Student-created lessons debunk common science misconceptions

What are some of the more common misconceptions about how the world works, and how can they be explained scientifically?

Students in secondary education faculty member Andrea Burrows’ “Science Methods I” class had a chance to create rich learning experiences during a multi-part assignment this fall. UW Lab School students participated in the demonstrations then offered feedback on each experience.

Class members had a three-part task - create two hands-on science assignments. Each student had to:

• Construct two learning center boards that sparked student understanding common science misconceptions, with manipulatives (using materials easily found by students), that are grade-level/standard appropriate.
• Write a 250-word explanation of each learning center, describing how it could be used in biology, chemistry, earth science and physics classes (and how they might fit in other class settings, e.g., language arts or social studies).
• Connect each learning center meets one or more state and national science education standards.

Debbie French, GA (Ph.D. candidate in science education), works with this Methods 1 class (and can even be seen in Susan Robison's video).

In the following videos, several students from the class describe the lessons they created for the assignment.

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