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Re: [Phys-l] Student Misconceptions



On 09/29/2011 05:00 AM, Anthony Lapinski wrote:

I always "survey" my students on the first day by asking a series of
questions:

What do you think physics is about?
Why did you sign up for this elective course?
What qualities do you most admire in a teacher?
What have you learned in school that you don't believe?

I particularly like the last one. IMHO that touches the core of
what /critical thinking/ is.

The only thing that could be better than that is to do it more
often, not just on the first day of school.
-- What /else/ have you learned in school that cannot possibly be true?
-- What can you find in the textbook that cannot possibly be true?
-- What products have you seen that cannot possibly work as advertised?

The responses to my last question are from all disciplines. Here are some
of the most shocking ones from science in the past few years:

Evolution
Humans built the pyramids.
Electrons orbit around atoms.
Protons and neutrons are elementary particles.
That I'll actually use math in the grocery store.
Dinosaurs died from a meteor not a volcanic explosion.

I would not encourage random heretical opinions, but instead would
challenge them to give a sound scientific explanation for what they
are saying.

As for the protons and neutrons, that should be pretty easy. For
chemistry purposes, maybe they are elementary particles ... but in
the particle physics business they are not elementary, and haven't
been for several decades now.

One could also make a pretty good case that electrons do not
necessarily "orbit" the nucleus (although you can find a few
that do).

Evolution
Dinosaurs died from a meteor not a volcanic explosion.

Things could be worse! Some who don't believe in evolution don't
believe the dinosaurs died at all. No meteor, no volcano, no
nuthin. I kid you not; read the first sentence at:
http://www.conservapedia.com/Dinosaur#Extinction

The beginning of that article is a hoot, too.
http://www.conservapedia.com/Dinosaur

See also
http://www.nwcreation.net/dinosaurs.html

etc. etc. ... in case you were wondering where some of these "student
misconceptions" are coming from.