Science is an area where misconceptions can grow faster and wider spread than pesky dandelions. I know that personally it is hard for me to abandon misconceptions and I can often think I am abandoning a misconception while I am really just turning it into a different misconception. As a teacher, misconceptions can hit me out of the blue and be really hard to overcome in a classroom. I agree with the sentiment in the article that it is important for teachers to try and find misconceptions before they even present ideas to their students and use what they have found to help foster true understanding in their classroom.
As this article points out, I think it is important to be aware of ideas that we might think are common sense such as a flat piece of aluminum foil weighs less than that same piece crumpled into a ball. We have to be prepared to encourage thought in students and help them get rid of some of these common misconceptions.
Last semester in Biology Methods, while working on lesson plans using the NGSS, we were required to think of some common misconceptions that students may have on our topic. This helped me to feel more prepared for my lesson and helped me to be ready for questions that my students may have.
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