Video
Video 5: 15 – 8:47 Stop Harvard
Video 23:00 -29:00 stop High School
Video 36:00-38:30 stop Instruction
Video 38:30 – 44:30 stop
TfR Seminar: Session 7
Misconceptions in Science
Do Now! (3 min)
• Take out all session 7 Handouts, please!
• (3 min) Review HO 7.1- Prepare for discussion
• Reflect on the following questions:
1. What was your understanding of the cause of the
seasons, before viewing this video?
2. What are the causes of scientific misconceptions?
3. How difficult is it to clear up student
misconceptions?
4. What role do student misconceptions play in
shaping instruction?
WRITE YOUR ANSWER TO THE 1st QUESTION on the
index card
(5min) Reflection Shuffle
• I will shuffle the cards and redistribute them
• Each person reads the card they were given,
aloud.
“Reflection shuffle” is a method of voicing every
student’s ideas
– It provides an engaging way for students to listen
to their peers.
Session Agenda
Time
Activity
5:00- 5:10
10 minutes
Opening
5:10- 6:20
70 minutes
Section 1
BREAK
6:30- 7:10
40 minutes
Section 2
7:10-7:45
35 minutes
Section 3
7:45-8:00
15 minutes
Closing
Introducing Scientific
Misconceptions
Strategies for Identifying and
Redirecting Misconceptions in
Science
Implementing Effective
Strategies for Student-Generated
Questions
Analyzing Posttest Data and
Adjusting Instruction
Reflection
Session Objectives
• EXPLORE misconceptions in science and the
strategies that uncover student preconceptions,
redirect student understanding, and teach for
conceptual change.
• EXAMINE and select effective strategies for
teaching students to ask questions about the
material world.
• EVALUATE content assessment results to make
strategic decisions about re-teaching.
• REASSESS content domain knowledge and
compare to first self-assessment.
Transition
• In the next section, we will continue to use HO
7.1 and your reflections on the video as a way
to examine student misconceptions in science
and discuss how teachers must adjust
instructional planning and delivery to redirect
misconceptions.
• We will then identify instructional strategies
that we can use to detect misconceptions and
to teach for conceptual change.
Session Agenda
Time
Activity
5:00- 5:10
10 minutes
Opening
5:10- 6:20
70 minutes
Section 1
BREAK
6:30- 7:10
40 minutes
Section 2
7:10-7:45
35 minutes
Section 3
7:45-8:00
15 minutes
Closing
Introducing Scientific
Misconceptions
Strategies for Identifying and
Redirecting Misconceptions in
Science
Implementing Effective
Strategies for Student-Generated
Questions
Analyzing Posttest Data and
Adjusting Instruction
Reflection
Section 1: Strategies for Identifying and
Redirecting Misconceptions in Science
Shoulder Share ( 3 min)
1. What are the causes of scientific
misconceptions?
2. What is the challenge in clearing up student
misconceptions?
3. What role do student misconceptions play in
shaping instruction?
Be prepared to share out findings
Share Out (10 min)
• One person from each pair shares out most
important findings (1min)
Shoulder Share
• Discuss your findings on HO 7.1 (2 min)
– Add ideas as appropriate
• Complete 7.2 together (3 min)
• Be Prepared to share out
Chart Responses
Complete the chart to debrief the way teaching
and learning are depicted in the video.
• Equity sticks
Strategies for uncovering Strategies for redirecting
misconceptions and
misconceptions and
preconceptions
teaching for conceptual
change
Metacognition
• The learning experience depicted in the video
illustrates how students hold hard and fast to
their preconceptions.
• This scenario is just one example of the many
challenges that face you in the science
classroom related to student misconceptions.
• Book Resource:
– Making sense of secondary science: research into
children's ideas
Video In The Science Classroom
• Can be a powerful tool.
• Students can see scientific phenomena that may be
very difficult to replicate in the classroom.
• Video also enables the viewer to conceptualize
processes and changes that take extended observation
or expensive equipment to view in real time.
• Teachers can ensure that student learning from video is
maximized by:
– setting a clear purpose for viewing
– providing scaffolded or guided note-taking forms
– pausing the video to probe students for understanding and
to allow them to reflect on what they have learned.
Transition
• INSTRUCTIONAL KEY MESSAGE
• Teachers’ instructional choices must be informed by
students’ prior knowledge and misconceptions.
• Teachers must help their students use their science
process skills to master content knowledge.
• It is critical that teachers be able to uncover student
misconceptions to teach for true understanding.
• Students’ preconceptions and misconceptions limit
any accurate learning.
• We will now experience a lesson that displays
strategies to both detect misconceptions and redirect
for conceptual understanding.
MODEL Adaptation Lesson
• After experiencing the lesson, you will engage in strategies
to help teach for conceptual understanding.
• Many people, even those people who have studied
university level biology, cannot accurately explain
adaptation as it relates to populations.
• This activity can be done at the middle school level,
focusing on the macro-scale (visible change to a population
over three generations), or at the high school level, where
the concept of adaptation is linked specifically to genetic
variation and natural selection.
• Participants will take on the role of students in this activity
to model how it might be presented to students.
– Pay attention to probing for and redirecting misconceptions
about adaptation throughout the activity.
APK
• Silently consider how your students might
answer the following: (1min)
– How does adaptation happen?
– What causes a population to change a
characteristic or trait over time?
Peppered Moths in England
• Take out Handout 7.3
• Background Info:
Preindustrial vs. Postindustrial England
– Moths in preindustrial England were mostly lightcolored
– Moths in Postindustrial England were mostly darkcolored
• Before the industrial age, the tree bark was much
lighter in color as seen in image A.
• The industrial age brought with it pollution,
which can be seen as the dark-colored tree bark
background in image B.
Student Partner Share (2 min)
• What eats peppered moths? How might moths
avoid being eaten?
• How would you explain why the majority of
peppered moths in England during the
preindustrial age were the light color (as in image
A) but the majority of peppered moths in England
during the industrial age were the dark color (as
in image B)?
• Write your answers in your scientists notebook
“Novel Ideas” Share (3min)
• What hypotheses would your students
generate?
• Share only ideas not previously mentioned.
Stepping out of the teacher/student
role, reflect on this initial activity.
• What background knowledge do students
need to analyze the images?
• How would this exercise allow a teacher to
uncover the students’ misconceptions?
Returning to Our Role Play (4min)
• Examine the pictures
– Note that the background represents the color of most
tree bark during each era
• A - preindustrial
• B – postindustrial
• What are some general observations of the pictures?
• Which of the moths is at greatest risk for predation in
picture A? In picture B?
• Which would be most likely to survive? Why?
• What causes the different colors?
• How would predation impact the population of moths?
Stepping Out to Reflect
• How might student understanding of
adaptation be changed at this point?
Continuing the Teaching and Learning
About Adaptations
• The next activity will demonstrate the concepts of
variation, the role of genetics in variation, and the
differing survival chances of separate variations.
Restate Background:
• Coloration is important, in the case of the peppered
moths, to avoiding predation.
• The relationship between environmental change and
changes in the greater population (not individual
organisms) happens over time.
(This restates what some students may be able to
articulate from images A and B, knowing that not all
students would understand these concepts.)
Materials per Pair
■ One sheet of white paper
■ Newspaper
■ Forceps
■ Colored pencils
■ Timer (or watch with a second hand)
■ 30 newspaper circles (made with hole punch)
■ 30 white circles (made with hole punch)
Directions
• Participants will simulate what happened to
the peppered moth population during the
industrial period in England.
• With partners, they will pick out “prey” from
two different environments, represented by
the white paper (pre-industrial England) and
the newspaper (industrial England).
Take out HO 7.4
• Predict what will happen to the peppered
moth population during the simulation of
preindustrial England. Talking with your
partner, record your predictions in box 1.
( 2 min)
• Volunteers Share out predictions (1 min)
• Review the procedure and data charts (CFU)
Pre-industrial England
• White paper simulates clean environment
• (2 min) Complete 1st generation data
• (3 min) Repeat for the next 2 generations and
complete the data table
Industrial England
• Predict what will happen to the peppered
moth population during the simulation of
Industrial England. Talking with your partner,
record your predictions in box 2. ( 2 min)
• ( 3 min) Complete the predation process for
Industrial England and complete the charts
Now Represent The Data Graphically
Discuss the following with your partner and
construct a graph. (4 min)
• What do you need to communicate with the
graph? What information do you need to show
about the peppered moth adaptation?
• Should you use a bar or line graph, and why?
• How will you differentiate between preindustrial
and industrial England on the graph?
• What else will you record on the graph so it is a
complete graph?
Conclusion
• Discuss with your partners whether your
predictions about natural selection were
correct or not.
Debriefing the Activity ( 5min)
• How does the simulation model natural selection
and adaptation for students?
• How does the simulation redirect student
misconceptions about predation, variation, and
adaptation?
• How would you modify the activity, and similar
activities, to meet the needs of your students?
• What are the limitations of this model in
simulating natural selection?
Transition
• We have examined misconceptions in the science
classroom seen in “A Private Universe” and in our
own classrooms, and also have just explored a
lesson in uncovering misconceptions and
teaching for conceptual understanding in
peppered moth adaptation.
• We will now deconstruct a lesson plan that
attempts to detect misconceptions and redirect
students’ understanding of a scientific concept.
BREAK TIME!!!!!
• 5 minutes!
Teaching for Conceptual Change
(10 min)
• Take out the lesson plan on Handout 7.5.
• This is an example of intentionally implementing
strategies to detect misconceptions and redirect
student understanding to help students change their
understanding in the long term.
• ( 4 min) Analyze the lesson plan and identify any
strategies it includes to detect misconceptions and
reteach students.
– Mark a “D” next to sections of the lesson plan that are
strategies in detecting misconceptions
– Mark an “R” next to sections of the lesson plan that are
strategies for re-teaching the concept.
Reflect and Volunteer Share (1 min)
• What have you learned from analyzing this
lesson plan, and how will you apply this
learning to your own planning.
Transition
• To develop a deep understanding of concepts in
science, students must gather correct information
and process that information.
– Inquiry and investigation help students to understand
and correct misconceptions about science concepts.
• The process skills of asking questions and
collecting and representing data in a graph
helped students grasp the mathematical
explanation of adaptation.
• Next, we will explore the process skill of asking
questions and will work through a few strategies
that teach students to ask questions.
– a first step in beginning to correct misconceptions and
develop a deep understanding of science concepts.
Session Agenda
Time
Activity
5:00- 5:10
10 minutes
Opening
5:10- 6:20
70 minutes
Section 1
BREAK
6:30- 7:10
40 minutes
Section 2
7:10-7:45
35 minutes
Section 3
7:45-8:00
15 minutes
Closing
Introducing Scientific
Misconceptions
Strategies for Identifying and
Redirecting Misconceptions in
Science
Implementing Effective
Strategies for Student-Generated
Questions
Analyzing Posttest Data and
Adjusting Instruction
Reflection
Section 2: Implementing Effective Strategies
for Student-Generated Questions
• Note the relationship between the science process skills
and the content topics on the Content Domain graphic
• In this session, Session 8, and Sessions 10–13, we will
learn and apply strategies for developing the science
process skills.
• In A Private Universe, the peppered moth activity, and the
forces lesson plan we read in Section 1, the teacher asked
questions to probe for student understanding.
• To learn about the workings of the physical as well as a
designed world, asking questions is paramount.
• Students will need to be skillful at asking questions and be
able to probe for information, evidence, and reasons.
The Strategy Routine
• We will begin by experiencing two strategies
that teach students to ask questions: picture
inquiry and demonstrating “What if?”
• The first strategy: Picture inquiry.
• Asking Questions with Picture Inquiries (15
min)
Explaining the Strategy
• Secondary science students must often derive
information and draw conclusions from pictures or
visuals such as graphs, diagrams, and charts.
This strategy helps them with that in two ways:
• First, students clarify their understanding by asking
questions about the visual that have explicit, literal
answers;
• Then students ask questions about the visual that have
more implicit and under-the-surface meaning.
– This step reaches deeply into how the student thinks about
the information being presented, the connections and
applications the student can make about the information.
Understanding the Strategy
• Students use the same explicit and implicit
questioning that we learned in Session 3;
however, instead of using their questions to make
meaning from a text, students make meaning of
visuals.
• Determine which question is explicit and which
is implicit, and why:
– What color(s) am wearing?
– Why did I choose to wear this color?
• Assemble into your Strategy Routine Groups
Practicing the strategy
• We will do three things to practice this strategy of
asking questions:
STEP 1. Examine the chart and graph on Handout
7.6 and write down observations in the box.
(1 min) to discuss and write in your group
– Write the statements on Handout 7.6 where it says,
“Observations.”
– These statements should be factual “on the- surface,”
so that anyone reading the chart or graph would
agree with each statement and can physically point to
the answer/observation
– Note the example
Share Observations
• Share your statements about ozone pollution.
Quality Questions
• Evaluate the quality of the example explicit
and implicit questions on Handout 7.6 and
explain your judgment.
• Volunteer : Record the ideas about the criteria
for quality questions on chart paper.
Next steps in strategy (3 min)
2. Write down four explicit questions about the
chart and graph of ozone pollution.
– no answers, just questions
3. Write down four implicit questions about the
chart and graph of ozone pollution.
– no answers, just questions
Answering
• (3 min) Exchange papers with a different
group and answer both the explicit and
implicit questions in the right columns.
– for the implicit questions, list how you would find
out the answer rather than answering the
question.
• (2 min)Return papers and Provide Feedback
using the criteria. Evaluate whether the
questions are targeted, insightful, and prompt
deeper investigation.
Brainstorm (1 min)
• Brainstorm specific graphs, diagrams, and
charts with which you may use this strategy
for an upcoming or current unit.
Asking Questions with Demonstrating
“What If?”
• 2nd strategy to support students in asking questions;
“What if” (2 min)
• Students derive information and ask questions about
demonstrations that have a “before” component and an
“after” component.
• Students use the same strategy as explicit and implicit
questions,
– However, students make meaning of the demonstration by;
• Practicing skills in observation
• And asking questions such as what, how much, when, where, and
how do we know.
• This activity takes the same practice in literacy and
comprehension skills from Session 3 and applies them
to a lab scenario.
The Strategy
• You will practice this strategy of asking questions
by writing down observation notes and explicit
and implicit questions about a demonstration of
putting an egg in both fresh water and then salt
water.
• You will have an opportunity to give and receive
feedback on the questions you generate
– you need to provide this opportunity to your students
when they are first learning how to ask questions.
– Students will need feedback on the quality of their
question if they are to ask appropriate, targeted, and
insightful questions.
Demonstration (3 minutes)
• Draw or describe what you see on Handout 7.7a under
“Observations.”
• Write three explicit questions and three implicit questions
about the demonstration in the charts on Handout 7.7a.
– Note the examples on the handout
• You are only writing the questions and not the answers.
– The answers to the explicit questions should be clear from the
demonstration.
– The implicit questions will not have an answer right now;
answering them will require steps beyond the demonstration.
• In the right column, record how you could find out the
answer to the implicit questions.
Equity Share and Feedback (2 min)
• Share
– Show or describe your statements and explicit and
implicit questions.
• Feedback:
– Use the chart of criteria for quality questions
created to give feedback on the responses
• ensure that all of the statements are observations of
the demonstration set up and not interpretations.
“After” Demo: Prediction (1 min)
• Salt will be added to the water.
• What will happen?
– draw or describe your prediction on Handout 7.7b
in the “Prediction” box
“After” Demo Observations
• (2 minutes) Draw or describe the “after”
demonstration set up on Handout 7.7b under
“Observations.”
• Write three explicit questions and three
implicit questions about the demonstrations
in the charts on Handout 7.7b.
– Note the examples in the chart
Partner Share and Feedback
• Trade your Handouts 7.7a and 7.7b with a
partner.
• Then fill in the right columns
• Next, use the chart of criteria for quality
questions to give your partner feedback
– Were the observations descriptive and not
interpretive?
– Were the questions correct?
Questioning Feedback
• Show or describe your observations as well as
your explicit and implicit questions.
• Share the feedback
– Were the drawings and observations of the
demonstration objectively descriptive and not
interpretive?
– Can the explicit questions be measured and
answered easily?
– Do the implicit questions prompt ideas for further
discovery?
Volunteer Share (1 min)
• Share your ideas as to the benefits of this
strategy.
Strategy Routine: Selecting Strategies
for Teaching Questioning
• Silent Read (1 min)
• As you learn new strategies to teach the science
process skills, think about what the lab report
data tells you about student performance.
• The next step is for you to review the strategy
overview chart on Handout 7.8. (take it out)
• This chart outlines strategies for bolstering
student process skills in asking questions.
• Use students’ process skill data from lab reports
along with plans for upcoming labs to direct your
selection of the instructional strategy you will
implement.
Strategies Review
• (8 minutes) Pair up with someone who
teaches roughly the same science course as
you do
– Each person takes responsibility for half of the
strategies.
– Read your half and summarize them for your
partner.
• Think about how the strategies relate to what
you are already doing in class as you share.
Transition
• Note: You will complete the planning sheet on
Handout 7.9, implement the strategy you
chose, and fill out the reflection sheet on
Handout 7.10 for homework.
• We will now analyze posttest data from the
same topic of study from Session 4.
Session Agenda
Time
Activity
5:00- 5:10
10 minutes
Opening
5:10- 6:20
70 minutes
Section 1
BREAK
6:30- 7:10
40 minutes
Section 2
7:10-7:45
35 minutes
Section 3
7:45-8:00
15 minutes
Closing
Introducing Scientific
Misconceptions
Strategies for Identifying and
Redirecting Misconceptions in
Science
Implementing Effective
Strategies for Student-Generated
Questions
Analyzing Posttest Data and
Adjusting Instruction
Reflection
Section 3: Analyzing Posttest Data
and Adjusting Instruction
• Meet with your course-alike groups for the data
analysis. ( 30 sec)
• Take out your posttest and the data you recorded
on Handouts 7.11b and 7.12b.
• Refer to Handout 7.13: Steps for Analyzing
Posttest Data.
• We will use these steps to analyze your posttest
data to determine the next steps needed to
ensure that all of your students master the key
concepts.
• Lets look at the example first!
Example Walk-through
• Read steps 1–3 on Handout 7.13
– Record these steps on the sample Handout 7.14a,
using the information below.
• The first step/row refers to the percentage
growth by standard as seen in the two
columns “Pre” and “Post” for each standard.
– In this case of the sample data from Mr. Taylor’s
class, the prerequisite standards grew from 60
percent to 68 percent and Standard 1 grew from
30 percent to 76 percent.
Step 2
• The second step/row refers to any patterns or
trends about the questions on the posttest as
seen in the last row “Total % of students who
answered each question correctly” on
Handout 7.11.
– For example, many of the questions that less than
50 percent of the students answered correctly
involved math (questions 2, 15, 16, and 20).
Step 3
• The third step/row refers to instructional
materials and strategies that were utilized for
this unit.
– For example, Cornell notes and vocabulary
organizers were used to teach all three standards
but a hands-on project where students drew and
built a model of the atom was used only with
Standard 1.
Your Turn: Steps 1-3
• (15 minutes) Focus on two standards you
assessed on the test.
• Complete steps 1–3 for the posttest data on
Handout 7.14b.
• Suggested time limits:
– Step 1–2 minutes
– Step 2–6 minutes
– Step 3–7 minutes
NOTE: You will analyze the results for all the
standards for homework.
Highlights of Findings
• (1 min) Equity Stick Share
– Significant trends and findings
Continuing the Analysis: Step 4
• Read steps 4–5 on Handout 7.13.
• Note the chart on Handout 7.14a
• The fourth step/row refers to the students
who did not meet grade-level expectations on
a given standard.
• In the example, not meeting expectations has
been determined to be 60 percent or less.
– Curtis, Elena, Greg, Ignacio, and Jackie scored 60
percent or less for the questions related to
Standard 2 and will be targeted for extra support
for Standard 2.
Step 5
• The fifth step calls for you to create plans for each
group of students needing support with each standard.
• In Mr. Taylor’s case, due to the reality of limited time in
a given school year and day, Mr. Taylor will not be able
to reteach every standard to mastery to each student.
He will need to prioritize.
– Look at each standard and determine how foundational it
is to student understanding of the upcoming content and
skills in this subject.
– Then determine the minimum knowledge base and skills
represented by these standards and focus on those as
targeted areas of improvement for the struggling students.
• Mr Taylors Example follows
Step 5 Continued
• For example:
– To give extra support to Curtis, Elena, Greg, Ignacio, and
Jackie, Mr. Taylor is planning to add to the vocabulary
graphic organizer to help these students learn more atomic
symbols that are used in the chapters that follow on
chemical bonding and acids/ bases.
– He will also assign review work related to atomic mass,
number, and symbols for homework as they move into the
next unit of study to help reinforce what they have
learned.
• Mr. Taylor determines that he will not reteach the
historical perspective of atoms or isotopes when
considering extra support for the struggling students.
Your Turn
• (10 minutes) Complete steps 4–5 for the same
two standards you have already analyzed on
your posttest data and record your thoughts
on Handout 7.14b.
• You will need to continue your reflection for
the remaining standards at home.
Share Out
• (2 minutes) Equity cards share
• Explain one way you are going to provide the
extra support to your struggling students.
Transition
• The analysis you just did is an essential step in
the inquiry process that you must always
remember.
– Even though a unit of study may be done, you must
revisit or reteach concepts that your students did not
master.
• Although you will not be asked to bring in more
evidence on your students’ mastery of the tested
concepts for this course, you should continue to
teach and assess concepts not mastered.
Session Agenda
Time
Activity
5:00- 5:10
10 minutes
Opening
5:10- 6:20
70 minutes
Section 1
BREAK
6:30- 7:10
40 minutes
Section 2
7:10-7:45
35 minutes
Section 3
7:45-8:00
15 minutes
Closing
Introducing Scientific
Misconceptions
Strategies for Identifying and
Redirecting Misconceptions in
Science
Implementing Effective
Strategies for Student-Generated
Questions
Analyzing Posttest Data and
Adjusting Instruction
Reflection
Professional Goals Check-in
• (5 minutes) take a few minutes to check in on your
professional goals for teaching science that you
recorded on Handout 2.2.
• Consider what you have accomplished thus far and
note any progress or potential changes to your goals or
plans in the “Check-In #1” column.
• Share with a neighbor any changes in your professional
growth plans.
• For example, you may now be working with a
collaboration group within the district or with a local
science center that you may not have considered doing
when you first set your plans back in Session 2.
Closing
• Review Objectives
– How were they met?
• Review Instructional strategies
– Record notes for future use on Handout 1.8:
Instructional Strategies Log.
• ( 3 min) Complete session reflection
Preview Session 8 : We will focus on unifying
concepts in science, specifically form and
function, as well as the science process skill of
planning investigations.
Home Work Assignments
■ Complete HO 7.9, implement the strategy, and complete HO 7.10.
■ Bring in evidence of the strategy lesson, prepared to discuss it at the
beginning of Session 8.
■ Use HO 7.14b to finish creating a plan to reteach key concepts. Begin
implementing the plan.
■ Complete HO 8.3 using HO 8.2: National Science Education Standards and
Unifying Concepts.
For Session 9:
■ Assign students to conduct an investigative lab activity and write a lab
report before Session 9.
■ Score the second lab reports using rubrics provided by this course, using
a highlighter to facilitate data analysis, and record the scores on the data
tracker.
■ Bring a printout or electronic copy of the data tracker.
■ Select students who need intensive support. For these students, bring
samples of student work, including their lab reports, with the rubrics.