 What is current? 157 15.4 What is voltage? 163 15.5 Are all metals magnetic? 165 16 Light 167 16.1 Where is light present? 167 16.2 How do we see things? 169 16.3 Why does the moon shine? 172 17 Sound 174 17.1 How does sound travel? 174 17.2 Can sound waves be stopped? 175 18 Earth and space 177 18.1 Flat Earth 177 18.2 What is at the centre of the solar system? 181 18.3 Why does day become night? 185 18.4 How does the sun rise and set? 189 18.5 How big are the Earth, sun and moon? 191 18.6 The moon’s orbit 192 18.7 What causes the moon’s phases? 194 18.8 Can the moon be seen during both daytime and night-time? 197 18.9 What causes the seasons? 199 18.10 Seasonal changes in daylight hours 203 viii CONTENTS 18.11 How often do solar eclipses occur? 204 18.12 How many planets are there in the solar system? 206 19 Heat 208 19.1 The movement of heat 208 Science glossary 211 Bibliography 217 Index 228 CONTENTS ix [...]... challenge existing hypotheses using empirical data (cognitive conflict) SUMMARY 13 • Using a social setting for learning • Allowing student autonomy, engagement, motivation and initiative • Presenting open-ended questions • Promoting higher-level thinking • Encouraging peer dialogue • Resting the final responsibility for learning with the pupil Summary Science misconceptions are addressed using a constructivist... we have already in place Another fundamental assumption is that people often learn best when they are performing a hands-on task; in the case of science learning this would be taking part in an experiment To this end, pupils in primary (and secondary) schools are taught to act like ‘little scientists’, planning experiments, observing phenomena, recording and interpreting results, drawing conclusions... so eliciting any misconceptions Using toys It is often the case that a more valid indicator of what a person is thinking/feeling is reflected in how they behave and not what they tell you, this premise forming the basis of the study of body language When children play with toys they become relaxed and absorbed in the moment, entering into a different world and dropping their guard, allowing an informed... change and the Earth’s tilted axis Sunlight intensity at two different points on the Earth’s surface Sunlight intensity at point A Sunlight intensity at point B Holding an A4 white card at various points on a globe to show differences in light intensity The sun’s apparent motion during winter The sun’s apparent motion during summer The sun, Earth and moon lie in exactly the same plane (misconception) The... cognizant of the ideas that learners bring to a lesson that differ from the concepts embodied in National Curriculum primary science They should appreciate that, after being exposed to teaching, pupils may construct ideas that do not agree with a teacher’s intended outcomes As stated, the science misconceptions included in the book do not take into account every science concept in the entire curriculum, only... reader is a member of a university library In fact a driving force behind the book was to open up these ‘hidden gems’ to a wider audience, instead of allowing them to continue to sit in academic library collections gathering dust That said, the Association for Science Education (ASE) journals Primary Science Review and School Science Review often contain articles on misconceptions and are posted out to ASE... part of a floating iceberg is sinking (misconception) Floating or sinking? Floating or sinking table Liquids of different densities form layers (if immiscible with adjacent layers) Density and floating ability The forces acting on a stationary floating object are balanced Forces acting on a metal object weighed in air using a Newton meter Forces acting on an immersed object The unipolar model of electrical... instruments, taking into account the possibility of misconception construction before or during teaching You may wish to incorporate misconceptions into your personal lesson notes, and create teaching strategies that will seek out and rectify them when they arise in the classroom More formally, a science coordinator may choose to build misconception material into school schemes of work, helping to moderate... raise standards in primary schools by recognizing and correcting their pupils’ science misconceptions as and when they arise in the classroom It attempts to achieve this by creating an awareness of the multitude of misconceptions that have been uncovered by research, the rationale being that if one has prior knowledge of what pupils might be thinking then one is more likely to notice their misconceptions. .. reappear again and again in different samples, so showing a worldwide commonality in human thought; however, some ideas are specific to certain cultures Today in southern Africa scientific ideas are sometimes rejected by pupils in favour of traditional beliefs based on folk medicine and witchcraft Cases such as this suggest that learners do not construct their mental models in isolation but instead are in uenced . Primary Science pb_Misconceptions in Primary Science pb 18/01/2010 17:12 Page 1 Misconceptions in Primary Science Misconceptions in Primary Science Michael. Lecturer in Science Education at Brunel Univ er sity, UK and has a PhD in science education. Misconceptions in Primary Science Misconceptions in Primary Science