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| | This mini-collection includes several lessons that can help address the following Earth sciences misconceptions:
- Midwestern cities cannot be severely damaged by earthquakes.
- Mountains are rapidly formed.
- Continents do not move.
Research indicates that students are reluctant to let go of misconceptions they may hold. Even after formal education, students often cling to misconceptions rather than adopt scientifically accurate views.
Instructional Implications:
- Identify misconceptions prior to instruction. This can be done with carefully planned activities designed to expose misconceptions. These activities could include discrepant events, demonstrations, conversations in which students share their thinking about the topic, etc.
- Use formative assessment strategies frequently to determine if students are modifying their thinking to a more scientifically accurate view. Journaling, exit slips, concept maps, electronic response systems or other immediate feedback strategies (thumbs up, sideways, or down), etc, can all be effective formative assessment tools. Probing questions in which students must provide evidence-based responses provide teachers with information that can be used to adjust instruction to meet the students’ needs.
- Revisit the topic after a period of time to confirm that a scientifically accurate conception has been adopted. This can be done when related topics are introduced, as part of long-term projects, or as part of ongoing journal activities.
The misconceptions listed here and additional Earth sciences misconceptions can be found in ORC# 9950, "Earth Science Misconceptions." |
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|  | | | | | Catching the Drift (ORC#: 10417) | This inquiry asks the essential question, "Am I really living on a moving plate?" Students build scientific knowledge and process skills as they work to answer the five related critical questions. Each critical question addresses a different aspect of the essential question. Critical questions are answered through learning cycle lessons.
Throughout each learning cycle, students record evidence in their science journals. They then use this evidence to create a cumulative graphic organizer that addresses the essential question: “Am I really living on a moving plate?” This resource models the effective use of a journal as a formative assessment strategy. (ts) |
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| | | | | The Earth Moves Under My Feet (ORC#: 6553) | | This lesson asks students to monitor seismic data online and plot geographic coordinates of real-time earthquake activity. This resource includes an assessment plan that incorporates probing questions that require evidence-based responses.(author/ts) |
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| | | | | Earth Movers (ORC#: 3469) | | This lesson uses probing questions designed to expose misconceptions students may have about the Earth's plates. Students answer these questions in their science journals. It is important to establish a climate in which students are comfortable sharing their thinking in their journals. Students need to understand that you are not necessarily looking for a correct answer but rather are trying to establish what they already know and think about the topic. (ts) |
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