HoB icon

Science knowledge base
To develop science literacy for scientific investigation & critical thinking

notebook image

We’re alarmed at the erosion of scientific legitimacy and authority, because it’s so crucial to solving the world’s problems. Alan Brandt

Last edited - April 19, 2024

Overview

Introduction ....

Science literacy is important for the survival of the human species. We must constantly be skeptical about the validity of our claims, by being media literate and by knowing how to deal with propaganda, irrational thinking, junk science, pseudoscience, conspiracy theories, & hoaxes.

It’s not the theories themselves that are the problem; it’s that they look true, but aren’t. Worse is when unfounded and false information is presented as scientific to skew the truth or blatantly lie. It can cause real damage in the world due to powerful emotional, political, and cultural influence. 
Michael Gordon

A science knowledge base provides information to develop science literacy. Information, a person knows and uses to be science literate, which can be organized into the dimensions of science and communicated as concepts and organized into five dimensions: 

  1. Habits of mind, Attitudes, values, & dispositions to attain positive scientific practices 
  2. Inquiry practices 
  3. Processes & process skills 
  4. Content areas: Physical, Life, Earth & space 
  5. Perspectives: Engineering & technology, personal & social, history of science, nature of science. 

 These dimension and some subdimensions are illustrated in the following model or diagram:

Science knowledge base map

 

These dimension and subdimensions are used to organize information into three levels: beginning, intermediate, and literate. The table below outlines this organization.

Organization of information

Topic

Misconception - Initial perceptual, naive ideas for all ages)
(Explanations for people's misconceptions: naive understandings & perceptual responses)

Beginning concepts (preschool - 7 years)

Intermediate concepts (7 years - 11 years)

Literate concepts (11+)

Educator notes

 

Notes about not science: junk science, pseudoscience, conspiracy theories, & hoaxes

What is fringe science, junk science, or pseudosceince?

Fringe science, junk science, pseudoscience, conspiracy theories, … They have five properties:

  1. Don’t change, advance, evolve over time.
  2. Don’t provide and testable evidence
  3. Are theories that can't in anyway be tested to prove or disprove the theory.
  4. Ignores contrary evidence.
  5. Based solely or entirely on belief. Want it to be true - Bigfoot.

Suggestions to evaluate science information:

  1. Is it peer-reviewed?
  2. Who did the study? Independent or interested party? Like a for profit company …
  3. Who funded the research? Mega corporation …
  4. What is the purpose and context of the article? Introducing a new idea? Extending an idea? Finding faulty with an idea?
  5. Is it based on objective data or testimonials?
  6. Does the article over hype the ideas? Make it sound like a revolutionary breakthrough?
  7. What kinds of punctuation is used? Are there lot of exclamation marks, questions, and other questionable marks for unbiased research?
  8. Is the information presented in historical context of how the idea has progressed to the claims in the article?
  9. Is there a story involved with the development of something totally new?
  10. What kind of study?
    • Cross-sectional - a group of people are studied at one point in time. Limited value, prove nothing transferable.
    • Longitudinal - a series of assessments of the same subjects over a period of time. Can show impact of interventions and hint at cause, but needs thousands of subjects to be of value.
    • Meta analyses reviews a series of many research papers to look at trends and the replication of ideas. Limits by not knowing what isn’t included.
    • Double blind study where one group receives a treatment and the other a placebo or no intervention over a period of time. If there is a significant difference, it can be assumed the treatment has an effect.
    • Correlations do not indicate causality. Most people don’t publish negative results leading to a bias for research with a positive effect.
  11. Research in general can lead to misconceptions as it usual includes few examples or repetitions from simply being new. And require replication, which people usually don’t want to do.
  12. There are numerous ways to bias research: choosing what, when, and how to measure. How to organize data, outliers, reports … How science is actually conducted as opposed to our perceptions how it is conducted. Rats handled or not …
  13. What procedures were used? Sample size, methods, animals, humans,
  14. Do the results support the conclusions
  15. Do other studies agree?

See also:

Top

 

notebook image

Attitudes, values, & disposition for scientific habits of mind

Habits of mind, attitudes, values, disposition ...

Misconceptions - Initial perceptual naive (any age)
(Explanations for people's misconceptions: naive understandings & perceptual responses)

  1. Scientists have the ability to understand science because they were born with it not because they worked over their lifetime to develop the attitudes of a scientist.
  2. I am not capable of learning science.
  3. Science can only be understood by scientists.
  4. You have to be smart to understand science.
  5. Science is done in labs and not in the real world.
  6. Science is not for me.

Educator notes

Concepts - Beginning (preschool - 7 years)

  1. I can learn about the world around me by asking questions, making careful observations, and trying things out.
  2. It's fun to share what you know with other people.
  3. It's okay for people to have different ideas.

Educator notes

Concepts - Intermediate (7 years - 11 years)

  1. I can remember and understand better if I record information by writing, drawing, or using technology to record information.
  2. I learn from others when I keep an open mind and listen to other's ideas (tentativeness).
  3. Experiments that do not turn out the way that was predicted can still provide useful information.
  4. Solving problems and learning is intellectually challenging.
  5. Learning is fun.

Educator notes

Concepts Literate (11+)

  1. I can learn about the world around me by asking questions, making careful observations, and trying things. 
  2. I can remember and understand better if I record information by writing, drawing, or using technology to record information.
  3. I need to be skeptical, because different explanations can be given for the same information and sometimes you can't tell which is better. 
  4. It's fun to share what you know with other people. 
  5. It's okay for people to have different ideas.
  6. I learn from others when I keep an open mind and listen to others ideas. 
  7. Experiments that do not turn out the way that was predicted can still provide useful information.   
  8. Investigation is an adventure that has been enjoyed by people everywhere and for all time.

Educator notes

Top

 

Notebook banner

Science inquiry ... as ethnographic & experimental investigations

Introduction

Knowing knowledge constantly changes, doesn’t make it useless or illegitimate.

Science investigation (inquiry) is the process people and scientists use to discover information about the world.

Inquiry starts with wondering questions about our world. Questions for which answers can be supported with evidence (observation and facts).

Evidence that suggests cause and effect.

Evidence or observations by watching the natural world or by manipulating objects to create and observe interactions (experiment). In both cases people gather obervable evidence and create reasons about those observations to suggest explanations about the natural world.

Experiment is when a person sets up several examples to be tested, so they are exactly the same, except for one variable, which is changed (manipulated variable) and one example which is not changed (the control).

For example if you wanted to find if water affects the growth of mold, then the control would not have any water. For example: take several pieces of bread the same size, from the same loaf, and put each into a plastic bag. One with no water, one with 3 drops of water, one with 6 drops of water, one with 9 drops of water, one with 12 drops of water, one with 15 drops of water, and so forth. Place all the bags in the same location to control the light and temperature.

The inquiry process and all aspects of it are evaluated to determine accuracy or inaccuracy, which varifies or refutes conclusions. Repeated verification increases certainty in the results and conclusion. The lack of verification, refutes the conclusions. Consistent and persistent evidence convinces and establishes greater belief in correctness. Without consistent and persistent results, things will not work as expected, which is necessary to apply what we learn, generate more ideas, and integrate ideas; all for oour benefit and survival.

Two kinds of scientific investigation or inquiry are known as:

  1. Ethnographic and
  2. Experimental
  • Each used to understand the world.
  • Both are general procedures that can be implemented in diverse and multiple ways to better understand our world.
  • Neither, needs to be thought of as a strict recipe that must be followed.

The following information identifies misconceptions for all ages and concepts at three levels: beginning, intermediate, and literate for science investigations.

Lastly, science inquiry, while not having any particular order, science inquiry, investigation, and experimentation, often involve similar elements. The following seven elements have been identified as very important to develop and to know along with some of their related concepts.

  1. A person designs and conducts the scientific investigation.
  2. Create a question / hypothesis, a procedure to implement, that result in observations to use as results.
  3. Results are observable evidence that are used with reasoning to predict and explain.
  4. Results are recorded and communicated.
  5. Results / data / descriptions are analyzed and interpreted to create explanations.
  6. Conclusions are determined.
  7. Mathematics and other tools that are frequently useful in scientific inquiry.

 

Inquiry & investigations

Misconceptions - Initial perceptual naive (any age)
(Explanations for people's misconceptions: naive understandings & perceptual responses)

  1. Ideas for understanding the world just come to people without systemtic thinking through a mysterious creative process that is inherited not learned.
  2. Scientific ideas are created solely with creativity and intellect (missing observation as critical element).
  3. Inquiry is a collection of information that explains how the natural world functions.
  4. A cookbook approach of following a receipe is scientific inquiry.
  5. The world exists according to human's needs, interests, and/ or desires.
  6. The natural world exists in a state that has not changed much since its creation and will exist in a similar state forever.
  7. Natural processes/ events are initiated and controlled by spiritual entities.
  8. Understanding comes from just watching everything in a natural state.
  9. Science is done in labs and not in the real world.
  10. Personal status by itself confers authority to define, interpret, and change knowledge.
  11. Knowledge is static and unchanging.
  12. There is always an explanation for everything.

Educator notes

Concepts - Beginning (preschool - 7 years)

Overview

Young students many times experiment to confirm their prejudices and beliefs. They generally use no logical experiment, no attempt for a fair test or no attempt to control variables. They tend to focus on one aspect that may or may not relate to what they are trying to confirm and use illogical or transductive reasoning to support their beliefs.

  • Selectively observe or manipulate observation to support their belief.
  • Focus on cause and effect or before and after. Simple one to one corresondence.

Concepts

  1. Observations can be used to answer questions about the world.
  2. All people can invent ideas and things.
  3. When doing science it is helpful to work with other people.
  4. When working with other people each person should reach their own conclusions.
  5. We can learn from observing objects: living and non-living (plants and animals).
  6. Care must be taken to care for living organisms in the classroom.

Educator notes

Concepts - Intermediate (7 years - 11 years)

Overview

As students mature they are more able to identify variables and develop an understanding for the need to control variables for a fair experiment or for a fair test. This is a good time to introduce the idea of an investigation as a "fair-test". This may start with the idea of fair play and is a useful analogy to introduce experimental science in the primary grades.

  • Understanding that properties can be thought of as variables - having the property of being able to have specific limited categorical value or infinite continuous value.
  • Can identify variables as having various effects on an outcome from none or little to a lot or being the determining factor of a particular results or set of results.
  • Seek a fair test.
  • Can identify independent and dependent variables when prompted.
  • Recognize advantages to control variables in an experiment.

Concepts

  1. Observations are used as evidence to create explanations as answers to questions.
  2. Learning better ways to observe and procedures to collect observational information, thinking about objects, their properties, and how they interact can suggests ways to identify and manipulate variables to collect evidence to think about when creating explanations.
  3. Investigation is an adventure that has been enjoyed by people everywhere and for all time.
  4. Investigation involves all kinds of people.
  5. Investigative discoveries can become available to everyone in the world.
  6. Scientists are employed by colleges, universities, businesses, industries, hospitals, and government agencies.
  7. Scientists work in offices, classrooms, laboratories, farms, factories, and in natural settings from space to the ocean floor.

Educator notes

Concepts Literate (11+)

Overview

About sixth grade students begin to see the need for identifying and controlling all variables and to provide for a control in some experiments.

  • With appropriate instruction they can design and explain simple experimental design (designs that manipulates one variable at a time) Understand the need to identify variable, chose one to manipulate (independent variables), collect data for it and appropriate responding variables (dependent variables), and to control all other variables in a logically planned experiment.
  • Recognize the need for a control in some experiments. Experiment with one variable manipulated while all other variables are controlled in the experimental system and provide another experiment where all variables are controlled. Observable difference between the control and the experimental can then be used to support a reasonable logical explanation for their question.
  • Recognize the need for the reasoning about observations as evidence to create explanations and conclusions which are communicated to be evaluated for its logic to determine the validity of explanations and models.

Example: Experiment to investigate the affect of dairy products on growth in mammals. An experiment is designed where two litter mate rats are raised in exactly the same conditions (heat temperature, light, sound,...), except one is feed a balanced diet including dairy products, the other has no dairy products but is substituted sugar water with the same amount of calories as the amount of dairy products fed to the dairy rat. Observational data is collected about the rats fur, mass, tail length, behavior, and x-rays of bone structure at the end of the experiment. Results are used to logically support an answer to the question, "Does dairy products affect the growth in mammals?" Contact the National Dairy Council for details.

Concepts: classified by essential elements of investigation

1. A person designs and conducts the scientific investigation.

  • People plan and carry out experiments.
  • Investigation involves all kinds of people.
  • Scientific investigations sometimes result in new ideas and phenomena for study.
  • Communication helps us learn from other people.
  • Scientists make the results of their investigations public, communicating in ways that enable others to repeat the investigation or try different investigations.
  • In science, it is helpful to work with a team of people and share findings with others.
  • All human subjects have a right to be fully informed about the risks and benefits associated with research and their right to refuse to participate.
  • Special care must be taken when using animals for research.

2. Create a question / hypothesis, a procedure to implement, that result in observations to use as results.

  • Questions can be created that can be examined through scientific investigations.
  • Observations help collect information that can be used to answer questions.
  • Tools can be used to make better and more accurate observations (magnifiers). Measurements help make more accurate observations.
  • People learn by making careful observations of objects interactions.
  • Observations can be compared through communication of properties.
  • What people expect to observe often affects what they actually do observe.
  • Unexpected observations can lead to new discoveries and to new investigations.
  • There are many kinds of signals in the world that are not detectable with human senses. Variables are conditions that change.
  • Changing variables (objects, time, temperature, distance, speed, mass, …) can help us answer questions and learn.
  • Variables need to be controlled for an experiment to be a fair comparison.
  • A control is an experiment with all the conditions the same except the one that is being tested.
  • Manipulating variables helps collect data.
  • If more than one variable changes at a time, the outcome may not be attributed to one of the variables. It may not be possible to identify or control all variables.
  • Special care must be taken when using animals for research.
  • Strong beliefs about what people expect to happen can prevent them from seeing other results. Scientists try to avoid this by having different people conducting independent studies.

3. Results are observable evidence that are used with reasoning to predict and explain.

  • Observations are made to describe objects, interactions, or events.
  • Objects can be described and compared by properties.
  • Change is when properties of an object or event become different by as a result of interactions and noticed through the progression of time.
  • Collecting data helps create explanations.

4. Results are recorded and communicated.

  • It is important in science to keep honest, clear, and accurate records Pictures can be used to represent objects and events.
  • Communication helps us explain evidence and reasoning to each other.
  • Communication requires a message being sent and received.
  • Information can be communicated in many different ways each of which has advantages and disadvantages.
  • Recording observations helps remember specific information.
  • Observations can be compared through communication of properties.
  • Before and after pictures can be used to represent change.
  • Computers help speed up and extend people's ability to collect, store, compile, and analyze data, prepare research reports, and share data and ideas with investigators all over the world.
  • Accurate data keeping and openness are essential to assure an investigator's credibility.

5. Results / data / descriptions are analyzed and interpreted to create explanations.

  • Data can be organized to discover, similarities, patterns, and differences that can be used to create explanations.
  • Data can be charted or graphed to show relationships that can lead to explanations.
  • Connections between evidence and explanations are sometimes hard to see.
  • Some evidence can lead to multiple explanations.
  • When people report different observations they can take more observations to try and find agreement.
  • Science experiments normally have reproducible results and work the same way in different places.
  • People can invent a rule to explain something by summarizing observations.
  • People tend to over generalize (imagine general rules based on a few observations).
  • Sometimes people use incorrect logic when they make a statement such as If A is true, then B is true. Therefore, if A isn't true, B isn't true.
  • A single example can never prove something true.
  • Sometimes a single example can prove something is not true.
  • An analogy has some likeness and some differences.
  • I can check my ideas in books and see if other people have the same ideas as I do.
  • Some tests are not fair if all variables are not kept the same.
  • Different reasons for what is happening have different degrees of accuracy.
  • A good way to know something is to try it out.
  • Data and explanations from investigations can be compared with what different scientists published about what they found and think about the world.

6. Conclusions are determined.

  • Explanations are developed from observation and are based on what is already known about the world.
  • Clear communication gives other people information about your discoveries and ideas.
  • Communication allows other people to agree or disagree with a person's findings.
  • People have always tried to communicate with one another.
  • Diagrams, charts, pictures, and writing help communicate data.
  • Investigative discoveries can become available to everyone in the world.
  • Errors can occur when communicating.
  • Repeating messages is a way to avoid miscommunication.
  • Directions can be written so other people can try procedures.
  • Sketches can be used to explain procedures, events, or ideas to the creator and other people.
  • Numerical data can be used to describe and compare objects and events to the creator and other people. Tables and charts can be used to represent objects and events.
  • If more than one variable changes at a time, the outcome may not be attributed to one of the variables.
  • It may not be possible to identify or control all variables.
  • What people expect to observe often affects what they actually do observe.
  • Strong beliefs about what they expect to happen can prevent them from seeing other results. Scientists try to avoid this by having different people conducting independent studies.
  • Unexpected observations can lead to new discoveries and to new investigations.
  • There are many kinds of signals in the world that are not detectable with human senses.

7. Mathematics and other tools that are frequently useful in scientific inquiry.

  • Mathematics can be used in many aspects of scientific inquiry.
  • Charts and graphs can be used to identify relationships.
  • Graphs can be used to recognize, represent and predict future relationships to the creator and other people.
  • Other kinds of tables, matrices, diagrams, webs, symbols, maps can be used to interpret and communicate information.
  • Regular and polar coordinates can be used to locate objects.
  • The ability to code messages has allowed faster communication.
  • Messages can be carried by many different media (light, electricity, sound, objects, glass fibers

Educator notes

Scoring guides and rubrics

Primary level skills

  • Asks a question
  • Plans a simple investigation (manipulate objects and observe change)
  • Uses tools (magnifing glass, rulers, balances, writing implements, camras) to gather information (data)
  • Uses observations (data) to describe objects, events, and explanations
  • Communicates procedures and results of investigations

Middle level skills

  • Recognizes a variety of questions that can be asked
  • Plans an investigation that controls or considers all important variables
  • Uses tools and technology appropriately to gather, analyze, and interpret information/ data
  • Uses all inquiry skills to generalize and create models appropriate for the data
  • Communicate procedures, results and conclusions of investigations

 

Top

 

Notebook banner

Processes

Processes

Classification
Organization, order, & systems (cross-cutting)
Coordinate with those in math

Initial perceptual naive misconceptions (any age)
(Explanations for people's misconceptions: naive understandings & perceptual responses)

  1. Things (objects) just have common characteristics or properties for no important or meaningful reason.
  2. Objects properties are random and have no use in understanding and explaining the world.
  3. Objects can only be grouped in one way.
  4. Order eixsts for no specific benefit (providing understanding or explanation).
  5. Order is one directional.
  6. Numbers can't be classified, because they are all different.
  7. Letters can't be classified, because they are all different.
  8. Centers on one property, color, shape... to classify when two or more are necessary.
  9. May believe that since an object was counted once in one group for a property, then that object cant be counted again for another property as doing so would cause a double counting action, which isn't allowed when counting sets, because a one-to-one correpsondence means to count each object only once.
  10. Does not decenter from the use of only one property and simultaneously use two or more properties, when necessary, to classify objects.

Beginning concepts (preschool - 7 years)

Classification & organization (see also in math concepts)

  1. Objects, organisms, events, and systems can be organized into groups with similar properties (classification).
  2. Classification is one way to organize objects, events, and ideas. (organization)
  3. Objects have properties.
  4. Objects are identified by their common properties.
  5. Objects can be grouped by external properties, color. (3.5 years)
  6. Objects are classified by there common properties.
  7. Objects have more than one property. (4.5 years)
  8. Objects in a group can share some characteristics while differing in others. (4.5 years)
  9. Objects, organisms, events, ideas, and systems can be organized into groups with similar properties.
  10. Objects are identified by names.
  11. Objects with similar properties are the same.
  12. Objects with different properties are different.
  13. Objects can have properties that are the same and different, but still be the same (triangles - same shape, different size, color)
  14. Objects can be grouped (classified) into sets/ groups
  15. Sets can have cardinality. Cardinality of sets can be the same or different.
  16. Objects with similar properties that change sequentially can be ordered by that property.

Next classification intermediate concepts

Classification scoring guide

Order

  1. Objects can be ordered by their properties.
  2. Order is created by properties that change sequentially. See number sense and cardinality
  3. Most of the time certain events happen in a similar manner.
  4. Some events are more likely to happen than others. See probability
  5. Some events can be predicted more accurately than others.
  6. Sometimes people aren't sure what will happen because they don't know everything that might be having an effect on the event.
  7. Often a person can find out about a group of things by studying just a few of them.

System

  1. Parts are related to a whole.
  2. A whole is related to its parts.
  3. Parts are related to parts.
  4. System is a group of related objects.
  5. Most things are made of parts.
  6. Something may not work if a part is missing.
  7. When parts are put together they can do things they can't do alone.

Intermediate concepts (7 years - 11 years)

Organization & classification Concepts

  1. Organization of objects, organisms, events, and systems help people understand similarities and differences that in turn help understand the world.
  2. Classification is one example of organization.
  3. Classifications can include class inclusion, a relation between two classes in which all members of one class are included in the other. (8 years) Birds have feathers, there are more birds with black feathers than white. Are there more black feathers than feathers? ... Will answer feathers if have class inclusion.
  4. Objects are classified by their properties.
  5. Classification by common properties can create similar groups.
  6. Objects in a group can share some characteristics while differing in others.
  7. A group of objects may be sub classified in one or more ways.
  8. A group of objects may be subclassified as members of an ascending hierarchy. (8 years) A cat is a mammal.
  9. Descending hierarchy. (9.5 years) Mammals include cats.
  10. A group or set can be described and classified by processes as well as properties.
  11. Thinking about things as groups or sets means looking at how every element relates to other members of the group or set.
  12. Objects may have properties of two different groups or sets.

Next classification literate concepts

Classification scoring guide

Order Concepts

  1. Variables affect the order of events.
  2. Order is required to understand the world and predict events.

System Concepts

  1. System is a group of related objects that work together for a particular purpose (machines, organism).
  2. The parts in a system interact with the other parts to cause the system to work.
  3. A system may not work if a part is missing, broken, worn out, mismatched, or disconnected.
  4. Objects can be classified as either natural or of human design,
  5. Organization of objects, organisms, events, and systems help people understand similarities and differences that in turn help understand the world.
  6. Sometimes thinking about things as systems improves understanding and sometimes it doesn't.

Literate concepts (11+)

Organization & classification Concepts

  1. Clasification can require multiple criteria or properties to create complex organizations such as: the periodic table, classification of animals, properties of matter, cells, tissues, organs, organisms, populations, communities, and ecosystems.
  2. Objects may be subordinate or supraordinate in a classification system that requires multiple criteria (properties). Making it possible to ascend and descend the hierarchy. Mammals have hair, bear live young, nurse their young, ... Homo sapiens include these characteristics plus walk erect, have opposable thumbs, ... (12.5 years).
  3. Classification has helped to develop explanations about objects and their interactions.
  4. Classification is one example of organization.
  5. Organization of objects, organisms, ideas, events, and systems help people understand similarities and differences that in turn help understand the world.
  6. A group or set can be described and classified by processes as well as properties.
  7. Thinking about things as groups or sets means looking at how every element relates to other members of the group or set.
  8. Sometimes objects have properties of two different groups and it's difficult to decide in which group to put them.

Classification scoring guide

Order Concepts

  1. Variables affect the order of events.
  2. Order is required to understand the world and predict events.
  3. Probability is the relative certainty or uncertainty that people assign to events happening or not happening in a certain place or time.
  4. Creating knowledge through observation of different variables influence on objects, organisms, populations, communities, and events helps create better explanatory models

System Concepts

  1. System is a group of related objects or components that form a whole.
  2. Can be concrete objects, groups of objects, processes, or ideas.
  3. Some systems have boundaries with input and output of resources and feedback.
  4. Output for one part of a system can be input for another.
  5. Such feedback is used to control the system.
  6. Systems are used as units of investigations.
  7. A system can include processes as well as things.
  8. Thinking about how a system works means observing and collecting date on each part and how each part interacts with the others.
  9. Systems can be connected to other systems and thought of as a subsystem.
  10. Systems may have what appear to be natural boundaries, but are generally arbitrary.
  11. System ideas are used outside of science. Technology and business use system analysis which looks at systems relationships by their inputs and outputs. Computer programming use these ideas with procedural languages, functions, and object oriented programming.

Educator notes

 

Communication

Initial perceptual naive misconceptions (any age)
(Explanations for people's misconceptions: naive understandings & perceptual responses)

  1. Communiation is just something we do to talk to each other.
  2. Doesn't help to study communication because people are either good at it or not.
  3. Communication is writing.

Beginning concepts (preschool - 7 years)

  1. Communication helps us learn from other people.
  2. Pictures can be used to represent objects and events.
  3. Communication helps us explain evidence and reasoning to each other.
  4. Communication requires a message being sent and received.
  5. Information can be communicated in many different ways each of which have advantages and disadvantages.
  6. Objects can be described and compared by properties.
  7. Before and after pictures can be used to represent change.

Intermediate concepts (7 years - 11 years)

  1. Clear communication gives other people information about your discoveries and ideas.
  2. Explanations are better when specific evidence is provided.
  3. Communication allows other people to agree or disagree with a person's findings.
  4. People have always tried to communicate with one another.
  5. People have invented devices to communicate (paper, ink, radio, telephone, telecommunications, computer disks) Errors can occur when communicating.
  6. Repeating messages is a way to avoid miscommunication.
  7. Directions can be written so other people can try procedures.
  8. Sketches can be used to explain procedures, events, or ideas to the creator and other people.
  9. Numerical data can be used to describe and compare objects and events to the creator and other people.
  10. Tables and charts can be used to represent objects and events.
  11. Graphs can be used to identify relationships.

Literate concepts (11+)

  1. Accurate data keeping and openness are essential to assure an investigator's credibility.
  2. Messages can be carried by many different media (light, electricity, sound, objects, glass fibers).
  3. The ability to code messages has allowed faster communication.
  4. Graphs can be used to recognize, represent and predict future relationships to the creator and other people.
  5. Other kinds of tables, matrices, diagrams, webs, symbols, maps can be used to interpret and communicate information.
  6. Regular and polar coordinates can be used to locate objects.

Educator notes

See also inquiry and communication

 

 

Constancy, Change, & Measurement (cross-cutting)

Initial perceptual naive misconceptions (any age)
(Explanations for people's misconceptions: naive understandings & perceptual responses)

  1. Change is random and irregular.
  2. Constancy is forever.
  3. Measurement is based on something other than human decisions.
  4. All measurement is standard.
  5. There is a set up and down.
  6. Measurement is only linear.
  7. Measurement can be as accurate as you want.
  8. If you have used a measuring device , you know how to measure accurately.
  9. Metric system is more accurate than any other.
  10. English system is easier than metric.
  11. You can only measure to the smallest unit on a measuring device.
  12. You have to start at the end of a measuring device.
  13. The five senses are error free.
  14. Objects need to be touched to be measured.
  15. Mass and weight are the same and equal.
  16. Can only measure time with a clock.
  17. Time has an absolute beginning.

Beginning concepts (preschool - 7 years)

Change

  1. Objects change.
  2. Change can be observed and recorded as before, during, after.
  3. Change is observed through properties of the object.
  4. Change can vary.

Constancy

  1. Somethings stay the same and some things change.
  2. Constancy can sometimes be observed during a very slow rate of a change process or focusing on a particular property (external form of a chrysalis).

Measurement

  1. Properties can be counted.
  2. Conservation of number- the number of objects does not change with the position of the objects.
  3. Length of an object does not change when its position is changed or its shape is altered by bending.
  4. Conservation of length.
  5. Objects can be used to compare other objects.
  6. Measurement is a way of detecting change.
  7. Time is the measurement of years divided into seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, decades, centuries.
  8. Linear measurement is the distance between two points.
  9. Volume is the measurement of space an object occupies.
  10. Area measures the surface of an object.
  11. A standard unit of measurement helps communication.
  12. When the thermometer goes up the temperature is hotter.
  13. Measurement helps in making better observations.
  14. Scales measure mass and weight.
  15. Measuring cups measure volume.
  16. Measurements can be compared.
  17. Measurement is used in everyday life (recipes, plans, designing, building).
  18. Time is communicated in standard units.
  19. The duration of an event from the beginning to the end is measured in time.
  20. Time represents past, present, and future events.
  21. A thermometer measures heat. See temperature and heat in physical science concepts.

Intermediate concepts (7 years - 11 years)

Change

  1. Some things may have properties that change and properties that don't change.
  2. Properties of matter, position of objects, motion, form, function of systems all change.
  3. Change varies in rate, scale, and pattern.
  4. Some changes occur in patterns when the changes are looked at in different directions, flipped, or reflected.
  5. Things change in steady repetitive or irregular ways.
  6. Sometimes in more than one way at a time.
  7. Drawing pictures, making charts, graphs, or taking measurements helps to see change.
  8. Observed changes in properties can be attributed to changes of other variables and used to exlplain cause and effect for the observed change.

Constancy

  1. Objects, properties, and events stay the same or happen in similar ways.
  2. Constancy enables people to understand the universe.
  3. Almost anything has limits on how big or small it can be.

Measurement

  1. Properties and change of properties can be quantified.
  2. All measurement is relative to a unit, usually a standard unit.
  3. Scale is proportional.
  4. Measurement helps in making more accurate observations.
  5. Quantitative estimates of familiar lengths, weights, and time intervals can be confirmed by measurement.
  6. Mass does not change when the shape or position of an object is changed.
  7. Conservation of mass.
  8. Volume of a substance does not change when its shape does.
  9. Conservation of volume.
  10. Measurement helps in making better observations.
  11. Rulers are used to measure linear measurement.
  12. Scales measure mass and weight.
  13. Measuring cups measure volume.
  14. Measurements can be compared.
  15. Measurement is used in everyday life (recipes, plans, designing, building).
  16. Rate is based on time Standard units include: Time is measure in units of seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, years, decades, centuries.
  17. Time is used to order events.
  18. Twenty-four hours in a day, about 30 days in a month, 365 days in a year, 52 weeks in a year, 12 months in a year.
  19. Calendar is used to measure time.
  20. Clocks are used to measure time.
  21. Clocks can be analog and digital.
  22. A day is divided into daytime and nighttime.
  23. Time is determined by Earth's movement.
  24. Time is cyclic (seasons, days of weeks, months).
  25. Volume standard units are ml, liter, cup, pint, quart, gallon.
  26. Mass standard units are g, kg, pounds, ounces, tons.
  27. Linear measurement standard units are cm, m, km, inch, foot, yard, mile.
  28. Temperature measures hot and cold.
  29. Degrees in Celsius and Fahrenheit are standard units of temperature.

Literate concepts (11+)

Change

  1. Properties of systems that depend on volume, such as weight and capacity, change proportionally according to area and surface tension.
  2. Physical and biological systems often change until they become stable and then they remain the same unless the environment changes.
  3. Finding out how big or small something can be is sometimes as revealing as knowing what the usual value is.
  4. Many systems contain feedback mechanisms that limit changes to specific ranges.
  5. Equations can be used to summarize how the quantity of something changes over time in response to other changes.
  6. Change can include trends and cycles.
  7. Energy can be transferred and matter can be changed, however the sum of the matter and energy in systems remains the same.
  8. Scale, allometric scale is a predictive in body relationships. Allometric scale equations take the general form
    B(biological variable) = a*[M(measure of body size)]se(scaling exponent),
    where equations are often presented in logarithmic form so that a diverse range of body sizes can be plotted on a single graph. Source also Scale: The Universal Laws of Life, Growth, and Death in Organisms, Cities, and Companies, by Geoffrey West 2017 Penguin Press

Constancy

  1. Objects, properties, and events may change but much about them remains constant.
  2. Constancy makes the universe understandable.
  3. A system may stay the same because nothing is happening or because things are happening to counterbalance each other.
  4. Symmetry or lack of it may determine properties of many objects (molecules, crystals, organisms, and designed structures).
  5. Things that change in cycles (seasons, body temperature) can be described by the cycle length, frequency, highest and lowest value, and when the occur.
  6. Cycles can range from thousands of years to billionths of a second.
  7. As a system get more complicated we can gain understanding by using summaries of average, range, and describing the typical properties of the system.

Measurement

  1. All measurement has error.
  2. Scale is a proportional relationship of characteristics, properties, or relationships within a system as its dimensions are increased or decreased.
  3. Rate involves a measure of change for a part relative to a whole (birth rate as part of population growth and comparing one measured quantity to another measured quantity (km per hour).
  4. Scale, allometric scale is a predictive in body relationships. Allometric scale equations take the general form
    B(biological variable) = a*[M(measure of body size)]se(scaling exponent),
    where equations are often presented in logarithmic form so that a diverse range of body sizes can be plotted on a single graph. Source

Educator notes

A meter is defined as the distance light travels in 1/299 792 458 of a second.

See measurement

 

Evidence, Models, & Explanation

Initial perceptual naive misconceptions (any age)
(Explanations for people's misconceptions: naive understandings & perceptual responses)

  1. Evidence is an explanation.
  2. Explanations are just known.
  3. Models are like art projects. They look like something for only aesthetic reason.
  4. Models are only used for big things.

Beginning concepts (preschool - 7 years)

Evidence

  1. Observation helps understand interactions and predict changes.
  2. Pictures and drawings can be used to represent features of objects being described (observations).
  3. An object's motion can be described by tracing and measuring its position over time (observations).

Models

  1. Models are structures that are similar to real objects in some ways.
  2. Models may be missing detail, have a different size, or may not be able to do everything the real thing can do.
  3. A model though different from the real thing can be used to learn something about the real thing.
  4. One way to describe something is to say how it is like another thing.

Explanations

  1. Explanations tell how something does what it does.
  2. One way to describe something is to say how it is like something else.
  3. People are more likely to believe your ideas if you give good reasons for them.
  4. One way to understand something is to think how it is like something else.
  5. Strong feelings can affect a person's reasoning.
  6. How do I know is a good question to ask to try and understand what is or has happened.

Intermediate concepts (7 years - 11 years)

Evidence

  1. Evidence is something that is observed and can be used to understand what is happening and make predictions about future changes.
  2. Observation and inference are different.
  3. Pictures and textual information can be used as evidence, but is secondary and one should be skeptical about it as evidence without first hand observations.

Models

  1. Models are structures that correspond to real objects, events, or classes of events.
  2. Seeing how a model changes may suggest how the real thing works if the same were done to it.
  3. Geometric figures, number sequences, graphs, diagrams, sketches, number lines, maps, and stories can be used to represent objects, events, and processes in the real world.
  4. Such representations can never be exact in every detail.
  5. Models help people understand how things work.

Explanations

  1. Explanations are based on observation derived from experience or experimentation and are understandable.
  2. Reasonable conclusions can be made when a rule that always holds is related to good information about a particular situation.
  3. If then logic. (If a plants are green and this is green, then it is a plant. If John is not a plant and he paints himself green he will not be a plant.)
  4. Reasoning by similarities can suggest ideas but can't prove them.
  5. Practical reasoning may require several steps.
  6. People can invent a rule to explain something by summarizing observations.
  7. People tend to over generalize (imagine general rules based on a few observations).
  8. Sometimes people use incorrect logic when they make a statement such as If A is true, then B is true. But A isn't true, therefore B isn't true.
  9. A single example can never prove something true.
  10. Sometimes a single example can prove something is not true.
  11. An analogy has some likeness and some differences.
  12. I can check my ideas in books and see if other people have the same ideas as I do.
  13. Some tests are not fair if all variables are not kept the same.
  14. I should always seek good reasons for what I think is happening.
  15. A good way to know something is to try it out. An inference is an explanation based on observation.

Literate concepts (11+)

Evidence

  1. Evidence is something that is observed and can be used to understand what is happening and make accurate predictions about future changes in natural and designed systems.
  2. Evidence is collected through observation.
  3. Evidence is used to reason with to organize and understand interactions in our world and communicate about them with others.
  4. The better the evidence we use, the better we will understand what is happening and the more accurate our predictions about future events will be.
  5. Scientists must collect a great deal of evidence in order to support their explanations.
  6. Solid evidence provides credibility.

Models

  1. Models are structures that correspond to real objects, events, or classes of events that have explanatory and predictive power (physical objects, plans, mental constructs, mathematical equations, computer simulations...) that may or may not be observed with real objects, systems, and events. 
  2. Model is an explanation based on observations, facts, laws, inferences, thought, and reasoning. 
  3. Models represent systems or things used as an example to follow or imitate to provide an explanation.
  4. Models can be used to think about events or processes that happen very slow, fast, or on a too small or large scale to change easily or safely. 
  5. Mathematical models can be displayed on computers and changed to see what happens. 
  6. Models are used to represent things in all dimensions of science physical, earth, and life science.
  7. Scientists use models.
    8. Model of models
  8. Models are created with similar processes, which can be an algorithm or procedure. Such as in the diagram.
  9. A model, though different from the real thing, can be used to learn something about the real thing.
  10. Seeing how a model changes may suggest how the real thing works if the same were done to it.
  11. Models make predictions.
  12. More than one model can represent the same thing or event. 
  13. The kind of model and its complexity depend on the purpose of using the model. 
  14. Models are never exact representations.
  15. A model that is too limited or complicated may not be useful. 
  16. A model represents entities and the relationships between them.
  17. There are two basic types of models, physical and conceptual. Conceptual communicate through words and drawings, or can be physical and demonstrable.
  18. A model permits an observer to walk around it see behind its parts and around its corners.
  19. Models help generate ideas, solve problems, make predictions, help think.
  20. Model helps me internalizing or abstracting understanding.
  21. Models can be used to represent new ideas and inventions.
  22. The application and the use of models in science and technology can and will benefit society.
  23. Black boxes are used to describe something that cannot be observed or understood easily.

Explanations

  1. Explanations use scientific knowledge and new evidence from observation or models to create a consistent logical hypothesis, model, law, principle, theory, or paradigm.
  2. Scientific laws predict what will happen under specific conditions.
  3. Theories are well-substantiated, big idea explanations for natural world events based on facts, laws, inferences, and tested hypotheses.
  4. I should be skeptical of any claim that is not based on verifiable observable data and reason not presented in a logical manner.
  5. I should be skeptical on conclusions that have been based on small samples of data, biased collect or reasoning, or experiments where there was no control.
  6. There may always be more than one good way to interpret a given set of data. Analogy can be misleading and wrong.

Educator notes

Theory is a well-substantiated, big idea explanations for natural world events based on observations, facts, laws, inferences, and tested hypotheses. Often resulting from investigation, inquiry, and experiment (ethnographic & experimental).

 

Evolution & Equilibrium see also Change & evolution in Life science

Initial perceptual naive misconceptions (any age)
(Explanations for people's misconceptions: naive understandings & perceptual responses)

  1. Evolution takes millions of years. It is slow, never fast.
  2. Equilibrium means two things are exactly the same.

Beginning concepts (preschool - 7 years)

Change and evolution

  1. Change can be fast or slow. An organism's form is related to its environment.
  2. Modern organisms may resemble extinct organisms.
  3. Objects and organisms can be changed to function for better or worse.

Equilibrium

  1. Changes can balance.

Intermediate concepts (7 years - 11 years)

Change and evolution

  1. Changes may not be noticed on a scale of a human's life time.
  2. However, these changes become large as the number of lifetimes become large.

Equilibrium

  1. Objects and events move toward equilibrium (sugar in water disperses throughout the liquid, pendulum swings until it stops at the lowest point, water flows.

Literate concepts (11+)

Change and evolution

  1. Present conditions such as the salt in the oceans, continental drift, erosion of land forms, changes in organisms... can be explained as gradual and sporadic.
  2. Evolution is the idea of the present arising from materials and forms of the past.
  3. Sometimes a series of changes occurs so slowly or so rapidly that it is difficult to document the evolution.
  4. In evolving systems, change can be gradual, steady, repetitive, irregular, or in more than one way at the same time.
  5. See also evolution in Life science

Equilibrium

 

Educator notes

 

 

Form and Function

Initial perceptual naive misconceptions (any age)
(Explanations for people's misconceptions: naive understandings & perceptual responses)

  1. Form is shape
  2. Function and form are two different unrelated things.

Beginning concepts (preschool - 7 years)

Form

  1. Objects have a shape.

Function

  1. Most objects can be used for something.
  2. The shape of an object is frequently related to use.

Intermediate concepts (7 years - 11 years)

Form

  1. Form is related to function.

Function

  1. Function is related to form.

Literate concepts (11+)

Form

  1. The form of an object or system is complementary to its function.
  2. The form of an object or system is related to the environment in which it operates.
  3. The form of an object frequently limits its function.

Function

  1. The function of an object is frequently related to its form.
  2. The function of an object or system is complementary to its design.
  3. The function of an object or system is related to the environment in which it operates.

Educator notes

 

 

Hypothesis & Theory

Initial perceptual naive misconceptions (any age)
(Explanations for people's misconceptions: naive understandings & perceptual responses)

  1. Hypothesis is always false or unproven.
  2. Hypothesis is an if then statement.
  3. Theory can never be proved, hence, always false.

Beginning concepts (preschool - 7 years)

  1. Interactions may cause change.
  2. Hypothesis is an explanation of an observation or group of observations.

Intermediate concepts (7 years - 11 years)

  1. Interactions may cause changes which are affected by different variables.
  2. Hypothesis can be stated in the following form using the word "may". (Light may affect plant growth. If an object is dropped higher it may fall faster. )
  3. Hypothesis can be disproved with evidence - repeated observation.
  4. Hypothesis is a specific expectation about what will happen. It is not a theory or guess.

Literate concepts (11+)

  1. An experiment can be created to identify variables and their effects on interactions by using if then thinking.
  2. A hypothesis is an if then statement (but not all if then statements are hypotheses), is it tentative, relates one idea to another, and is testable.
  3. A formalized hypothesis can be stated in the form. (If plant growth is related to the amount of light shining on it, then more light will increase the plant's growth.)
  4. Hypothesis can be operationalized as if variable x is changed in a certain way, variable y will respond in a certain way.
  5. Directly proportional - As the amount of time an object is heated increases, the temperature will increase proportionally.
  6. Indirectly proportional - The longer a rock is removed from boiling water, the lower the temperature. As time increases temperature decreases.
  7. A statement that is assumed accurate for the sake of argument.

Theory

  1. A theory is a designed explanation that uses observations to connect variables, described as cause and effect, to support inferences.
  2. A theory can be thought of as a hypothesis that has accumulated enough repeated observations to be accepted as accurate. Just as hyothesis can be disproved with evidence so can theories.
  3. A scientific theory can be thought of as a summary of a hypothesis or group of hypotheses repeatedly supported with observations.
  4. Generally evidence accumulates to support a hypothesis, then the hypothesis can become accepted as a good explanation of a phenomenon - theory.

Educator notes

  • Theory is not a hunch.
    • Washing hands reduces the spread of bacteria is a theory. It is based on evidence.
    • Siri is not a hunch. Siri is like an answer to a question.
    • Theory is like an answer to a question. They can change depending upon the evidence.
  • Laws are long established evidence that is not changing.

 

Inference

Initial perceptual naive misconceptions (any age)
(Explanations for people's misconceptions: naive understandings & perceptual responses)

  1. An inference is an observation.
  2. Inference is a guess.

Beginning concepts (preschool - 7 years)

  1. Different interactions can cause similar events.
  2. Similar observations can be caused by different events.

Intermediate concepts (7 years - 11 years)

  1. Some observations can be caused by different events.
  2. Explanations are derived from observations.

Literate concepts (11+)

  1. Inference is a conclusion based on observational evidence and reasoning.
  2. Conclusion is a judgement or decision reached by reasoning.
  3. Observation and inference are different.

Educator notes

  • Inference is a best explanation.
  • Need uniformity of nature for inference and prediction to be of value. (Sun rises, objects fall toward the center of the Earth. ...) However, nature can be uniform without using it as a reason or cause. When that is done, arguments become circular.

 

 

Observation

Initial perceptual naive misconceptions (any age)
(Explanations for people's misconceptions: naive understandings & perceptual responses)

  1. Observations are only things that can be seen.
  2. Every body sees things the same as I do.

Beginning concepts (preschool - 7 years)

  1. Senses are actively used to seek accurate observations of different properties and choose appropriate sense words to label, describe, and communicate information about objects to better understand the world.
  2. Observations are made with five basic senses: see, touch, hear, smell, and taste.
  3. Senses are used to collect observational data and reason to explain identify objects and their properties.
  4. There are 5 senses and we associate a body part with each sense.
    1. Sight (bright, dull, small, large, round, square, etc.),
    2. Smell (good, bad, questionable),
    3. Hearing (loud, soft, high pitch, low pitch),
    4. Taste (bitter, sour, sweet, salty), and
    5. Touch (rough, smooth, bumpy, soft, furry, etc)).
  5. Information we get from with our senses are caused by the properties of the objects we are sensing (observing).
  6. Evidence is something that is observed with our senses and can be used to understand what is happening and make predictions about future changes.
  7. People learn with careful observation.
  8. Objects can be observed as whole objects and by their properties.
  9. Questions can be answered by looking at objects.
  10. People learn by observing interactions with objects.
  11. Observations can be compared through communication about the objects and the object's properties.
  12. When people report different observations they can take more observations to try and find agreement.
  13. Tools can be used to make better and more accurate observations (magnifiers...).
  14. Observations help collect information that can be used to answer questions.
  15. Communication helps us explain observations as evidence and reasoning to each other.

Intermediate concepts (7 years - 11 years)

  1. Taste, one of five basic senses, has five basic tastes: sour, sweet, bitter, salty, and umami (savory taste caused by L-glutamate). Taste buds have many receptors and ion channels that detect chemicals in foods that cause taste.
  2. Taste warns against eating foods that might be spoiled. Spoiled meat, sour milk ...
  3. Touch incudes the ability to accurately and consistently sense temperature differences, pain, texture of objects, shape of objects, manipulate objects, and sense forces we exchange with objects.
  4. Questions can be answered by organizing objects and or events to conduct a fair test and observing the results.
  5. Recording observations helps remember information.
  6. Observations are used to help make explanations.
  7. When people disagree on observational descriptions, they usually make more observations to clarrify.
  8. When people disagree on explanations for an observation, they usually make more observations to refine their explanations.
  9. Observation, creativity, and logical argument are used to explain how things work.

Literate concepts (11+)

  1. Questions can be created so observations of objects and or events can be made by conducting a controlled experiment to use the observations as evidence for answering the question.
  2. The data can be transformed and analized by ordering, classifying, creating a model, and or logical explanation to lead to a conclusion related to the initial question.
  3. Observations are made to see how properties change.
  4. Properties that change are variables.
  5. Observations are used to describe change in variables.
  6. If more than one variable changes at a time, the outcome may not be attributed to one of the variables.
  7. It may not be possible to identify or control all variables.
  8. What people expect to observe often affects what they actually do observe.
  9. Strong beliefs about what they expect to happen can prevent them from seeing other results.
  10. Scientists try to avoid observational errors by having different people conduct independent studies.
  11. Unexpected observations can lead to new discoveries and to new investigations.
  12. There are many kinds of signals in the world that are not observable with human senses.
  13. What is unobservable is logically the same as that which has been unobserved. Therefore, to understand either requires reasoning, which is based on culture and a person’s belief. What we do not observe (unobserved) is arbitrary. What is unobservable is not.
    • Unobservable can be too distant (edge of universe or outside it), too small (photon), or not material.
    • What makes a juice container a juice container? Culture, procedure ...
    • When does observation of the unobservable become observable? Better technology microscopes, telescopes, ...

Educator notes

What do people do to know something? Look at it.

What do people do when they can't believe their eyes? Look closer, Look again. Do a double take. Look from a different angle. Ask another person what they see.

 

Scoring guide for early learner - Senses, observation, & science

 

Operational Definition

Initial perceptual naive misconceptions (any age)
(Explanations for people's misconceptions: naive understandings & perceptual responses)

  1. Ideas and knowing about things just pop into a person's mind. There is not a systematic way to understand, explain, and describe how things work.
  2. See educator's notes.

Beginning concepts (preschool - 7 years)

  1. Living objects grow and reproduce.
  2. Operational definition - if it looks like a circle, then it is a circle.
  3. A sequence of events might be an operational definition.
  4. We can explain how something works by the way it operates.
  5. If we know a procedure to make something happen, we can repeat the procedure to make it operation in a similar manner.

Intermediate concepts (7 years - 11 years)

  1. Operational definition is a list of properties used to describe or identify objects and events.
    • If it is living, bares live young, has hair on its body, nurses its young with milk, and is warm blooded, then it is a mammal.
    • If it floats in water, it is less dense than water.
  2. Operational definitions must repeatedly supply similar results to gain acceptance.
  3. Height, weight, and volume can be defined operationally by the process used to measure them.
  4. The way a system works can be used to describe and explain what it is.
  5. Operational definitions describe how variables change and the outcome they have on a system.

Literate concepts (11+)

  1. A description that identifies observable properties, steps in a sequence, an interaction, change, process, or other phenomena for explanatory purposes.
  2. Operational definition - we can find an objects density by taking its mass and dividing by its volume.
  3. Operational definitions tend to be less specific than a theory.
  4. When bubbles form and steam comes off the top of the heated water, then we can say it is boiling and its temperature is 100 degrees Celsius or 212 Fahrenheit.
  5. There is a difference in knowing how something operates and knowing why it operates the way it does.
  6. Operational definitions are concrete, observable, repeatable, and measureable.
  7. We can operationalize theoretical ideas like in education by selecting concrete measurable variables like - years of school, scores on ACT, and comparing them to other variables, like yearly salary.

Examples of operational definitions

  • Bird is an animal that walks on two legs and flies.
  • Rain is drops of water falling from a cloud in the sky.
  • Earthworm is an animal that lives underground, is soft and damp to the touch, pinkish in color, and pipe-like in shape.
  • Organism is any object that grows and reproduces (has babies).
  • Living - An object is living if it can grow, get bigger over time, and reproduce (has the ability to create more of its kind).
  • Weight - The amount of force (pull) the Earth has on objects can be determined with a spring by measuring the length the spring stretches when an object is attached.
  • Pressure
    • Pressure can be determined by a pressure gauge and is often measured in pounds per square inch.
    • Pressure is how hard one object pushes on another object.
  • Air
    • Air is the mixture of gases that surround the Earth.
    • Air is a transparent, odorless, and tasteless gas, it takes up space, can be compressed, has weight, and can be felt when put in motion or is in motion.

Educator notes for operational definition

Very young children will use properties or physical characteristics to decribe, define, and operationalize objects and phenomena. However, their descriptions may or may not be relevant or accurate as they are using associations, but the process for choosing them isn't systemic or comprehensively detailed, it is transductive or preoperational.

To develop more accurate, operational definitions, numerous observations of objects and phenomena in a variety of many different experiences where students can explore cause and effect investigations are necessary. Along with many of these kinds of experiences as children mature they will develop their reasoning and logical abilities if they are asked meaningful questions and engage in discussions that challenge their current levels of understanding to achieve deeper thinking.

We can see how this happens if we consider the different ways the term living is understood by children as they grow.

  • Living objects move.
  • Living objects have legs and move.
  • Living objects get big.
  • An object is living if it grows bigger over time and reproduces, has the ability to create more of its kind.
  • Living objects are plants or animals.
  • Living objects are consumers or producers that need energy.
  • Living objects use water, food, and other substances to grow, heal, make energy to continue its existance and often make other similar organism.
  • Consider living beyond singular organism to include living and growth as cellular and other systems or structures that use water, food, and other substances to grow, heal, make energy to continue its existance within a larger organism.

This kind of growth is how people move from misunderstanding, to common knowledge and finally to epistemological knowledge. Another jewel.

Operational definitions can be used to create learning outcomes.

Additionally they can be used to identify and describe different learning outcome level. If we consider how conceptualization changes as students develop, this provides information to describe outcome levels.

Maybe you have been scratching the surface looking for this jewel. Fantastic... Keep scratching it’s there. Some where between the initial idea of, living as growth, and a concept of living, that is deeper for which we would hope students would attain, there are different levels of understanding. And operational definitions can be used to describe them and then they can be used as outcome levels or levels on a scoring guide or rubric to use to assess progress for understanding concepts of living. Wow!

 

 

Predictions

Initial perceptual naive misconceptions (any age)
(Explanations for people's misconceptions: naive understandings & perceptual responses)

  1. Predictions are guesses.
  2. People are either good or intuitive at making better predictions.
  3. WHile predictions do not have to be correct, young children feel that if their predicton isn't correct, they somehow made a mistake or are wrong.

Beginning concepts (preschool - 7 years)

  1. Predictions are guesses based on what people know.
  2. If people didn't have previous experiences, then their prediction is a wild ass guess (WAG).

Intermediate concepts (7 years - 11 years)

  1. The more experience or data a person has the better prediction they are likely to make.

Literate concepts (11+)

  1. All predictions are not hypothesis.

Educator notes

Historical predictions inn 1997 Newsweek magazine.

 

 

Properties

Initial perceptual naive misconceptions (any age)
(Explanations for people's misconceptions: naive understandings & perceptual responses)

  1. Properties are names of objects.
  2. Names of objects are properties.
  3. All properties are observable.

Beginning concepts (preschool - 7 years)

  1. Objects are identified and described by their properties.
  2. Objects have more than one property.
  3. Objects can be ordered by their properties.
  4. Objects have many properties.
  5. Objects can be described and compared by properties.
  6. Properties are used to classify objects.
  7. Things in nature and things people make have different properties (sizes, weights, speed, and ages).

Intermediate concepts (7 years - 11 years)

  1. Some things may have properties that change and properties that don't change.
  2. Properties of objects can be measured using tools such as rulers, balances, and thermometers.
  3. Properties of matter, position of objects, motion, form, function of systems all change.
  4. Properties and change of properties can be quantified. Objects, properties, and events stay the same or happen in similar ways.

Literate concepts (11+)

  1. Properties are used to define all objects.
  2. Definitions change as the properties change.
  3. Properties can be made into variables by determining a range through which they can vary. See variable

Educator notes

 

 

Relative position & motion (cross-cutting)

Initial perceptual naive misconceptions (any age)
(Explanations for people's misconceptions: naive understandings & perceptual responses)

  1. Objects are relative to me.
  2. There is a set up and down.
  3. It doesn't matter if a person changes position, because people understand what I mean.
  4. Location can be described with only one direction.
  5. Up and down are constant as above me or below me. (not relative)

Beginning concepts (preschool - 7 years)

Relative position

  1. An object's position can change.

Relative motion

  1. Objects move in different ways (straight, crocked, circular, and back and forth).
  2. Objects move fast and slow.

Intermediate concepts (7 years - 11 years)

Relative position

  1. An object is located relative to a reference object.

Relative motion

  1. An object's motion can be described by tracing and measuring its position over time.
  2. Motion is relative to a reference point.
  3. Motion can be too fast or slow for people to see.
  4. Objects move steadily or change direction.
  5. Objects that vibrate is motion that is relative to itself. See sound.

Literate concepts (11+)

Relative position

  1. Objects can be located with different combinations of distances and directions from a singular point or multiple points. (one point as a reference object can be used to locate another point or object with a distance and direction.) (An object or point can be located from two know points with a distance and direction from one point and either a distance or a direction from the second point.)

Relative motion

  1. Motion of an object can be described by its position, direction of motion, and speed.
  2. Motion can be measured and represented on a graph.
  3. Motion and force are often related. See force.

Educator notes

 

 

Variables

Initial perceptual naive misconceptions (any age)
(Explanations for people's misconceptions: naive understandings & perceptual responses)

  1. Objects change because they want to or people wish they would.

Beginning concepts (preschool - 7 years)

  1. Variable is a property that changes.
  2. Results can be changed by changing what and how objects interact.

Intermediate concepts (7 years - 11 years)

  1. Properties can be made into variables by determining a range through which they can vary.
  2. Variables are conditions that change.
  3. Variables need to be controlled for an experiment to be a fair comparison.
  4. A controlled experiment is one with all the conditions (variables) the same except the one that is being tested.

Literate concepts (11+)

  1. Identifying, selecting, controlling, and manipulating variables is central to experimentation.

Educator notes

Good focus question. If x has only one solution, is it a variable?

Are variables nouns or what?

 

Top

 

Notebook banner

Physical Science knowledge base of concepts & misconceptions b

Physical science

 

Matter

Misconceptions - Initial perceptual naive (any age)

(Explanations for people's misconceptions: naive understandings & perceptual responses)

Properties of Matter

  1. Color, texture, and other properties are not relative to the matter. They are different things. Color is like paint, not a property of the matter itself.
  2. Matter is always small
  3. Particles are side by side or there are air particles.
  4. There is air between air molecules.
  5. Energy, heat and/or sound are forms of matter.
  6. Matter is not conserved, it disappears or appears during processes such as dissolving, burning, evaporation, boiling, rotting, respiration, rusting, condensation, and growth of plants.
  7. Weight is another name for gravitational force.
  8. Weight is the force exerted by an object against a support and is equal to the force exerted by the support on the object.
  9. Weightlessness is never absolute, there is always some, maybe very small weight.
  10. Gravitational force and weight being the same, decrease with increasing distance from the Earth?
  11. Weightlessness is a result of being in space.
  12. Weightlessness only happens in a space vehicle.
  13. Weightlessness happens with the absence of air.
  14. Weightlessness happens when an object leaves Earth.
  15. Emptiness or nothingness creates weightlessness.
  16. Free fall near Earth does not have weightlessness.
  17. There is an additional force involved with free fall.
  18. Adhesion is the same as cohesion.
  19. Pressure and force are the same thing.
  20. Heating air makes it hotter and stays the same size (doesn’t expand).
  21. Motion makes pressure higher.
  22. Liquids rise in a straw because of suction.
  23. Fluid pressure only acts downward.
  24. Expansion of matter is due to expansion the solid particles rather than spacing of particles.
  25. Difference in solids, liquids, and gases isn’y related to spacing of particles.
  26. Particles of matter are mini version as the material of which they are composed and contain the same properties - Glass molecules are clear, smooth, …
  27. Atoms and molecules are the same.
  28. Change in matter doesn’t always conserve the matter.
  29. Volume of water is displaced according to the mass. Heavy brick will displace more than if a a basketball is submerged.

States of Matter: solid, liquid, and gas

See heat

  1. Different states are different kinds of matter. Ice, water, water gas are all different substances.
  2. Materials can only have properties of one state of matter
  3. Food is a solid, toys are, window, something that is hard, it doesn't break, wood, you can feel it, you can look at it.
  4. Particles of solids have no motion

Solid

  1. Solids are never hollow, have no holes,
  2. Solids are heavy, hard, hard to carry,
  3. A solid can not be compressed or stretched.

Liquid

  1. Liquid is something you can drink, sugar is liquid you can drink, fruit is liquid because it is juicy,
  2. Ice is a liquid, an igloo is liquid
  3. A liquid is flat, runny
  4. You can feel it, you can push it
  5. A liquid is gas (gasoline)
  6. Liquids are not matter because we drink them
  7. Liquids are things you drink
  8. Liquids spill and run all over
  9. Liquids can be compressed (liquids in a plastic bottle).
  10. Liquids have water in them
  11. The thicker the liquid the heavier, more dense it is
  12. Only water can melt, boil, freeze

Gas

  1. Gases are not matter because they are invisible
  2. Gases have no mass. Gas makes things lighter. Gas doesn’t have weight.
  3. Gases float
  4. Smoke is a gas
  5. When things burn they all turn into a gas or all turns into smoke.
  6. Most gases are poisonous
  7. Air and oxygen are the same thing
  8. Helium and hot are the same thing
  9. Gases are invisible
  10. Gas is a fart.
  11. Gas is gasoline, natural gas, propane
  12. Gas is black
  13. Gas is flat
  14. Gas is a structure - tent, building
  15. Air is not a gas.
  16. Air particles float.
  17. Air particles are not moving when there is no wind.
  18. Air has no mass, it is light because we can not see it, air does not take up space.
  19. Air had no mass or negative weight.
  20. Air is not affected by gravity.
  21. Helium has negative weight.
  22. Air is about the size of dust particles in air.

Density

  1. Heavy objects always sink and light objects always float.
  2. Weight determines if an object will sink or float.
  3. A larger heavier object will not float as well as a smaller lighter object of the same material.
  4. The amount of water will cause objects to float or sink better.
  5. There must be more water for larger objects to float. Weight of the water must be more than the weight of the object.
  6. Objects with holes will always sink.
  7. Objects with air float.
  8. Density depends only on volume.
  9. Volume is greater when an object is in water.
  10. Density for a given volume is always the same.
  11. Density of the same substances with different volumes or shapes are not the same.
  12. Objects float on top of the liquid.
  13. Fish don’t float unless they are dead.
  14. Objects sink because there is more water than oil. If there were more oil, the oil would be on the bottom.
  15. Water is on the bottom, because it was poured in first.
  16. Density is the thickness of something
  17. Oil is always on top because it repels water, corn syrup has some oil in it and it would be between oil and water, anything mixed with oil separates
  18. The more air pockets in something the more it will float. Wax, ice, has lots of air pockets in it and floats.
  19. Liquids are liquids and will all mix together.
  20. Mass, volume, weight, heaviness, size, and density are all the same.
  21. All wood floats.
  22. All metal sinks.
  23. Thick liquids have a high density.

Matter and interactions of matter

 

Mixtures and solutions

  1. Sugar, salt, kool-aid… in water it disappears. It gets smaller and smaller until it is gone (molecules or atoms shrink or disappear). The dissolved substance doesn't take up any space.
  2. Taste or color don't have substance (not associated with particles or atoms).
  3. It melts, turns into a liquid.
  4. Powders put in water will sink or float.
  5. It goes from water to another kind of liquid
  6. If you add more and more half will turn to water and half will not
  7. When you put jello, kool-aid into water it evaporates in a puff
  8. When you put jello, kool-aid, rocks, into water it turns a darker color
  9. The powder changes chemically and you can never change it back
  10. If you keep adding more a chemical reaction will happen
  11. The water is absorbing the powder

Surface tension

  1. Drop of liquid on a penny: - The number of drops that fit will depend on how flat the penny is (the size of the penny).
  2. One drop will cover the entire penny.
  3. Depends on the size of the ridge on the penny.
  4. Depends on how far you drop the drops onto the penny.
  5. Clear liquids will be the same opaque liquids will hold more because they are thicker.
  6. Thick liquids will fit more than thin liquids because they are thicker and will stay on and build up. (stickier?).
  7. The water drops form together and build up.
  8. The temperature will make a difference. Hotter water will be less than cold because the particles move faster.
  9. Pennies dropped into a jar full of water: shape of the glass distorts your view so you can put more in than you think. The lip of the glass lets the water go above the rim. The pennies are smaller than you think.

Air and air pressure

  1. Air = wind and is made my trees, blowing, fans, …made when it is captured, balloons, bags
  2. Air in only found in sky
  3. Bubbles in boiling water is made of air.
  4. Air does not have any weight.
  5. There are two types of air pressure: high and low
  6. When air is heated it expands and causes high pressure
  7. When air is cooled it contracts and causes low pressure
  8. Egg in a bottle: Heat brought oils, water out of egg and it slid into the bottle.
    Heat melted some of the egg so it got smaller and fell into the bottle
    The fire sucked the egg into the bottle.
    You can just blow the balloon up or push it in with a pencil
    Put balloon over bottle fill with water and the water will push it in. Then let the water evaporate and it will stay in.

Aerodynamics

  1. Paper planes students didn't have concept of gravity as pulling plane down. Also The higher up an object is in the air the more air is pushing down on it.
    Hard throwing causes the plane to go less or spiral to the ground and crash.
    Nose has to be pointed. Makes it go farther and guides it better.
    The larger the surface area of the wings the more the air could lift the plane.

Nuclear

  1. Nuclear energy is a different kind of energy. Has something to do with mass.
  2. All radioactivity is made by humans.
  3. Boiling or burning radioactive matter will reduce radiation.

Educator notes

Concepts - Beginning (preschool - 7 years)

Properties of Matter

  1. Objects have many observable properties, including color, texture, size, weight, shape, temperature, and the ability to interact with other objects.
  2. Objects are described and identified by their properties.
  3. Objects can be separated or sorted into groups of objects or materials by their properties.
  4. Properties can be observed better with scientific tools, such as hand lenses to see small objects, using similar objects as measuring devices, and body parts to sense temperature.
  5. Heating or cooling can change some common materials, such as water.

States of Matter

  1. Matter takes up space.
  2. Materials exist in different states- solid, liquid, and gas.
  3. Different states have different properties.
  4. Solids maintain there shape. However, they can be in all sizes and shapes.
  5. They maintain their shapes as they are moved (rotated, poured...)
  6. Solids can support denser materials on their surfaces.
  7. Solids can be separated by screens.
  8. Some solids change when mixed with water (dissolve) others form a layer below or above the surface.

Liquids

  1. Liquids pour and flow.
  2. When liquids are put in a container they will take the shape of their container from the bottom up with the surface parallel to the surface of the Earth.
  3. Liquids can have properties of transparent, translucent, opaque, viscous, free flowing, foamy.

Gas

  1. Gases will spread throughout its container or dissipate and flow from an opening in the container.
  2. Gases are matter. (Take up space and have mass)

Density of Matter

  1. Some materials float and others sink.

Matter and Interactions of Matter

  1. Objects can be identified by the materials from which they are made.
  2. Objects may be made of one or more materials (paper, cloth, wood, clay, and metal).
  3. Interactions can change some materials properties.
  4. Not all materials change in the same way when interacting with other objects.

Educator notes

Concepts - Intermediate (7 years - 11 years)

Properties of Matter

  1. Objects have many observable properties, including color, texture, size, shape, mass, volume, temperature, and the ability to interact with other objects.
  2. Properties can be measured with scientific tools and compared to a standard unit (linear, time, temperature, mass, and volume)

States of Matter

  1. Heating and cooling changes the properties of some materials.
  2. Water expands when it freezes and contracts when it melts. As a result ice floats. Cold water sinks to the bottom of warmer water.
  3. Many changes of matter occur faster when heated.

Density of Matter

  1. Objects float or sink in relation to their mass, shape, and size.
  2. Density isn't the same as mass.
  3. Density isn't the same as volume.
  4. Density isn't the same as size.
  5. Equal volumes of different substances usually have different masses.

Matter and Interactions of Matter

  1. A substance has properties, such as density, a boiling point, and solubility, that are independent of the amount of the sample.
  2. A mixture of substances often can be separated into the original substances using one or more of the characteristic properties.
  3. The mass of a system is equal to the sum of its subsystems.
  4. Materials are composed of particles that are too small to see without magnification.
  5. Many changes of matter occur faster when heated.

Mixtures and solutions

  1. Mixture, Solution, dissolving, solvent, solute

Surface tension

  1. Surface tension is caused by a strong attraction of the particules. It is formed when the particles pull together.

Air and air pressure

  1. Egg in a bottle: Fire in bottle, then put Egg on top of bottle activity heat expanded air egg sealed bottle air cooled contracted air pressure outside pushed egg into bottle
    Blow up a balloon in bottle

Aerodynamics

  1. Planes float on air because of their wings.

Educator notes

Concepts Literate (11+)

Properties of Matter

  1. Objects have many observable properties, including color, texture, size, shape, mass, volume, density, temperature, chemical, energy, and the ability to interact with other objects.
  2. Properties can be measured with scientific tools and compared to a standard unit (linear, time, temperature, mass, volume, and density)

States of Matter

  1. Exchange of thermal energy causes the change of the state of matter.
  2. Solids are closely locked in position and can only vibrate.
  3. Liquids are more loosely connected and slide past each other and some gain energy and escape as a gas.
  4. Gases have more energy of motion and are free of one another except for collisions.
  5. Matter is in continual motion and as it gains heat energy it usually expands and as it looses energy it usually contracts.
  6. When matter changes state there is a significant exchange of latent heat and volume change.

Density of Matter

  1. Objects float or sink relative to their density and capacity.
  2. Density is equal to mass divided by volume. The ratio of mass to volume.
  3. Water has a density of 1 g/ml or 1 g/cc.
  4. Any density greater than 1 will sink in pure water.
  5. Any density less than 1 will float in pure water.
  6. Objects will sink or float depending on the relationship of the gravitational pull on the object and the upward force of the liquid it displaces.
  7. Density of an object in relationship to the density of the liquid that it is placed in will determine how it will sink or float.
  8. Buoyancy is the upward force of a liquid on an object placed in it.
  9. Gravity is the attraction of two objects.
  10. Force is a push or pull.
  11. Density is mass per volume
  12. Mass is the amount of matter in an object.
  13. Volume is the amount of space an object occupies.

Matter and Interactions of Matter

  1. Substances react chemically with other substances to form new substances (compounds) with different properties.
  2. In chemical reactions, the total mass is conserved.
  3. Substances often are placed in categories or groups if they react in similar ways; metals are an example of such a group.
  4. All matter is made from atoms that are alike and different and combine to compose all substances.
  5. Chemical elements do not break down during normal laboratory reactions involving such treatments as heating, exposure to electric current, or reaction with acids.
  6. There are more than 100 know elements that combine in a multitude of ways to produce compounds, which account for the living and nonliving substances.

Matter and Nuclear Reactions

  1. In most nuclear reactions, energy is transferred into or out of a system.
  2. Heat, light, mechanical motion, or electricity might all be involved in such transfers.

Educator notes

 

Chemical

Initial perceptual naive misconceptions (any age)

Misconceptions (Explanations, Naive understanding, Misconceptions, or Perceptual responses)

  1. Chemical change changes the atoms themselves.
  2. Sub atomic particles have the same properties as the elements or molecules.
  3. Molecules have the same properties as the atoms from which they are composed.
  4. Chemical change doesn’t always conserve the matter.
  5. Chemical change doesn’t change the matter. It still exists.
  6. Change creates new substances not rearrangement of particles.
  7. Chemical change is like adding something rather than interactive.
  8. Misrepresent differences between elements, compounds, mixtures, solutions, and substances.
  9. Compounds are thought of as mixtures or solutions.
  10. Numbers of particles come and go with out regard to accountability or proportionality of numbers.
  11. Atoms are only in nonliving objects.
  12. Cells are made of something beside atoms.
  13. When we die the particles in our atoms stop moving.
  14. Rust comes from inside the iron object.

Acids and bases

  1. All acids are dangerous
  2. All acids dissolve or burn other objects.
  3. Acids are found in labs or have to be made.

Educator notes

Concepts - Beginning (preschool - 7 years)

Chemical

  1. All things are made from different things.

Educator notes

Concepts - Intermediate (7 years - 11 years)

Chemical

  1. All things are made from chemicals.
  2. Chemical change changes the substances to different substances.

Educator notes

Concepts - Literate (11+)

Chemical

  1. Chemical change rearranges the atoms/molecules. Physical change doesn't. Careful saying physical changes are easily reversed. Smashing glass is not easily reversed.baking powder & soda image
  2. Sample chemical changes: baking soda and acid = carbon dioxide, baking powder + moisture = carbon dioxide, baking powder + cream of tarter = baking powder (physical change till add moister to the baking powder.
  3. In most chemical reactions, energy is transferred into or out of a system. Heat, light, mechanical motion, or electricity might all be involved in such transfers.
  4. Matter that has been created naturally on Earth includes 90 different kinds of elements. The smallest piece of any element that is still considered that element is called and atom. or Matter is composed of discrete particles (atoms).
  5. All of the millions of substances on Earth are composed of different combinations of these 90 basic particles ( atoms) that are created naturally on Earth.
  6. Over 100 different kinds of atoms exist; each kind has distinctive properties, that include mass and how it will combine with other atoms or molecules.
  7. Each atom takes up space, has mass, and is in constant motion. There is nothing but empty space (vacuum) between particles.
  8. All particles in substances are in constant motion.
  9. Particles in motion have kinetic energy.
  10. Heat is related to the kinetic energy of the particles with greater kinetic energy meaning greater heat energy.
  11. Energy transfers from one particle to another when they collide and is called conduction.
  12. When particles gain energy they move faster. The faster the particles travel the harder they collide. The harder the collision the farther the particles push each other apart. This is called expansion.
  13. Energy transfer causes phase change. Liquids gain energy until they melt and change to a liquid and later evaporate or boil and change to a gas. Gases lose energy until they condense to a liquid or freeze to a solid.
  14. A solution occurs when one substance breaks down into individual particles (dissolves) and becomes distributed uniformly among the particles of another substance.
  15. During a chemical reaction, starting substances transform into new substances when the atoms in particles of the starting substances rearrange to form new particles.
  16. Atoms can be joined (in different proportions) to form molecules that have different properties than the atoms from which they are made. The networks between the atoms and/ or molecules are known as chemical bonds between atoms.
  17. Organic means related to living or from derived from living matter. Organic compounds always have carbon (most inorganic compounds do not have carbon) and hydrogen or C-H bonds. Having carbon is not sufficient for a compound to be organic. Look for carbon and hydrogen. Examples: Sugar or sucrose (C12H22O11), benzene (C6H6), methane (CH4), ethanol or grain alcohol (C2H6O).

Educator notes

 

Force

  • Force, motion, interactions, stability, and instability; gravity, weight, weightlessness

Initial perceptual naive misconceptions (any age)

Misconceptions (Explanations, Naive understanding, Misconceptions, or Perceptual responses)

  1. Force continues to push after acting on the object. Like when it is gliding.
  2. An object a person is sitting or standing on doesn’t push back with equal force. The person is just resting on it. The reaction force doesn’t exist.
  3. A force is put on a projectile when it is launched and the force gradually decreases causing the object to slow and eventually stop when the force is used up. A thrown rock, hit ball, bullet.
  4. Friction is not a force.
  5. Friction slows objects or doesn’t allow them to move. Friction can use up the force.
  6. Friction is only present when something is rubbing against a moving object.
  7. If something is moving there must be a greater force on it.
  8. If you jump the force is greater than gravity. If an airplane is rising, then lift must be greater than gravity.
  9. The faster an object is moving the greater the force on it.
  10. Objects move in the direction of the strongest force.
  11. When a car brakes, the passengers experience a sudden forward force.
  12. Objects in motion can curve and make centrifugal force.
  13. It is possible to start and stop without accelerating or decelerating.
  14. An object at rest has no energy.
  15. Force is a property of an object.
  16. Large objects exert more force than smaller ones.
  17. Forces need to keep objects moving.

Motion

  1. Velocity is the same as speed.
  2. Acceleration means the object is speeding up.
  3. Acceleration is always in a straight line.
  4. Acceleration is always in the direction of motion.
  5. A speed of zero has no acceleration.
  6. No force means no motion.

Gravity

  1. Weightlessness means no gravity.
  2. Heavier objects fall faster than lighter ones.
  3. Gravity is a very strong force.
  4. There is no gravity in space, on the moon, in a vacuum,
  5. Gravity is caused by Earth’s spin, air pressure, push from above.
  6. Gravity is weaker under water.
  7. Gravity is stronger the higher you are in a building or mountain that’s why it is easier to fall.
  8. Gravity will be stronger the longer and object falls.
  9. Gravity acts differently on different kinds of object.
  10. Shape affects gravity
  11. Gravity is weaker the higher you go. That’s why things fall faster the farther they fall.
  12. Astronauts are weightless because they are beyond Earth’s gravity.
  13. Gravity is the attraction of the larger body. The Earth and me are not attracted by other objects pulling up.
  14. Gravity causes objects to fall down through the center of the Earth and out the other side if there was a hole in through the Earth.
  15. Gravity pulls objects towards the south pole and if the Earth would not stop it they would go off into space away from the south pole.
  16. Gases are not affected by gravity.

Weightless

  1. Weightlessness is a result of being in space.
  2. Weightlessness only happens in a space vehicle.
  3. Weightlessness happens with the absence of air.
  4. Weightlessness happens when an object leaves Earth.
  5. Emptiness or nothingness creates weightlessness.
  6. Free fall near Earth does not have weightlessness.
  7. There is an additional force involved with free fall.

Machines

  1. A screw is a simple machine because it holds wood together
  2. Machines can do more work than what we put into them.
  3. Chisel is an inclined plane because it pushes paint off wood.

Educator notes

Concepts - Beginning (preschool - 7 years)

Force

  1. An object can be moved with a push or pull.
  2. The distance of the motion is related to the size of the push or pull.
  3. Objects near the Earth fall unless held.
  4. Magnets can make some objects move.

Educator notes

Concepts - Intermediate (7 years - 11 years)

Force

  1. Force, mass, and movement are related.
  2. The greater the force, the greater the change of direction.
  3. Friction is a force that can slow an object.
  4. The Earth's gravity pulls objects toward the center of the Earth.
  5. Magnets push or pull other magnets and objects made from iron or cobalt.
  6. Electricity can push and pull other objects.

Educator notes

Concepts - Literate (11+)

Force

  1. An object that is not being subjected to a force will continue to move at a constant speed and in a straight line.
  2. If more than one force acts on an object along a straight line, then the forces will reinforce or cancel one another, depending on their direction and magnitude.
  3. Unbalanced forces will cause changes in the speed or direction of an object's motion.
  4. All objects have a gravitational force that interacts with another objects gravitational force proportional to the masses and distances.
  5. Electricity and magnetism can exert a force on each other.

Gravity

  1. Gravity is the force of attraction between masses.
gravity mass distance relationship image

Weight

  1. Weight is another name for gravitational force.
  2. Weight is the force exerted by an object against a support and is equal to the force exerted by the support on the object.
  3. Weightlessness is never absolute, there is always some, maybe very small weight.
  4. Gravitational force and weight being the same, decrease with increasing distance from the Earth?

Weightless

  1. Weightlessness is the result of no force being excerted on the body. It can be achieved by motion that exceeds gravity and puts the body in a certain free fall. It can also be achieved by being in a position that is far enough away from gravitational forces of massive bodies.

Relative position and motion - see Process skills - relative position and motion

Educator notes

 

Energy

  • Energy & fuel
  • Motion, speed, mass, Newton's laws
  • Sound
  • Light, solar
  • Heat
  • Nuclear
  • Transfer, conservation
  • Electricity
  • Magnetism electro magnetism
  • Chemical

Initial perceptual naive misconceptions (any age)

Misconceptions (Explanations, Naive understanding, Misconceptions, or Perceptual responses)

  1. Energy can be made, used, and lost.
  2. Energy is what makes us work.
  3. Energy just appears, striking a match, combustion, in animals.
  4. When things burn all of it turns into only a gas or smoke.
  5. Fuels turn into heat, or smoke, or gases,
  6. All substances become less when they burn (decrease in mass, disappear,
  7. Air is not needed for combustion.
  8. The black when something burns comes from the flame.
  9. Fire is not particles.
  10. Energy is a substance in gas… (fuels).
  11. Rest is a way to refuel the body. Energy within the body is increasing.
  12. Force = energy
  13. Gravity = energy
  14. Energy from gravity depends only on the height of the fall
  15. Energy is an object
  16. Energy is confined to its origin
  17. Energy is used up.
  18. Energy is not conserved.
  19. It takes energy to change things. Heat objects, move objects to a higher position, but the energy does not stay in the objects. They do not have more
  20. Energy is moving around
  21. Energy is only in living things (humans and animals)
  22. Excitement, enthusiasm, positive attitude, performance…
  23. Energy transfer mass does not affect the amount of energy transfer. Energy disappears.
  24. Potential energy in not energy. It becomes energy when it is transferred.
  25. Computers and televisions use more energy than heating
  26. Energy sources = the energy.
  27. Nuclear energy is a different kind of energy. Has something to do with mass. See matter
  28. Energy can't be measured

Sound

  1. Comes from people's mouths.
  2. Comes from wires sparking in electronic devices. Sound actually travels in wires of telephone…
  3. Is waves of different noises coming from different objects.
  4. When waves go through some objects and come out as music or conversation.
  5. Is vibrations in the air that the ear picks up and the brain interprets as sound.
  6. Sound waves cause sound to come out of an object.
  7. Sound moves between particles (empty space).
  8. Matter moves with waves
  9. A wind instrument (flute ...) vibrates. Not the column of air inside it.
  10. Sound travels faster in air because there is open space. Sound would be slower in water because the bubbles would get in the way. It’s hard to hear in solid and water because the stuff gets in the way. Sound can't travel in liquids or solids.
  11. Hitting an object harder or softer changes pitch.
  12. You can hear and see a distant event at the same time.
  13. Pitch changes as the vibration increases or decreases, rubber band, tuning fork…
  14. The Doppler effect is caused by the horn changing pitch or engineer in train changing it.
  15. Sound travels in one direction like a flash light beam.
  16. The more mass pendulum has the faster it swings.
  17. Human speech is produced by a lot of vocal cords.

Heat

  1. When objects are heated the particles expand and contract when they cool.
  2. Thinks expand to make room for the heat.
  3. Heat is an object, substance, or something other than energy.
  4. Temperature depends on the material. Metal is colder than fabric. Coats are warm.
  5. Temperature depends on size.
  6. Temperature and heat are the same.
  7. Hot and cold are opposites and not the same substance.
  8. Heat travels like a liquid through conductors.
  9. If you mix 40 degree water with 40 degree water you get 80 or more than 40.
  10. Somethings are hotter than others are even though they have been in the same room, oven, water… for a long period of time.
  11. Metal is hotter or colder than other objects.
  12. Blankets, coats, warm objects. Because clothes keep you warm, anything closed in is warm, it acts as insulation and warms it up, it protects it from outside stuff, it’s like a house.
  13. Temperature is a property of a the material.
  14. Different materials exposed at the same place and time can have different temperatures.
  15. Temperature depends on size.
  16. Hot and cold are different and opposite.
  17. Ice can not change temperature.
  18. Boiling is a maximim temperature of a substance.
  19. Objects of different temperatures in the same area will not move toward a between temperature.
  20. Heat only travels up.
  21. Objects that become hot fast or slow will not become cool or stay cool similarly.
  22. Bubbles in boiling water are air, oxygen, or nothing. (Not water).
  23. Hot water freezes faster than cold
    • Hot water molecules evaporate when heated making less molecules that need to freeze.
    • Steam produced need not be frozen.
    • When cold water freezes the ice crystals act as a barrier not a helper.
    • Hot water molecules are farther apart giving room in which to freeze.
    • There is less oxygen and carbon dioxide making it easier to freeze.
    • When molecules are closer together they do not have as much of a chance of freezing where as in the hotter they are farther apart which gives them a better chance to freeze.
    • Hot water is more powerful and it will greatly change the substance that it is added to, no matter the volume of each.
    • Thermometer - see measurement in Cross cutting - Constancy, Change, & Measurement

Light transmission

  1. Reflected light is shine or glare not something associated with seeing objects.
  2. Light can only do some of the following: be absorbed, blocked, reflected, or refracted by an object.
  3. Light is not reflected in a predictable manner and angle.
  4. Light is not refracted in a predictable manner and angle.
  5. The reflection of an object is located on the surface of the mirror. The reflection is often thought of as a picture on a flat or curved surface.
  6. To be seen in a mirror, the object must be directly in front of the mirror or within the line-of-sight from the observer to the mirror.
  7. Light always passes straight through transparent material (without changing direction).
  8. When an object is viewed through a transparent material, the object is seen exactly where it is located.
  9. Light only reflects from mirrors and shiny objects.
  10. If students are asked what helps you see? Most will answer glasses, seeing-eye dogs, binoculars, hand lenses, or microscopes, not light.
  11. Bright light travels further than dim.
  12. Light travels further at night.
  13. Light only travels a short way.
  14. Light stops.
  15. Light is only at a source. It doesn’t travel fro a source to a receiver.
  16. Light can disappear.
  17. A mirror reverses everything.
  18. You can only see an object in a mirror if it is directly in front of it.
  19. You can see more of an object or your image by moving back from the mirror.
  20. The image is located on the surface of the mirror. Like a picture on a flat surface.
  21. Curved mirrors distort the image.
  22. Light does not travel through a translucent material.
  23. When light travels through materials it doesn’t change direction.
  24. When you view objects through different materials you can see the exact location of the object.
  25. Think the image is turned upside down or changes size, shape to the one viewed.
  26. Think light from an object only leaves in parallel rays.
  27. Light only forms an image where and when you see it.
  28. An image can be seen anywhere you look for it.
  29. An image is formed at the focal point.
  30. Size of the image depends on the size of the lens.
  31. Particles move with a light wave.
  32. Electromagnetic radiation is made of many different kinds of waves. Gamma, x-ray, ultraviolet, infrared, microwaves, radio waves visible light.
  33. When two waves meet they collide and bounce back.
  34. See also research on understanding of sight

Color

  1. White light is pure and colorless light.
  2. Color is a property of something other than a property of light.
  3. Sunlight is red, yellow, or orange
  4. Light travels from our eyes so we can see.
  5. White light is only one color.
  6. Sunlight is different than other light.
  7. A rainbow adds color to sunlight.
  8. The color changes for mixing light and paint are the same.
  9. Primary colors are red blue green or red blue yellow; but not both.
  10. Printed colors are made with the same shade of color as in the print.
  11. All people see the same color for each object.
  12. Light eminates from the object being looked at (not a property of what light is reflected or absorbed).
  13. A prism or colored filter (piece of gel or plastic) puts color into light when it passes through it.
  14. Color in soap bubbles and rainbows are the same colors.

Sight

  1. See also - Eyesight and Light: Examples of how difficult it is to change student's Misconceptions
  2. Humans can see in complete darkness after the eye adjusts. Students can persist with this belief by simply extending the time minutes, hours, days, years...
  3. Bats and owls can see in complete darkness.

Shadows

  1. Shadows come from me. From other people or objects.
  2. Shadows follow you.
  3. Shadows come from clouds or the sky
  4. Shadows come from the sun as it shines on us and reflects off us to make a shadow.
  5. Shadows exist on their own.
  6. Shadows change on their own.
  7. Shadows are the color of the object that makes them.

Rainbows

  1. Sunlight reflects from rain
  2. Water sprinkler makes rainbows
  3. Bubbles make rainbows
  4. Mist, moisture in air causes rainbows
  5. Water falls through light. The water has color in it and when it hits the light you see it.
  6. When light hits falling rain it makes all the colors in the raindrops to reflect off one another and the colors that are the same come together.
  7. Pot of gold

Magnetism

  1. Magnets only attract
  2. Magnets repel non metals
  3. Magnets stick to everything. Magnets attract to all metals. Stick to anything metal.
  4. Magnets are made of plastic.
  5. Magnets only attract to iron
  6. The larger the magnet the stronger the pull
  7. Magnetism is like iron filings
  8. Magnetic fields are two dimensional like the pictures in the book.
  9. Only magnets have magnetic fields.
  10. Magnetism causes the objects to attract and repel.
  11. Larger magnets are stronger.
  12. Magnetism is magic.
  13. Magnetic poles = n and s pole.
  14. Magnetism doesn't go through objects.
  15. Magnetism will be blocked by materials that are insulators.

Educator notes

Concepts - Beginning (preschool - 7 years)

Energy

  1. A push or pull requires energy.
  2. A push or pull can cause motion.
  3. The sun warms the land, air, and water. People use fuels such as wood, oil, coal, natural gas, electricity or solar to heat and cook.
  4. People can save energy and money by turning off machines when they are not using them.
  5. People try to conserve energy to slow down the depletion of energy resources.

Sound

  1. Sound is made by motion.

Heat

  1. Sun provides heat.
  2. Heat is necessary for life.

Light

  1. Light needs energy.

Magnetism

  1. Possible prior knowledge to Kindergarten - Magnets attracted to metal - refrigerator magnet, metal shavings, magnet doodle, Thomas The Train, various magnets, magnetic calendar.
  2. Magnets interact with each other and certain kinds of materials.

Educator notes

Concepts - Intermediate (7 years - 11 years)

Energy

  1. Motion
  2. Newton's laws of motion describe the relationship between motion of an object and the forces acting on it using classical mechanics. They include:
    1. A body remains at rest, or in motion at a constant speed in a straight line, unless acted upon by a force.
    2. When a body is acted upon by a force, the time rate of change of its momentum equals the force.
    3. If two bodies exert forces on each other, these forces have the same magnitude but opposite directions.
  3. Energy is a property of many substance and is associated with heat, light, electricity, magnetism, gravity, mechanical motion, sound, nuclei, and the nature of a chemical.
  4. All living organisms need energy. Energy is transferred in many ways from a source to a receiver.
  5. Objects that give off light usually give off heat.
  6. Mechanical energy is usually related to heat through friction.
  7. Hot and cold objects will transfer heat energy until they reach equilibrium. Some material conduct energy better than others.
  8. Some materials can transfer heat by contact or at a distance

Sound

  1. Sound is produced by vibrating objects.
  2. Vibrating matter can make sound and sound can make matter vibrate.
  3. Sound travels through a medium which transfers energy from particle to particle.
  4. Pitch can be varied by changing the rate of vibrations.
  5. Intensity (volume) of a sound is related to the amount of energy used to create the sound.
  6. Sound can be modeled as waves. Waves in regular patterns of motion, such as the surface of water when it is touched.
  7. Waves can make objects move.
  8. Sound waves of the same type can differ in amplitude and wavelength.

Heat

  1. Heat can be produced in many ways, such as burning, rubbing, or mixing one substance with another.
  2. Heat is transferred from a source to a reciever. Heat is transferred in predictable ways, flowing from warmer objects to cooler ones, until both reach the same temperature.
  3. Heat can be transferred during a chemical, electrical, magnetic, light, mechanical, or nuclear reaction.
  4. Objects that give off light usually give off heat.
  5. Mechanical energy is usually related to heat through friction.
  6. Hot and cold objects will transfer heat energy until they reach equilibrium.
  7. Some material conduct energy better than others. Some materials can transfer heat by contact or at a distance.

Light

  1. Light travels in a straight line until it strikes an object.
  2. Light can be reflected by a mirror, refracted by a lens, or absorbed by the object.
  3. Light interacts with matter by transmission (including refraction), absorption, or scattering (including reflection).
  4. To see an object, light is emitted by the object or reflected from its surface and enters the eye.
  5. Objects are seen only if they are illuminated by light interacting with them.
  6. Shadows are created when an object blocks some of the light shining on a surface.
  7. Shadows can be changed by movement of the source or the object making the shadow.

Magnetism

  1. Like poles repel. Unlike poles attract.
  2. The Earth has magnetic poles.
  3. Magnets interact with iron, nickel, and cobalt.

Educator notes

Concepts Literate (11+)

Energy

  1. Energy can be changed from one form to another but not created or destroyed.
  2. Most anything that goes on in the universe involves energy transfer (stars, biological, physical, weather, earth, machines). Heat is almost always a result of energy transfer.
  3. Heat can be transferred by collisions of atoms (conduction), or through space (radiation) or currents in a fluid (convection). Heat energy is the disorderly motion of molecules and in radiation.
  4. Chemical energy is the arrangement of atoms. Mechanical energy is the moving of bodies or in elastically distorted shapes. Electrical energy is the attraction or repulsion of charges.
  5. Different ways of using energy have different environmental consequences.
  6. Energy from the sun (wind, water, solar) is available indefinitely.
  7. Use of solar energy usually requires large collection systems. Different parts of the world have different amounts and kinds of energy resources available.

Sound

  1. The rate of vibration is related to the mass of the vibrating object.
  2. Sound can be modeled with a wave model to represent its properties such as: repeating pattern, having a specific wavelength, frequency, and amplitude.
  3. Waves can transmit energy and information.
  4. Wavelength and frequency are related. They are inversely proportional. Wavelength * frequency = wave speed. Frequence is also pitch. Wave speed depends on the type of wave and the medium through which it is passing.

Heat

  1. Heat is almost always a result of energy transfer.
  2. Heat can be transfered by touching of particles (collisions of atoms conduction), or through space (by rays radiation) or currents in a fluid (convection).
  3. When objects are heated the space between the particles increases.
  4. Heat energy is the disorderly motion of molecules and in radiation.
  5. Temperature
    • Temperature is the measure of heat energy.
    • Temperature is measured with a thermometer.
    • Thermometer is a tool that measures the temperature (heat energy)
      • Water freezes at 0 degree and boils 100 degrees Celsius
      • Water freezes at 32 degree and boils 212 degrees Fahrenheit

Light

  1. Light interference is when two waves mix. When waves meet or interfere the result will range from two crests or troughs combining to form a higher crest or lower trough, hence more intense or brighter light, to a crest and a trough combining to cancel each other, hence a less bright or intense light ranging from less light to dark. This can be observed in a double slit experiment when light, with the same wavelength, passes through the slits, the waves interfer with each other which can be projected onto a screen where the interference pattern can be seen as bands of light and dark.
  2. Diffraction is the spreading out of waves after light passes through a narrow gap.
  3. Refraction is the bending of light when it travels through different transparent mediums.
  4. Light is reflected at an angle proportional to the angle it strikes an object.
  5. Light is refracted at an angle related to the angle that it enters or leaves a medium and the density of the mediums. Color is a property of light.
  6. White light has all colors. Black is the absence of light and/or color. Computer code #000 or #000000 has a value of zero, hence black. Code #fff or #ffffff has the highest value, hence white. Check out base 16 for explanation of f having a number value.
  7. White light can be refracted to view a spectrum. Light is a form of energy that can be transfered or changed to other forms of energy.
  8. An electromagnetic wave model and a photon model explain features of electromagnetic radiation each describe some common applications of electromagnetic radiation.

Magnetism

  1. Magnets interact with each other and materials that have iron, steel, cobalt, or nickel.
  2. Magnets do not all look alike and vary in strengths.
  3. Even if magnets are the same size and shape, they may vary in magnetic strength.
  4. Magnets strength can decrease over time.
  5. Magnets have magnetic fields.
  6. Poles are the strongest points on a magnet.
  7. All magnets have two poles.
  8. Opposite poles attract.
  9. Same poles repel.
  10. If a compass breaks or a magnet is broken in half, you have two magnets, each with poles.
  11. Electricity and magnetism interact.
  12. Electricity and magnetism can exert a force on each other.
  13. Force of magnet is not dependent on its size.
  14. Earth has magnetic poles - north and south.
  15. Computer disk data can be erased with a magnet.

Educator notes

  • Scoring guide for heat energy (see activity: heat energy, temperature, & transfer)
    • Low level: Explains heat with I don't know, or as something with magic like qualities: like heat being a substance continuously generated within the object. Like a blanket, coat, glove, ... generates and gives off heat without consideration of limited supply or conservation of energy.
    • Middle level: Explains heat energy as something different than the object itself. Something that can be transfered from one thing to another.
    • High level: Explains heat is transferred in predictable ways from a source to a receiver. Flowing from warmer objects to cooler ones, until both reach the same temperature. Some materials conduct heat energy better than others, which can effect peoples perceptions of temperature.
  • Scoring guide for light reflection
  • Magnetism lesson plans - unit
  • Physics: Matter, energy, waves, & particles notes

 

Waves & Electromagnetic Radiation

Initial perceptual naive misconceptions (any age)

Misconceptions (Explanations, Naive understanding, Misconceptions, or Perceptual responses)

Waves

  1. Waves are magic.

Electromagnetic radiation

Static

  1. Static electricity is the opposite of current electricity.
  2. Static electircal charge is really magnetism.

Current

  1. A thing you plug something into.
  2. Stuff in the wires.
  3. Electricity flows like water in a pipe to the receiver. Only needs one wire.
  4. Flows from negative to positive. Negative side of the battery to the bulb to the positive side of the battery through the stuff in the battery and back to the negative side.
  5. Electricity is not energy.
  6. Batteries make, create electricity. or chemicals in batteries make it.
  7. Generators make, create electricity
  8. Electrons flow at the speed of light.
  9. Electricity leaves one battery plate and returns to the other.
  10. There is positive and negative electricity that come from the battery and meet in the light bulb to make light.
  11. Nothing returns to the battery.
  12. The battery has the electrons, electricity there are none in the wires or receiver.
  13. Is not on the electromagnetic spectrum.
  14. Each electron carries energy
  15. Conductors allow charges to pass.
  16. Electricity is used up by the receiver. Doesn’t complete the circuit. Like water flowing from hose or pipe.
  17. Water, coal, oil, nuclear power causes electricity.
  18. Electricity vibrates in the wires until it is used.
  19. Electric companies supply electrons to your house.
  20. Insulation holds electricity in like the walls of a pipe for water. Causes the electricity to turn corners.
  21. If the switch is on electricity is flowing. Even if no receiver, bulb in socket, TV off…
  22. An electric current is a flow of energy.
  23. A flow of energy follows the flow of electricity.
  24. Electricity and energy are the same thing.
  25. Electricity is not matter.
  26. There is less electricity on one side of a light bulb (receiver) than the other.
  27. Electrical energy is different than electromagnetism (electromagnetic field).
  28. Electrical energy flow inside a wire. (It flows in the air outside the wire.)
  29. Positive charges gain protons.
  30. When a particle looses an electron it goes out of existence.
  31. All atoms are charged.
    [NOTE: electricity is the flow of the charge that is in electrons and protons that travels in the wire (amperes), energy is the field around the wire (Watts).
  32. Electricity. Is made of electrons and electrical energy is made of photons]

Electro-magnetism

  1. Only magnets have magnetic fields.

Educator notes

Concepts - Beginning (preschool - 7 years)

Waves

  1. Water waves move across the surface in a regular up and down pattern.

Electromagnetic radiation

Educator notes

Concepts - Intermediate (7 years - 11 years)

Waves

  1. Waves, are regular patterns of motion.

Electromagnetic radiation

Static electricity

  1. Static electricity is created by friction.
  2. Objects with static charges can attract or repel. (++ or -- repel) (+- or -+ attract).

Current

  1. Electricity is a flow of energy through a source and through a receiver in a closed path.
  2. Electricity can be transferred from a source to a receiver. A closed circuit creates a transfer of electricity, an open circuit does not.
  3. A switch is used to open and close a circuit.
  4. A fuse or circuit breaker opens a closed circuit for protection when a circuit overheats.
  5. Light bulbs in a series circuit will go out if one is unscrewed.
  6. Light bulbs in a parallel circuit will remain lit when another is unscrewed.
  7. Electricity in circuits can produce light, heat, sound, and magnetic effects.
  8. Electrical energy can be produced from heat, light, magnetism, and chemical energy.
  9. Electricity flows easily through a conductor and flows with difficulty in a conductor.

Educator notes

Concepts - Literate (11+)

Waves

  1. Water waves generally move up and down on the surface except when the depth of the water is shallow (on a beach).
  2. Waves of the same type can differ in height of the wave (amplitude) and spacing between crests (wavelength). )

Electromagnetic radiation

Static electricity

  1. Static electricity is an electrical charge produced by friction.
  2. All matter is made of particles (electrons, protons, neutrons)
  3. Electrons move from one atom to the next.
  4. Usually matter has the same number of protons (+)and electrons (-) that result in a neutral charged.
  5. Electrons are moved by rubbing.
  6. Electrons can be moved in either direction depending on the material of the objects being rubbed.
  7. More electrons than protons cause a negative charge, less electrons than protons cause a positive charge.
  8. Objects with different charges can attract or repel (++ or -- repel) (+- or -+ attract).

Current

  1. Electricity is the flow of electrons through a closed circuit that contains at least one source, receiver, and conducting path through which the electrons flow.
  2. Electrical energy is the attraction or repulsion of charges.
  3. Electricity and magnetism can exert a force on each other. Resistance reduces the flow of electricity.
  4. The flow of electricity is related to the charges and the resistance (Ohm's law).
  5. The flow of electricity in a series circuit is like ...
  6. The flow of electricity in a parallel circuit is like...

Educator notes

Top

Notebook banner

Life Science knowledge base of concepts & misconceptions

Questioning is the basis of all learning.

Life science

  • Organisms (Bacteria, Eukaryota (plants, animals (human anatomy), fungi,), Archaea)
    • What is living?
    • Structure & Function (Behavior, Adaptation, Diversity, Disease
    • Growth & Development (Reproduction, Life cycles,
    • Organization of Matter & Energy flow (
    • Information Processing (Interactions, Adaptation, Relationships, Social Interactions and Group Behavior
    • Human organisms/anatomy - Human identity; Anatomy (structure) & basic functions of life, growth, & development; Health & safety, disease physical, mental/emotional, distress and treatment
    • Humans and Animals compared ...
  • Ecosystems (Populations, Environmental factors, Environments, Communities)
    • Interdependent Relationships in their Environment & Ecosystems
    • Matter & Energy Flow, Transfer & Cycles
    • Dynamics, Functions, & Resilience
    • Social Interations & Group Behavior ( Interdependent Functions Relationships & Resilience
  • Heredity
    • Inheritance of Traits
    • Variation of Traits
  • Evolution
    • Evidence of Common Ancestry (Unity) & Diversity
    • Natural Selection
    • Adaptations
    • Biodiversity and Humans
  • Genes

Introduction

Last edited - April 19, 2024

Organisms

 

Misconceptions - Initial perceptual naive (any age)
(Explanations for people's misconceptions: naive understandings & perceptual responses)

Organisms

  1. Any object that moves is living. (Machines, smoke, clouds, fire, moving water...)
    Non living is dead.
  2. Plants are not living.
  3. Living and growing movement makes an animal alive, a seed is dead, all living organisms make noise.
  4. Plants are not alive. because they do not move…
  5. Students will sometimes say that plants breathe and grow but still do not see them as alive.
  6. Need to talk, walk, or breathe to be alive
  7. Can't link the same properties that are associated with animals being alive to plants.

Plants

  1. Plants are not living
  2. Plants absorb food through their roots.
  3. Oxygen, Carbon dioxide, water, minerals is food
  4. Seedlings are plants or living, trees are not
  5. Grass, trees, and other plants die in the winter and are born in the spring
  6. Plants eat artificial food, nutrients, water
  7. Plants bring up soil, water, minerals to get food
  8. Need sugar to survive.
  9. Leaves change color because they don't have much moisture, get dry, and turn brown
  10. The temperature changes and leaves can't survive so they drop off.
  11. Trees hibernate like animals.
  12. When the weather gets cold plants don't get as much sun and rain and die.
  13. Seeds are soemthing other than seeds.
  14. Seeds need soul to sprout.
  15. Seeds need sun or light to grow.
  16. Seeds are the color of the plant.

Animals

  1. People are not animals.
  2. Birds, fish, insects, worms are not animals.
  3. Chickens aren't birds.
  4. All animals can move from place to place
  5. Animals are four footed, or furry.
  6. Animals are wild, pets, or farm animals.
  7. Animals are large.
  8. Animals live on land.
  9. Insects can’t live in water.
  10. Spiders are insects
  11. Fish don’t need air, fish sleep with their eyes closed.
  12. Snakes don't have bones.
  13. Worms are tiny snakes.

Mammals

  1. have four legs
  2. live on land

Fish

  1. include dolphins, whales and sometimes seals

Bees

  1. Have bones for support
  2. Can not fly fast or far
  3. There are king bees
  4. All bees live in hives
  5. Hives are made of grass and twigs
  6. Bees are dangerous they are poisonous and will sting you
  7. Bees will sting you repeatedly

Behavior and Adaptation

  1. Living objects can change to meet their survival needs.

Regulation and Behavior

  1. Plants absorb food through their roots.

Reproduction

  1. Grass, trees, and other plants die in the winter and are born in the spring.

Clone

  1. The clone is actually the same person.
  2. A clone could be made to spare the life of a dying person.
  3. A clone would not have a soul.
  4. You could own a clone. Believe you could create an army of zombie like clones to take over the world.
  5. A clone would not be a normal organism.
  6. Cloning is creating life.
  7. Cloning is not a natural process.
  8. A clone will have the same feelings and emotions as its genetic parent.
  9. Great people could be reborn.

Microorganisms and disease

 

Educator notes

Concepts - Beginning (preschool - 7 years)

Organisms , Behavior, Diversity, Adaptation, and Survival

  1. Orgainsm is a living object.
  2. Plants and animals are the same and different.
  3. Organisms need food, water, and shelter to survive.
  4. The behavior of individual organisms is influenced by internal cues (such as hunger) and external cues (such as changes in the environment).
  5. Plants and animals have features that help them survive in different environments.
  6. Stories sometimes give plants and animals properties they do not have.
  7. Humans and other organisms have senses that help them detect internal and external cues.
  8. Each plant and animal have different structures that serve different functions in growth, survival, and reproduction (humans have distinct body structures for walking, holding, seeing, and talking)
  9. Different plants and animals have structures that help them live in different places.
  10. Some kinds of organisms, that once lived on Earth, have completely disappeared (are extinct).

Reproduction and Life Cycles

  1. Plants and animals reproduce plants and animals similar to their parents.
  2. Plants and animals have life cycles that include being born, developing into adults, reproducing, and eventually dying.
  3. Plants and animals closely resemble their parents but not exactly.
  4. There are differences among individual organisms of a species.

Microorganisms and disease

  1. Plants, and animals (people are animals) get infections from other organisms (germs).

 

Educator notes

Concepts - Intermediate (7 years - 11 years)

Organisms , Behavior, Diversity, Adaptation, and Survival

  1. Organism is the material structure of an individual life form. E.g. an individual animal, plant, or single-celled life form.
  2. All living organisms have basic needs, (animals need air, water, food, and shelter; plants need air, water, nutrients, light, and shelter).
  3. All organisms have similar needs and structures.
  4. All living organisms
    • Use (metabolize) food for energy - to move,
    • Grow, (require nutrition)
    • Use oxygen (respire),
    • Use water,
    • Reproduce, (Species must reproduce to survive.)
    • Respond to the environment (sensitivity),
    • Grow, (Plants and animals may change in appearance a little or a lot as they grow.)
    • Excrete waste
  5. All organisms must have their basic needs met to survive.
    • Organisms must have optimum ranges of food, light, heat, water, and shelter met to survive.
    • Organisms can survive only in environments in which their needs can be met.
  6. Organisms can be organizations of cells.
  7. Important levels of organization for structure and function include cells, organs, tissues, organ systems, and organisms.
  8. Groups of specialized cells cooperate to form a tissue, such as a muscle.
  9. Different tissues are grouped together to form larger functional units, called organs.
  10. Each type of cell, tissue, and organ has a distinct structure and set of functions that serve the organism as a whole.
  11. Systems interact with one another.
  12. The human organism has systems for digestion, respiration, reproduction, circulation, excretion, movement, control and coordination, and for protection from disease.
  13. Similarities among organisms internal features infer a degree of relatedness among them.
  14. Living organisms can be sorted (classified) into groups in many ways by their common properties. (Smallest group is species.)
    • Properties used for grouping depends on the purpose of grouping.
    • Internal and external features are used to classify organisms.
    • All species are similar and different.
  15. Adaptation is a change in a species or individual that improves its condition or relationship to the environment.
  16. Some organisms that lived long ago are similar to organisms that live today while others are different.
  17. Some individual differences provide better opportunities for surviving and reproducing.
  18. Extinction means there are no living organisms of a certain species.
  19. Adaptation is a change in a species or individual that improves its condition or relationship to the environment.
  20. Animals migrate to adapt to environmental seasonal change. Hoofed animals (bighorn sheep, moose) learn migratory behaviors from their herd members while migrating.

Reproduction, Life Cycles, and Heredity

  1. Cells continually divide to make more cells for growth and repair.
  2. Each different organism has a life cycle that is different from other organisms
  3. In many species, including humans, females produce eggs and males produce sperm.
  4. Plants also reproduce sexually, the egg and sperm are produced in the flowers of flowering plants. Properties of flowering plants include: flower shape, color, nectar, & scent.
  5. An egg and sperm unite (fertilization) to begin development of a new individual.
  6. That new individual receives genetic information from its mother (via the egg) and its father (via the sperm).
  7. Sexually produced offspring are never identical to either of their parents.
  8. Many characteristics of an organism are inherited from the parents of the organism, but other characteristics result from an individual's interactions with the environment.
  9. Inherited characteristics include the color of flowers and the number of limbs of an animal.
  10. Other features, such as the ability to ride a bicycle, are learned through interactions with the environment and cannot be passes on to the next generation. This infers a way to transfer genetic information from one generation to another.
  11. Stem cells are undifferentiated cells of a multicellular organism which are capable of making indefinitely more cells of the same type, and from which certain other kinds of cells can arise by differentiation.

Clone

  1. A clone is in many ways like identical twins. They have the same DNA, they may look the same but they have unique experiences and memories. They are two different people.

Microorganisms and disease Concepts

  1. Microorganisms can cause disease.
  2. Most microorganisms do not cause disease and many are beneficial.
  3. Disease is a breakdown in structures or functions of an organism.
  4. Disease is essential to decompose organism.
  5. Decomposition is a way to recycle materials.

 

Educator notes

Concepts Literate (11+)

Organisms , Behavior, Diversity, Adaptation, and Survival

Living organisms are self-sustaining chemical systems (living forms) capable of Darwinian evolution. Key properties include: a chemical system, grow, reproduce, and provide energy (metabolism) for life through their genetic and molecular components through Darwinian evolution (system with genetic inheritance of DNA).

The basic structure that allows this is the cell. Cells grow, reproduce (or prolifereate), send information (signals), sense information (signals), move, change shape, stick to other surfaces (adhere), differentiate, and die. Learning about cells and how they function will improve the decisions we make for healthy living.

  1. Organisms have been classifed into six kingdoms: Archaebacteria, Eubacteria, Protist, Fungi, Plant, and Animal. Teacher notes for analysis of living or different life forms.
  2. Organism may also be grouped as viral and nonviral life. With nonviral organisms classified into three or four groups of organisms or life forms:
    1. Eukaryote a cellular organism (one or more cells) with DNA in the form of chromosomes within a distinct nucleus (protists, plants, algae, fungi, & animals)
    2. Bacteria, and
    3. Archaea. Prokaryotes include bacteria, cyanobacteria, and archaea (archaebacteria). Prokaryotes have no nuclear membrane, no organelles in the cytoplasm except ribosomes, and has its genetic material in the form of single strand of coils or loops.
    4. Lokiarchaeota appears between archaean and ekaryotes.
  3. Phages are viruses that infect bacteria.
    • Phages are bacterial viruses. Phages can be used as an antimicrobial remedy to attack noncommunicable diseases (NCD). Their ability to target specific bacteria and minimize damage to surrounding bacteria is a plus. However, a negative can be antiphage resistance and discovering phages to use to target specific bacteria.

Challenges and prospects of phage therapy

  1. Living systems and ecosystems at all levels of organization demonstrate the complementary nature of structure and function.
  2. Animals consume energy and plants use sunlight to make their food.
  3. Some organisms can not be easily classified as only a plant or animal.
  4. All organisms are composed of cells, the fundamental unit of life.
  5. Most organisms are single cells; other organisms, including humans, are multicellular.
  6. Cells carry on the many functions needed to sustain life.
  7. Two-thirds of a cell is water.
  8. Cells take in nutrients to provide energy for the work that cells do and to make the materials that a cell or an organism needs.
  9. Specialized cells perform specialized functions in multicellular organisms.
  10. An organism's behavior evolves through adaptation to its environment.
  11. Species is a group of living organisms with agreed on similarities or common attributes (or properties) designated by a common name. The most notable property is being able to exchange genes or interbreed.
    • Species is a taxonomic unit, below genus. e.g. Homo sapiens.
    • Species must reproduce to survive.
    • Species includes all organisms that can mate with one another to produce sexually fertile offspring.
  12. Millions of species of animals, plants, and microorganisms are alive today. Although different species might look different, the internal structures among organisms is similar, their chemical processes, and common ancestry. Biological evolution explains how the diversity of life and the uniqueness of each species' properties developed through a slow processes over many generations through biological adaptation, which involves the selection of naturally occurring variations in populations, which include changes in structures, behaviors, or physiology that enhance survival and reproduction success in a particular environment.
  13. How a species moves, obtains food, reproduces, and responds to danger are based in the species' evolutionary history.
  14. Most mammal species are male dominant. Exceptions include: ruffed and ring-tailed lemurs, spotted hyenas, killer whales, African lions, bonobos, and two types of elephants. The Lion King should be the Lion Queen and female lions rule.
  15. Small differences can accumulate in successive generations so that descendants are very different from their ancestors. Individual organisms with certain traits are more likely to survive and reproduce. Changes in environment can affect the survival of individuals and entire species.
  16. Extinction of a species occurs when the environment changes and the adaptive characteristics of a species are insufficient to allow its survival.
    Fossils indicate that many organisms that lived long ago are extinct. Extinction of species is common; most of the species that have lived on the earth no longer exist.
  17. Organic means related to living or from derived from living matter. Organic compounds always have carbon (most inorganic compounds do not have carbon) and hydrogen or C-H bonds. Having carbon is not sufficient for a compound to be organic. Look for carbon and hydrogen. Examples: Sugar or sucrose (C12H22O11), benzene (C6H6), methane (CH4), ethanol or grain alcohol (C2H6O). See chemistry

Reproduction, Life Cycle, and Heredity

  1. A species includes all organisms that can mate with one another to produce sexually fertile offspring.
  2. Organisms are collections of cells.
  3. Cells grow and divide - thereby producing more cells.
  4. Reproduction is a characteristic of all living systems.
  5. No individual organism lives forever. Therefore, reproduction is essential to the continuation of every species.
  6. Some organisms reproduce asexually and other organisms reproduce sexually.
  7. Genetic characteristics are passed from only one parent (asexual) or two parents (sexual) reproduction.
  8. Every organism requires a set of instructions for specifying its traits.
  9. Heredity is the passage of these instruction from one generation to another.
  10. Heredity information is contained in genes, located in the chromosomes of each cell.
  11. Each gene carries a single unit of information.
  12. An inherited trait of an individual can be determined by one or by many genes, and a signal gene can influence more than one trait.
  13. A human cell contains many thousands of different genes.
  14. New varieties of plants and animals have been cultivated through selective breeding and gene splicing.
  15. While genes are important parts of DNA, they are not the whole picture. DNA includes about 95% extragenic material that also plays a regulatory role in gene expression. THis does not decrease the importance of genes, but increases it with a need to understand gene regulation and epigenetic factors in the role of growth and reproduction.

Microorganisms and disease

  1. Most microorganisms do not cause disease and many are beneficial.
  2. Disease is a breakdown in structures or functions of an organism.
  3. Some diseases are the result of intrinsic failures of the system.
  4. Others are the result of damage by infection of other organisms.
  5. Disease contagion variables
    • Type of organism
    • Method of infection
    • Organism's life cycle
    • Surveillane of health conditions
    • Number of cases in first wave of infection
    • Time between generations
    • Types of organisms infected of harbor disease
    • Detection ease, Time to confirm infection, availability of testing, ease of testing, similarity to other organisms and diseases, new disease or known disease
    • Availability of antibodies
    • Mortality rate
    • Percentage of fatal cases
    • Sanitary conditions, deforestation, urbaniztion, agriculture density, native species, availability of potable water
    • Availability of heath services. Medical clinics. Doctors, hospitals, health care,
    • Communication
    • Political, local, organization and trust of information, networking, leadership, and communication

Educator notes

Avian influenza virus tree

Life - living, organisms,

What is living?

Analysis of different life forms:

Archaea. Prokaryotes include bacteria, cyanobacteria, and archaea (archaebacteria). Prokaryotes have no nuclear membrane, no organelles in the cytoplasm except ribosomes, and has its genetic material in the form of single strand of coils or loops.

  • Examples - microbes in your gut, extremiphiles living in deep sea vents
  • Madke of - a single, simple cell with no nucleus or membrane bound organelles
  • Can evolve
  • Grows and responds to stimuli and mantains a metbolism
  • Reproduces - asexually splitting or budding into new organisms
  • Alive? - Yes

Bacteria

  • Examples - E. coli, salmonella
  • Made of - A simple cell without a nucleus,like archaea, but with different cell walls.
  • Can evolve
  • Grows and responds to stimuli and mantains a metbolism
  • Reproduces - Asexually splitting like archaea, or exchanging and recombining genetic information with other bacteria in a process called conjugation
  • Alive? - Yes

Eukaryote a cellular organism (one or more cells) with DNA in the form of chromosomes within a distinct nucleus (protists, plants, algae, fungi, & animals)

  • Examples - Plants, animals, fungi, and most multicellulare organisms
  • Made of - A complex cell or cells
  • Can evolve - ask Darwin
  • Grows and responds to stimuli and mantains a metbolism
  • Reproduces - Sexually or asexually recombining genetic information material into new iterations through mitosis or meiosis.
  • Alive? - Yes

Viruses

  • Examples - SARS-CoV-2, influenza, herpes,
  • Made of - a tangle of genetic material in a protein shell
  • Can evolve - Yes when errors aremade in the process of copying itself, the errors that help it spread and have moreopportunities to continue to exist
  • It does not grow and respond to stimuli and mantain a metbolism
  • Reproduces - by hijacking a cell's molecular machinery and making copies of itself.
  • Alive? - Most biologist say no.

Prions

  • Examples - proteins that cause mad cow disease, Crreutzfeldt-Jakob disease
  • Made of misfolded proteins
  • Does not evolve, but new forms can be made and then copy themselves
  • Does not grow and respond to stimuli and mantain a metbolism
  • Reproduces like dominos as one protein misfolds, then the others around it will too. It's chemistry.
  • Alive? - No

Be careful when considering what organisms can survive:

Research the immortal jellyfish and tardigrade:

Tardigrade

Tardigrades can survive crushing pressure of the ocean floor, DNA shredding radiation, the vacuu of space and eventemperatures just 1 degree above absolute zero, and hte evaporation of all the water in their cells. Don't believe it.

Research ... American Scientist article - Tardigrades

 

What about the Immortal Jellyfish?

Immortal jellyfish

Stem cell engineering

Stem cell engineering diagram

 

Ecosystems

Ecosystems (Populations, Environmental factors, Environments, Communities)

  • Interdependent Relationships in their Environment & Ecosystems
  • Matter & Energy Flow, Transfer & Cycles
  • Dynamics, Functions, & Resilience
  • Social Interations & Group Behavior ( Interdependent Functions Relationships & Resilience

Initial perceptual naive misconceptions (any age)

Misconceptions (Explanations, Naive understanding, Misconceptions, or Perceptual responses)

  1. See misconceptions for animals and plants
  2. Resources are infinite.
  3. Plants and animals will always be on Earth because the life cycle will continue forever.
  4. Dirt and bugs are bad. They are not necessary for anything good.
  5. Everything can be recycled.

Populations

  1. A change in a food web will only affect animals that prey on it.
  2. An animal that is high on the food web preys on all populations below it.
  3. A change in the prey population has no affect on the predator.
  4. If the size of one population in a food web is changed, all other populations in the web are changed in the same way.
  5. A food web is a food chain
  6. Animals are carnivores if they are big and ferocious. Herbivores are small and timid.
  7. Don't add plants to the web only prey and predator.
  8. See the top of the web as having the most energy. Or energy accumulates at the top.
  9. Populations on the top increase as the organisms below decrease.
  10. Characteristics of a population are created according to the needs of the individual or according to a predetermined grand plan.
  11. Characteristics are passed on by the bigger stronger organisms.
  12. Populations are either in equilibrium or decreasing depending on their position in the web.
  13. The needs and roles of a species are the same as those of similar species.
  14. Species live together in an ecosystem because they have compatible needs and behaviors.
  15. Plants rely on carbon dioxide from animals.
  16. Do not understand that animals energy comes from the sun.
  17. Deserts are dead waste lands where nothing could live or thrive.

 

Educator notes

Concepts - Beginning (preschool - 7 years)

Environmental

  1. All animals depend on plants. Some animals eat plants for food.
  2. Other animals eat animals that eat the plants.
  3. Living organisms are found almost everywhere in the world.
  4. They are somewhat different in different parts of the world.
  5. Many materials can be recycled and used again.

Populations

  1. A population consists of all individuals of a species that occur together at a given place and time

Educator notes

Concepts - Intermediate (7 years - 11 years)

Environmental

  1. The world has many different environments, and distinct environments support the life of different types of organisms.
  2. Some organisms will survive better in different parts of the world and some will not.
  3. An organism's patterns of behavior are related to the nature of that organism's environment, including the kinds and numbers of other organisms present, the availability of food and resources, and the physical characteristics of the environment.
  4. When the environment changes, some plants and animals survive and reproduce, and others die or move into new locations.
  5. Organisms interact with other organisms in addition to providing food (seed dispersal, plant pollination, lichens).

Populations - community

  1. Populations of organisms can be categorized by the function they serve in a community (producer and consumer).
  2. Plants and some microorganisms are producers- they make their own food. All animals, including humans, are consumers, which obtain food by eating other organisms.
  3. The population of an ecosystem depends on the resources available and abiotic factors, such as quantity of light and water, range of temperatures, and soil composition.
  4. Given adequate biotic and abiotic and no disease of predators, populations (including humans) increase at rapid rates.
  5. Lack of resources and other factors, such as predation and climate, limit the growth of a population in specific niches in the ecosystem.
  6. Relationships may be competitive or mutually beneficial.
    • Mutually benefituak or symbiotic is when two or more different organisms (species) live in close physical association, typically to the advantage of both. As opposed to a parasite, which is an organism that lives in or on another organism (host species) and derives nutrients at the other organisms expense. All mistletoes species are parasites that attach to tree (oaks & poplars) branches (host) and siphon water and nutrients to survive. In winter, they are green and provide food and shelter for animals.
  7. Some species have adapted to each other to the point that they could not survive without each other. Require a community.
  8. Community is a group of interdependent organisms of different species that are growing and living together in a specific habitat.

Educator notes

  • Environment & environmental factors - unit with plans, activities, & lab note book 
  • Community - A unit or packet with a sequence of activities & plans to develop a deeper understanding of the relationships of organisms & populations as communities within environments. Includes hands-on activities with plants, seeds (embryo, cotyledon, & seed coat), crickets, anoles, decomposers, and terrariums.

Concepts - Literate (11+)

Environmental

  1. All organisms cause changes in the environment where they live.
  2. Some of these changes are detrimental to the organism or other organisms, and others are beneficial.
  3. Humans depend on their natural and constructed environments.
  4. Humans change environments in ways that can be either beneficial or detrimental for themselves and other organisms. In all environments organisms compete with each other for resources, including food, space, water, air, and shelter in order to survive.
  5. Over time matter is transferred from one organism to another repeatedly and between organisms and their environment. This total amount of matter remains the constant even though its form and location change. Energy can be change from one form to another in living organisms (energy from oxidizing food).
  6. Food webs identify the relationships among producers, consumers, and decomposers in an ecosystem.
  7. An ecosystem includes all populations living together and the physical environmental factors with which they interact.
  8. For ecosystems, the major source of energy is sunlight which is transferred by producers into chemical energy through photosynthesis.
  9. That energy then passes from organism to organism in food webs.
  10. Decomposers, primarily bacteria and fungi, are consumers that use waste materials and dead organisms for food.
  11. In the process of decomposing organic matter they create nutrients for plants.
  12. Wild fires can provide environment benefits when included as part of an ecosystem's normal cycle.
  13. Wild fire conditions include precipitation, relative humidity, atmospheric pressure, amount of plant vegetation, water stress on the plants, amount of organic litter (decaying matter, leaves, fallen timber, seasonal growth), source of ignition (human, lighting).
  14. Climate change -

Populations - community

  1. Food chains identify the relationships among producers and consumers.
  2. Food cycle includes producers, consumers, and decomposers.

Educator notes

  • Environmental education & sustainability - Historical perspective of environmental education, state of environmental education, ICEE findings & recommendations, suggestions to help teachers become environmentally savvy, teacher's views of their needs, sample program goals, scoring guide for environmental concern, suggestions to assess curriculum, student environmental knowledge, misconceptions, teaching resources, & six questions & answers about environmental education
    • Environment & environmental factors - unit with plans, activities, & lab note book 
    • Community - A unit or packet with a sequence of activities & plans to develop a deeper understanding of the relationships of organisms & populations as communities within environments. Includes hands-on activities with plants, seeds (embryo, cotyledon, & seed coat), crickets, anoles, decomposers, and terrariums. 
    • Ecosystem - A unit or project with a sequence of activities & plans to develop a deeper understanding of the interdependence required to maintin healthy ecosystems. Investigations include study of environmental factors, organisms and their needs, populations, communities, life cycles, food webs and energy cycle, water cycle, carbon dioxide - oxygen cycle, nitrogen cycle, and decomposition.
  • Environmental health unit - includes lesson plans, activities, lab notes (worksheets, word bank & key ideas). Content includes: Brainstorm prior knowledge of Nature, Create an environmental model with (environmental factors, organism in the environment, & environmental interactions to maintain a balanced ecosystem of nature, humans, needs for human survival and environmental variables), Environmental Health Disasters Activity, Historical decisions with Positive & Negative Environmental Impacts, Making healthy environmental decisions today, Influences on environmental decisions, Decision Making for personal and environmental health, Implementation of environmental decisions, and Review

Climate change notes

  1. Plant and animal populations outgrow environmental resources and become endangered or extinct.
  2. Human population grow greater than natural resources and require human intervention. (Anthropocene era)
  3. Agriculture replaces natural ecosystems.
  4. Freshwater is decreasing faster than it's being replentished.
  5. Nitrogen and phosphorus cycles are altered with farming and fertilizers.
  6. Ocean fish are being harvested faster than they are able to be replentished.
  7. Acidity of ocean and acid rain is increasing.
  8. Carbon Dioxide in the atmosphere is increasing and climate change resulting from the greenhouse effect.
  9. Climate change
  10. Size of prey eaten by mammalian predators according to their body mass in Kg.
  11. Wild fires - conditions for starting them and their spread include: temperature, precipitation, relative humidity, atmospheric pressure, amount of plant vegetation, water stress on the plants, amount of organic litter (decaying matter, leaves, fallen timber, seasonal growth), source of ignition (human, lighting)

Goals related to climate change and possible pathways to address rising sea levels. Source Science June 2021

Diagram climate goals and pathways

Relationship of the mass of prey to predators.

Carnivore mammals predator prey mass relationships

 

Heredity & Evolution

Heredity

  • Inheritance of Traits
  • Variation of Traits

Evolution See also evolution & equilibrium in process concepts

  • Evidence of Common Ancestry (Unity) & Diversity
  • Natural Selection
  • Adaptations
  • Biodiversity and Humans

Initial perceptual naive misconceptions (any age)

Misconceptions (Explanations, Naive understanding, Misconceptions, or Perceptual responses)

  1. See misconceptions for organisms, animals, and plants
  2. Evolution is goal directed.
  3. Evolution is driven by need.
  4. People are different enough to be categorized into different races.
  5. Dinosaurs and prehistoric people lived at the same time.

Educator notes

Concepts - Beginning (preschool - 7 years)

Heredity

  1. Living organisms (plants & animals) look like their parents. Babies look like their parents, seeds grow into plants like the plant that grew the seeds.
  2. Modern organisms may resemble extinct organisms.
  3. Objects and organisms can be changed to function for better or worse.

Evolution

  1. Evolution is driven by reproductive multiplication, variation by mutation, and recombination, adaptation with selection, proliferations of healthy functioning descendants.
  2. See also evolution & equilibrium in process concepts

Educator notes

  • The mechanics of evolution are responsible for every single creature that lives on the face of the Earth and ever has or will live.

Concepts - Intermediate (7 years - 11 years)

Heredity

Evolution

  1. Changes may not be noticed on a scale of a human's life time.
  2. However, these changes become large as the number of lifetimes become large.
  3. See also evolution & equilibrium in process concepts

Educator notes

  • The mechanics of evolution are responsible for every single creature that lives on the face of the Earth and ever has or will live. See evolution teacher's guide
  • Newsweek October 25, 2004. p 66. President Bush's Council on Bioethics objected to - "computer-brain hookups that would enable us to download the Oxford English Dictionary."

Concepts - Literate (11+)

Heredity

Evolution

  1. Present conditions such as the salt in the oceans, continental drift, erosion of land forms, changes in organisms... can be explained as gradual and sporadic.
  2. Evolution is the idea of the present arising from materials and forms of the past.
  3. Sometimes a series of changes occurs so slowly or so rapidly that it is difficult to document the evolution. See evalution teachers guide
  4. In evolving systems, change can be gradual, steady, repetitive, irregular, or in more than one way at the same time. For example: whales blow holes moved from the snout to the top of the head in 3 million years. Polar bears developed the ability to survive on a high fat diet of seal blubber in 300 000 years. Chinook salmon body size decreased in response to commercial fishing in 90 years. Mosquitoes colonized London's Underground in 1863 and now can not mate with their above-ground relatives. Green anole lizards at Indian River Lagoon, Florida adapted to the invasion of brown anoles with larger toepads and more scalesto climb higher and cling better to branches in 15 years. Tawny owls come in two colors: light gray and reddish brown. As the climate becomes milder with less snow there has been a steady increase in the proportion of red brown owls. Discover Magazine. Life in the Fast Lane by Jane Braxton Little. March 2015.
  5. Human design suggests current features of the human body are designs that have been handed down, or evolved, to create human properties for characteristics that could have been designed better. Features like an appendix, tender naked skin prone to cuts, bruises, bites, and sunburn, back or spinal column that is efficient for four legged creatures than two or bipedal creatures, pertuberances above the nostrils, weak teeth that are prone to tooth decay, slow runners, weak animals ( chimps are three times as strong humans even thought they are smaller than us), a brain that stacks brain parts from a brain stem, to a hind brain (respiration, balance, alertness - .5 billion years old from dinosaurs), mid brain (visual, auditory, reflexes and controls eye movement), and fore brain (language, culture, and decision making). ... However, humans are able to detect a single photon in the dark and are able to hear sound a sound wave that is less than the diameter of hydrogen atom, and hemoglobin is able to adapt to differen air pressures.
  6. See also evolution & equilibrium in process concepts

Educator notes

  1. Evolutionary theory is the best scientific explanation for the unity and diversity of life. Miller & Levine
  2. The mechanics of evolution are responsible for every single creature that lives on the face of the Earth and ever has or will live.
  3. RNA. There are many kinds of RNA:
    • mRNA (messenger RNA) this molecule transfers DNA's code out of a cell's nucleus to guide protein construction.
    • Transfer RNA delivers amino acids to the ribosome.
    • Other RNA's silence genes or affect their activity.
  4. NOTCH gene family controls the timing of development in everyting from fruit flies to whales. In human brain evolution NOTCH2 and NOTCH2NL are thought to have an important role in brain development.
  5. CRISPR-Cas9 system has two molecules used to change (mutate?) DNA. 1. an enzyme, Cas9, which acts as molecular scissors to cut two strands of DNA in a genome so DNA can be added or removed. 2. a piece of RNA (gRNA) to guide the Cas9 to the right part of the genome so it cuts at the right place of the genome.
  6. CRISPEY (Cas9) is a retron derived base editor, which has been used to change genomes of single cell organisms. It is a highly efficient and precise system to edit parallel genomes to measure the fitness effects of thousands of natural genetic variants in yeast. However, it may have the potential to alter genomes of multicell organisms. It takes retrons, whose RNA matches yeast genes with a mutated base. Combines them with CRISPR's RNA, which guides it to the targeted DNA. The Cas9 enzyme acts as CRISPR's scissors and cuts the DNA. Then the cells's DNA replaces the yeast gene with DNA made by the retron's reverse transcriptase.
  7. Newsweek July 31, 2006 - Jonathan Alter. July 19, 2006 - President Bush casts his first VETO on a bill that would allow surplus embryos from fertility clinics to be used for pathbreaking research instead of being tossed out in the garbage. If using embryos for medical research is "murder" (Bush's position), then how can he support the existence of fertility clinics?
  8. Horizontal gene transfer (HGT) is common between species of bacteria, bacteria and plants, and sometimes insects and plants. Such as in the sap sucking whitefly. Millions of years ago, the gene, BtPMaT1, which plants use to detoxify a poison (phenolic glycoside) they make as a defense mechanism was transferred from plants to the fly. When the fly acquired the gene, it became possible for it to feed on hundreds of plants without harm. Making it a significant pest for agriculture.
  9. See evolution teacher's guide
  10. STEM timeline shows arrival of life on Earth

Top

 

notebook image

Earth science knowledge base of concepts and misconceptions

Earth Science
  • Earth - Its materials and their uses, forces that change the Earth, systems, water and the Earth's materials' and their uses, fossils and biogeology; human activity, resources, hazards, impacts, climate change
  • Earth's atmosphere - Atmosphere, Water Cycle, Weather, season, & climates Earth's History - properties of Earth, its evolution, plate tectonics, its place in the universe
  • Earth's history
  • Space, astronomy, & the Universe - the Earth beyond its atmosphere, stars
  • Solar

 

The Earth

Earth Materials, Forces that Change the Earth, Earth Materials' Uses, and Fossils, Realtionships to Earth Materials

Misconceptions - Initial perceptual naive (any age)
(Explanations for people's misconceptions: naive understandings & perceptual responses)

The Earth

  1. Mountains are created rapidly.
  2. Continents are stationary.
  3. Rocks are heavy.
  4. Any crystal that scratches glass is a diamond.
  5. Rocks are stronger because they are hard and break. Sand is weaker because you can push your way through it.
  6. There is a layer of water under the soil.
  7. River valleys were created by earthquakes or movements of the earth.
  8. Mountains an valleys have always been on Earth.
  9. All rivers flow north to south.
  10. Icebergs have salt in them.
  11. Water comes on shore as waves and evaporates.
  12. Streams flow because of the wind, fish, boats.
  13. Water moves because fish
  14. Water can move dirt and rocks if they are really small. Or a really old tree. It could make rocks slippery and easier to fall.
  15. River channels were there before the water and the water just follows them not creates them.
  16. Underground streams are like above ground only no fish.
  17. Earthquakes made cracks for rivers.
  18. Dinosaurs made holes for oceans, Paul Bunyan, really big snake, supernatural,
  19. Mountains by avalanches, tornado piled up dirt.
  20. Glaciers retreat. Turn and go in the opposite direction. Instead of melt.
  21. Rocks are stronger than the forces of nature (water, wind, ice).
  22. Rocks can only be changed by a blow of a hammer or other powerful object.
  23. Rock is a hard solid material.
  24. Rocks are uniform inside.
  25. Soil - dirt has always been here.
  26. Soil is as it always has been.
  27. Soil or dirt can be used up and never replaced.
  28. Soil is very deep - miles.
  29. Soil is made of plants and animals.
  30. Lava comes from the center of the Earth.
  31. Earthquakes are caused only by explosions from volcanoes.

Volcanoes

  1. It starts on fire and burns by people, sun, matches, lightening, hot core of the Earth, lava is a burning liquid…
  2. It is angry, mean, old,
  3. Core of the Earth is hot and flows to the surface, gets too full, decides to, gets too hot, boils over, explodes.
  4. It get hot because of the plates of the Earth.
  5. Volcanoes grow at the top so they aren’t made from lava because it comes from the bottom.

Educator notes

Concepts - Beginning (preschool - 7 years)

The Earth

  1. The Earth is a solid sphere.

Earth Materials

  1. Earth materials include solid rocks and soils, water, minerals, and gases in the atmosphere.
  2. Rocks come in many sizes and shapes. Rocks change in size, shape, and other properties.
  3. Soils have properties of color, particle size, and texture.

Forces that Change the Earth

  1. Geological events (volcanoes, earthquakes, erosion) shape the earth.
  2. Animals and plants can change rocks and soil.

Earth Materials' Uses

  1. Earth materials provide many of the resources that humans use.

Fossils Relationships to Earth Materials

  1. Fossils were created long ago. 

Educator notes

Concepts - Intermediate (7 years - 11 years)

The Earth

  1. The Earth is layered from the outside in with solid crustal plates (lithosphere), hot liquid rock (mantle), and dense metallic center (core).
  2. Peach as model for Earth ... Pit is the core Fruit is the mantel Skin is the crust Peach fuzz is the atmosphere.

Earth Materials

  1. Earth materials are solid rocks and soils, water, and gases of the atmosphere.
  2. Rocks come in many sizes and shapes.
  3. Rocks change in size, shape, and other properties.
  4. Animals and plants can change rocks and soil.
  5. Soils have properties of color, particle size, and texture.
  6. Earth materials provide many of the resources that humans use.
  7. Fossils were created long ago. 
  8. Soil consists of weathered rocks, water, and decomposed organic materials from dead plants, animals, and bacteria.
  9. Soils are often found in layers with each layer having different properties.
  10. Soils have properties of color, particle size, texture, capacity to retain water, and y.
  11. Wind, water, and ice shape the Earth.
  12. Erosion is the wearing away and moving of earth.
  13. Rock is made of different combinations of minerals.
  14. Soil is made from different forms of rock, plant and animal remains, and living organisms.

Earth Materials' Uses

  1. Earth materials supply nutrients, minerals, and store water to support the growth of many kinds of plants, in our food supply.
  2. Earth materials provide shelter, water, and nutrients for animals survival.

Fossils Relationships to Earth Materials

  1. Fossils were created from living organisms.

Forces that Change the Earth

  1. Lithospheric plates (tectonic plates) the size of continents and oceans constantly move at the rate of centimeters per year as a result of movements in the mantle.
  2. Tectonic plates are made of rocks such as those we see exposed that the surface.
  3. The interior of the Earth is hot Heat flow and movement material within the Earth cause earthquakes and volcanic eruptions that create mountains and ocean basins.
  4. Gases and dust from volcanoes can change the atmosphere.
  5. These forces can act fast and slow.
  6. The can also be constructive and destructive geological events create landforms.
  7. Constructive forces include crustal changes, mountain building, volcanic eruptions, and deposition of sediment.
  8. Destructive forces include weathering and erosion.

Forces that change the Earth continued...
Water erosion, meandering, rivers and streams

  1. The volume of water effects the size and shape of a stream.
  2. The slope of a stream effects the size and shape of the stream.
  3. The kind, size, and shape of earth material effects erosion.
  4. Water flow causes sand to be picked up.
  5. Water flow causes sand to be picked up and moved.
  6. Water flow causes sand to be dropped.
  7. Fine sand is moved more easily than coarse sand by streams.
  8. Deposits are formed as a result of the streams flow.
  9. Erosion is the movement of soil and rocks from one place to another due to water, wind, and gravit to another place.
  10. Erosion and deposition occur in different places in a curving stream.
  11. Some streams flow straight and others make loops and curves.
  12. The movement of sand is affected by the angle of the channel, the number of channels, and the location of the channels.
  13. Different kinds of objects speed up or slow down the movement of sand.
  14. Flood is an overflowing of a large amount of water beyond the channel in which it is normally confined. Especially onto land where it normally does not flow.
  15. Floods can kill people and animals and destroy homes, businesses, and farmland.
  16. Flash flood is a flood that happens very fast oftenwithout wwarning because of a huge rainfall.
  17. Mega floods occur in places where there have been large floods before or in places with water sheds similar to where previous megafloods have occured.
  18. Sediment is soil particless, sand, and minerals moved by water and wind.
  19. Mitigation strategies are used to lessen the effect of flooding.

Educator notes

Scoring guide for water erosion, rivers, and streams

Low level: Describes rain as related to streams and rivers and streams and rivers as concluding where seas and oceans begin.

Middle level: Describes rain and run-off as causing erosion and water from it as collecting in streams and rivers and emptying into seas and oceans.

Upper level: Describes rain and run-off as a powerful force proportional to the slope or volume of the flow. That water flow erodes the Earth in specific ways to create channels. And even thought large volumes of water or steep slopes can increase erosion long periods of time can erode the most erosion tolerant earth materials.

Top level: Describes rain and run-off is a powerful force that erodes the Earth and how different flows of water interact with the Earth to create stream beds. How different interactions depending on flow volume (related to precipitation and run-off), speed of the flow (related to the slope, run-off and shape of the channel), and earth materials (related to the flow of the water, mass, hardness, shape, and location of materials) create different channels and deposits.

  • Stream table activities - erosion, flow of water, shape of stream beds, watersheds, floods, and science experimenting with models.
  • Excellent research article on avulsions how they form, evolve, and stream table models used to model their behaviors. When the Levees Break by Fred Pearce in Science May 14, 2021.

Concepts Literate (11+)

The Earth

  1. The Earth is layered from the outside in with solid crustal plates (lithosphere), hot liquid convecting rock (mantle), and dense metallic center (core).

Earth Materials

  1. Soil consists of weathered rocks, water, gases, and decomposed organic materials from dead plants, animals, and bacteria.
  2. Soils are often found in layers with each layer having different chemical compositions.
  3. Soils have properties of color, particle size, texture, capacity to retain water, and y.
  4. Wind, water, and ice shape the Earth.
  5. Erosion is the wearing away and moving of earth.
  6. Weathered rock is the basic component of soil, the amount of soil and its fertility and resistance to erosion are greatly influenced by plant roots and debris, bacteria, fungi, worms, insects, rodents, and other organisms.
  7. Rock is made of different combinations of minerals.
  8. Soil is made from different forms of rock, plant and animal remains, and living organisms.
  9. The rock cycle describes how solid earth changes when rocks at the earth's surface weather, form sediments that are buried, then compacted, heated, and often recrystallize into new rock.
  10. Eventually, those new rocks may be brought to the surface by movements in the mantle and cycle continues.

Earth Materials' Uses

  1. Earth materials supply nutrients, minerals, and store water to support the growth of many kinds of plants, in our food supply. Earth materials provide shelter, water, and nutrients for animals survival.
  2. The varied materials have different physical and chemical properties, which make them useful in different ways, for example, as building materials, as sources of fuel, or for growing the plants we use as food.
  3. Earth resources are nonrenewable.

Fossils Relationship to Earth Materials

  1. Fossils provide important evidence of how life and environmental conditions have changed.
  2. Fossils were created in amber, replacement by crystallization, and imprints. Fossils provide evidence about the plants and animals that lived long ago and the nature of the environment at that time.

Forces that Change the Earth

  1. The surface of the earth changes due to slow processes, such as erosion and weathering, and some changes are due to rapid processes, such as landslides, volcanic eruptions, and earthquakes.
  2. Thousands of layers of sedimentary rock confirm a long history of the changing surface of the Earth and the changing life forms whose remains can be found in successive layers.
  3. The youngest layers are not always found on top because of folding, breaking, and uplifting of layers.
  4. Human activity has changed the Earth (farming, reducing forests, release of chemicals, ) and decreased the capacity of the environment to support some forms of life.

Educator notes

 

Earth's Atmosphere

  • Atmosphere, Water Cycle, Precipitation, Weather, season, & climate

Initial perceptual naive misconceptions (any age)

Misconceptions (Explanations, Naive understanding, Misconceptions, or Perceptual responses)

Atmosphere - sky, clouds, precipitation, weather,

  1. Sun changes color
  2. Sun changes color because of dirt, dust, clouds, smog,
  3. Color depends on how close the sun is at the time.
  4. When the sun sets it is farther away and therefore its color changes
  5. Because the Sun is just coming up or going down
  6. Sun gives off all colors and we see what is reflected
  7. Sun’s position determines the color of the sky. When the sun is behind the clouds that is why there isn’t any color except the color of the clouds.
  8. Hurricanes suck water.
  9. Tornadoes suck dirt. They can’t go over water because they don’t suck water, that’s a water spout.
  10. Humidity or moisture in the air can change the color

Water cycle

  1. Water in a saucer doesn't evaporate the water has soaked into the saucer.
  2. When water evaporates it disappears or ceases to exist.
  3. When water boils or evaporates it goes straight to clouds (there is no water vapor in air).
  4. The (visible) steam from kettles rises, as steam, to form (visible) clouds.
  5. When water boils and the gaseous form condenses some of the original water is lost.
  6. Rain falls when the clouds are too full of water and it drips out (or the cloud bursts open).
  7. Coldness turns into water (something taken from the refrigerator).
  8. We sweat more on a humid day.
  9. The bubbles in boiling water are bubbles of air, or oxygen, or oxygen and hydrogen, or heat.
  10. All liquids boil at 100 degrees Celsius; boiling water must always be hotter than other non-boiling liquids, heated oil.
  11. If you melt cooking fat it will stay as a liquid (cooking oil).
  12. A liquid will become lighter if it turns into a gas.
  13. Water vapor is less dense than water.
  14. Water evaporates only from objects that contain visible water as a source (oceans, lakes, ponds, rivers, puddles, wet soil, anima wastes…).
  15. Water transpires from plantsin liquid form
  16. Clouds, dew, fog, and frost is water in a gaseous form.

Precipitation

Rain
  1. It falls from the clouds like from a sprinkling can
  2. Clouds make rain. Rain people cry in the clouds.. God makes it. God, angels, sweat, crying,
  3. Rain comes from holes in the clouds, clouds sweating, clouds shaken, melt
  4. Rain occurs because we need it
  5. Sun and clouds combine to make rain
  6. Moisture in the air causes rain (no relationship about energy)
  7. Rain is cause by moisture reacting with carbon dioxide
  8. It rains when there are enough clouds
  9. It will rain when the water in the sky or clouds becomes less and less gaseous and eventually it becomes water and rains down
  10. Rain has something to do with hot and cold
  11. It rains when water evaporates, gets cold, freezes, and falls out of the cloud.
  12. Rain happens when a cool front hits a warm front or a moist front… (contact)
  13. When clouds become too heavy to hold water it rains
  14. Raindrops are tear shaped.
  15. When water evaporates it disappears or ceases to exist.
  16. Rain, water cycle, just comes from sky, comes from clouds, comes from water on earth to clouds to rain, process but not energy transfer or change of states.
  17. Rain falls when wind blows it out of the clouds.
Snow
  1. Snow is made of water and air, chemicals, cold air,
  2. Snow flake has points on the outside and holes in the middle
  3. Rain starts up high and as it gets closer to Earth it gets colder and turns to snow
  4. What falls is rain or snow depending on the temperature
Evaporation
  1. Water is absorbed into a surface, rather than evaporate into the air. Or an animal drinks it.
  2. Air takes water up into the sky.
  3. Water and air connect and go into the sky
  4. Water turn to steam
  5. Sun absorbed it
  6. Water evaporates as water particle
  7. Water disappears when spilled on surfaces.
  8. Water evaporates to form water vapor.
  9. Evaporation is effected by different variables.
  10. Surface area, air flow, temperature, humidity, air pressure above the water, effect the rate of evaporation.
  11. Evaporation only takes place at the surface.
  12. Other liquids can not evaporate.
  13. When water evaporates it disappears or ceases to exist.
  14. Water comes on shore as waves and evaporates.
  15. Bubbles in boiling water are air.
Clouds
  1. Clouds just go around the Earth.
  2. Are made of pillows, cotton, wool, smoke, vapor from cooking
  3. Clouds move because we move,
  4. Jet contrails are smoke
  5. Clouds are made from air and water
  6. Air pressure keeps clouds in the air
Thunder and lightning
  1. Thunder happens when clouds hit, bump, rub, friction… each other. When a negative cloud hits a positive cloud it makes lightening, When rain rubs against the air
    Lightning is a big spark
  2. Supernatural event (God makes, angels when get a strike bowling)
  3. Found by a famous inventor flying a kite.
  4. Thunder occurs without lightening. Lightening occurs without thunder (heat lightening).
  5. Lightening never strikes twice in the same place.

Weather season, & climate

  1. Weather is caused by wind.
  2. Rain and snow is caused by clouds.

Seasons

  1. Seasons are caused by the distance of the Earth from the sun. In the summer the Earth is closer to the sun.
  2. The distance of different parts of the Earth, caused by the tilt of the Earth on its axis, causes the seasons

Educator notes

Concepts - Beginning (preschool - 7 years)

Atmosphere

  1. There are gases surrounding the Earth Living organisms interact with the Earth.

Water cycle

  1. Clouds are necessary for rain.
  2. Most of the Earth's surface is covered with water.

Weather season, & climate

  1. Weather changes from day to day and over the seasons.

Educator notes

Concepts - Intermediate (7 years - 11 years)

Atmosphere

  1. The Earth's atmosphere is made of gases, one of which is oxygen, that animals breathe.
  2. Living organisms change the Earth's atmosphere.
  3. Sunrise, sunset, and blue sky
  4. White light is scattered by the gases in the atmosphere and since blue has the shortƒpressureest wavelength it is scattered less than others and that is why the sky is blue.

Water cycle

  1. Clouds form from water vapor.
  2. Water, which covers the majority of the earth's surface, circulates through the crust, oceans, and atmosphere and is known as the water cycle.

Weather season, & climate

  1. Weather can be described by measurable quantities, such as temperature, wind direction, speed, and precipitation.

Educator notes

Concepts Literate (11+)

Atmosphere

  1. The atmosphere is a mixture of nitrogen, oxygen, and trace gases that include water vapor.
  2. The atmosphere has different properties at different elevations.
  3. Living organisms have played many roles in the earth system, including affecting the composition of the atmosphere, producing some types of rocks, and contributing to the weathering of rocks.

Water cycle

  1. Water cycle includes the evaporation of water from the earth's surface, rises and cools as it moves to higher elevations, condenses as rain or snow, and falls to the surface where it collects in lakes, oceans, soil, and in rocks underground.
  2. Water is a solvent. As it passes through the water cycle it dissolves minerals and gases and carries them to the oceans.

Weather season, & climate

  1. Weather is driven by solar energy.
  2. Oceans have a major effect on climate, because water in the oceans holds a large amount of heat.
  3. Global patterns of atmospheric movement influence local weather.
  4. Surface seawater freezes and rises above the salt, which sinks making the water below more dense, which causes bottom currents that distribute heat around the oceans of the planet.

Educator notes

  • Spreading rock dust on agricultural land can enhance weathering, speed up the natural processes of erosion and chemical reactions. Minerals, which can benefit soil health, increase food production and reduce atmospheric CO2..
  • Rock dust (crushed rock) can be spread over a large area once a year. When it rains, water dissolves silicate or carbonate materials in the dust, which causes carbon dioxide from the atmosphere to be combined into the solution, forming bicarbonate ions. Over time, the ions wash into the ocean and form carbonate minerals, where the carbon will be trapped for 100,000 years or more. China, U.S., and India have the greatest potential for this to positively effect global warming. Source
  • Weather Makers by Fred Pearce. Discusses how forests supply the world with rain, and make winds. Science 19 Jun 2020:
  • A Path to Clean Water Science July 20, 2018. p 222-224

 

Earth's History

Properties of Earth, its evolution, plate tectonics, its place in the universe

Initial perceptual naive misconceptions (any age)

Misconceptions (Explanations, Naive understanding, Misconceptions, or Perceptual responses)

  • Earth has always been here like it is now.

Educator notes

Concepts - Beginning (preschool - 7 years)

Earth History

  1. The Earth changes.

Educator notes

Concepts - Intermediate (7 years - 11 years)

Earth History

  1. The Earth has changed considerably over long periods of time.
  2. Plate tectonics is the movement of large slabs of Earth that floats on molten rock below it.
  3. Land formations - mountains, plateaus, river basins, deltas,
  4. Time is measured in 100,000's of years.

Educator notes

Concepts - Literate (11+)

Earth History

  1. The Earth's processes we see today, include erosion, movement of lithospheric plates, and changes in atmospheric composition, are similar to those that occurred in the past.
  2. Earth history is also influenced by occasional catastrophes, such as the impact of an asteroid or comet.
  3. Earth's atmosphere when just formed was mostly hydrogen (H2) and helium (He) which were very warm, moved so fast they escaped Earth's gravity, and eventually drifted off into space. Later Young Earth had volcanoes which released gases H2O (water) as steam, carbon dixoide (CO2), and ammonia (NH3). Carbon dioxide (CO2) dissolved in seawater. Simple bacteria thrived on sunlight and CO2 and some organisims produce oxygen (O2). Now, plants and animals thrive with an atmosphere balance. Plants use carbon dioxide (CO2) and make oxygen (O2). Animals use oxygen (O2) and release CO2. Burning creates CO2.

Educator notes

 

Space & astronomy

Beyond Earth's atmosphere

Initial perceptual naive misconceptions (any age)

Misconceptions (Explanations, Naive understanding, Misconceptions, or Perceptual responses)

Space

  1. There is sound in space.
  2. There is air in space.
  3. Jets can fly in space
  4. Space craft are hot when they come back to Earth because they were going fast (speed only not interactions with air).

Moon

  1. Phases of the moon are caused by the moon being in the Earth's shadow, Sun’s shadow
    Clouds, weather...
  2. Half of the moon is always in the dark.
  3. The moon does not rotate
  4. The moon's rotation causes the phases
  5. The moon is a planet
  6. The moon follows you
  7. You can't see the moon in the daytime.
  8. The moon is blue during the daytime, that is why you don't see it.
  9. The moon has no gravity.
  10. Different places on Earth see different phases of the moon on the same day.
  11. The moon chases the sun across the sky.
  12. The moon is larger on the horizon because it is closer to Earth, We compare it to foreground objects and
  13. it looks bigger. The gases, dust, in the atmosphere make it look that way.
  14. The moon only shows one face to Earth because it is not rotating.
  15. Moon rises rise and sets exactly east and west.
  16. Moon phases are shadows on the surface of the moon.
  17. Moon phases are caused by different amounts of sunlight shining on the moon’s surface.

Planets including Earth

  1. Planets are in a straight line
  2. Planets are in a plane.
  3. All planets travel at the same speed.
  4. The Earth is larger than the Sun.
  5. Earth is flat. Round like pancake. Relive on a flat space on ori n a sphere.
  6. The Earth is sitting on something.
  7. Planets can’t be seen without a telescope.

Solar System - relationship of Earth, Sun, moon, planets, ...

  1. Sun’s relationship to Earth:
    • Where is the Sun at night? Sleeps, runs away from the moon, goes away at night, on the other side of the Earth, (Sun orbits the Earth) goes to the Chinese side, It sets on the other side of the Earth, but I don’t know how it gets back to the other side. It must cross the sky at night.
  2. Sun is always directly overhead at 12:00 noon.
  3. Shadows move in a straight line.
  4. Sun rises and sets exactly east and west.
  5. Sun is always directly overhead at 12:00 noon.
  6. Shadows move in a straight line.
  7. The Earth goes around the Sun and is on the dark side at night.
  8. Milky Way is at the center of the solar system
  9. Earth is the center of the solar system
  10. Earth is the largest planet in the solar sytem
  11. Stars are in the solar system

Stars

  1. Stars predict the future.
  2. Stars are not out in the daytime
  3. Sun is a planet
  4. Are made of foil or something shiny
  5. Like an asteroid
  6. Stuff that reflects light
  7. Balls of fire
  8. Balls of fire and gases
  9. The Sun and the Earth are the same size.
  10. Stars have pointed tips.
  11. Stars are different colors because of distance, size of stars, different matter,
  12. The Sun is not a star.
  13. Stars are burning hydrogen
  14. Stars and constellations are in the same place each night.
  15. All the stars in a constellation are grouped together by distance.
  16. Stars close to Earth are brighter and the farther away they are they get dimmer.

Space & astronomy

  1. Constellations are two dimensional.
  2. Meteors are falling stars.

Educator notes

Concepts - Beginning (preschool - 7 years)

  1. Clouds, birds, and airplanes all have properties, locations, and movements that can be observed and described. They do not travel beyond the atmosphere.
  2. There are more stars in the sky than can be easily counted.
  3. They are not scattered evenly and are not the same brightness or color.
  4. The sun can be seen only in the day time.
  5. The moon can be seen sometimes at day and sometimes at night.
  6. The sun, moon, and stars all appear to move in the sky.
  7. The moon looks a little different every day and the same again about every four weeks.
  8. Earth is a planet.
  9. Gravity pulls objects toward the Earth.

Educator notes

Concepts - Intermediate (7 years - 11 years)

  1. Objects in the sky have patterns of movement.
  2. The sun, for example, appears to move across the sky in the same way every day, but its path changes slowly over the seasons.
  3. The moon moves across the sky on a daily basis much like the sun.
  4. The observable shape of the moon changes from day to day in a cycle that lasts about a month.
  5. Seasons result from variations in the amount of the sun's energy hitting the surface, due to the tilt of the earth's rotation on its axis and the length of the day.
  6. The stars form patterns in the sky that stay the same, although they appear to move across the sky nightly, and different stars can be seen in different seasons.
  7. Telescopes are use to study the objects in the sky.
  8. Planets change their positions relative to the stars.
  9. The sun is a star.
  10. The Earth is a planet that orbits the sun, and the moon orbits the Earth.
  11. The earth is the third planet from the sun in a system that includes the moon, the sun, eight other planets and their moons, and smaller objects, such as asteroids and comets.
  12. The sun, an average star, is the central and largest body in the solar system.
  13. Gravity alone holds us to the earth's surface, and explains the phenomena of the tides.
  14. The sun provides light and heat necessary to maintain the temperature of the earth.

Educator notes

Concepts - Literate (11+)

  1. Most objects in the solar system are in regular and predictable motion.
  2. Those motions explain such phenomena as the day, the year, phases of the moon, and eclipses.
  3. We live on a relatively small planet that is the third from the sun.
  4. The Earth is mostly rock with three-fourths of it covered by water and the entire planet surrounded by air.
  5. Seven other planets of different size, compositions and conditions from Earth orbit the sun and do not appear to be able to support life.
  6. The planets have general patterns that relate to their size, orbits, number of moons, and distance from the sun. Everything on or anywhere near the Earth is pulled toward the Earth's center by gravitational force.
  7. Large chunks of rocks orbit the sun in different orbits.
  8. Some will glow and disintegrate from friction as they move through the atmosphere or sometimes impact the surface.
  9. Others mixed with ice will be heated by the sun's energy and boil off frozen material from their surface and push it into a long illuminated tail.
  10. There are relationships between the objects in the solar system.
  11. Gravity is the force that keeps planets in orbit around the sun and governs the rest of the motion in the solar system.
  12. The sun is the major source of energy for phenomena on the earth's surface, such as growth of plants, winds, weather, ocean currents, and the water cycle.

Educator notes

The Universe and Solar Systems

  • When considering the creation and evolution of the Universe we often overlook the evidence below our feet. The Earth is a unique planet and that uniqueness provides evidence along with evidence from other space objects on the evolution of solar systems and planets. Evidence used includes: Every planet in our solar system formed from the gases and dust in the solar nebula around the Sun. The physical process that formed Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars are basically the same. Results of that process can be seen in the rocks of those planets. Reactions between these ingredients and the physics on each planet provide clues about planetary evolution. Cratering, sedimentation, erosion, landslides, volcanism, weather, climate, (comparative planetology) changes in temperature, atmospheric pressure, cycles (carbon dioxide, water, …) plate tectonics, continental drift, moons, tides, planet rotation (Venus retrograde), planet’s rotation axis Earth = 23.4 degrees, to make seasons, life’s interaction and evolution on planets (Earth’s change from methane and carbon dioxide to a more oxygen atmosphere that changed the kinds of life 2.5 billion YA, from photosynthesis (conversion of sunlight and carbon dioxide to energy and oxygen), amount of minerals, coevolution of life and geology, ‘’d
    Planets result from chance, we are luck to inhabit this special place, so we shouldn’t mess it up.
  • Real time images of Earth from space via NASA .gov

 

Solar

The Sun and its neighborhood.

Initial perceptual naive misconceptions (any age)

Misconceptions (Explanations, Naive understanding, Misconceptions, or Perceptual responses)

  1. Sun has unlimited energy.
  2. The Sun is not a star.
  3. Sun will never burn out.

Educator notes

Concepts - Beginning (preschool - 7 years)

  1. Sun provides the Earth with light.

Educator notes

Concepts - Intermediate (7 years - 11 years)

  1. The sun provides light and heat necessary to maintain the temperature of the earth.
  2. The sun is a major source of energy (light and heat) for changes on the Earth's surface.
  3. A tiny fraction of the sun's light is transferred to the Earth.

Educator notes

Concepts - Literate (11+)

  1. The sun is the major source of energy for phenomena on the earth's surface, such as growth of plants, winds, weather, ocean currents, and the water cycle.
  2. The sun's energy arrives as light with a range of wavelengths, consisting of visible light, infrared, and ultraviolet radiation.

Educator notes

Top

 

Notebook banner

Science perspectives

Perspective dimension

  • Engineering & technology
    • Engineering & technology as defining & delimiting problems, developing solutions, optimizing solutions & Technology as linking engineering, technology, & science
    • Design of systems, and information processing information technology and instrumentation
    • Issues in Technology linking engineering, technology, and science to society and the natural world
  • Personal & Social - Science's relationship to personal and social decisions: health, safety, natural hazards, and risks. See Human organism for background information
  • History of Science
  • Nature of Science
    • Science as a subject of doing science,
    • Perspectives of science as a discipline or as a subject, &
    • Science as a social endeavor

 

Engineering & Technology

Misconceptions - Initial perceptual naive (any age)
(Explanations for people's misconceptions: naive understandings & perceptual responses)

  1. Engineering doesn't use science.

Educator notes

Concepts - Beginning (preschool - 7 years)

  1. Technology can be used to build or improve something.
  2. Humans make technology to do things.
  3. Tools are a part of technology and they are used to do things better, easier, and things that could not be done otherwise.
  4. Tools are used to make better observations and measurements.
  5. Some objects occur in nature (natural objects); others have been designed and made by people to solve human problems and enhance the quality of life (design or man made).
  6. Drawings and simple models can be used to plan technology.
  7. People help other people to make and improve things.

Educator notes

Concepts - Intermediate (7 years - 11 years)

  1. Technological design heuristic: Identification of a problem; propose a solution with respect to cost, materials, time, space, and safety; implement a solution with respect to any constraints identified during the proposal step; evaluate the design and product with relation to solving the problem and make modifications as necessary or desired.
  2. People have always had questions about their world.
  3. Science is one way of answering questions and explaining the natural world.
  4. Trying to determine the effects of solutions helps people avoid some new problems.
  5. Scientists and engineers often work in teams with different individuals doing different things that contribute to the results.
  6. This understanding focuses primarily on teams working together and secondarily, on the combination of scientist and engineer teams.
  7. Technologies have improved the standards of life (food production, sanitation, disease prevention, and people with disabilities).
  8. Women and men of all ages, backgrounds, and groups engage in a variety of scientific and technological work.
  9. Tools help scientists make better and more accurate observations, measurements, and equipment for investigations.
  10. They help scientists see, measure, and do things that they could not otherwise see, measure, and do. Perfectly designed solutions or products do not exist.
  11. All technological solutions have trade-offs, such as safety, cost, efficiency, materials needed, benefits, liabilities, appearance, and other variables.
  12. Engineers often build in back-up systems to provide safety.
  13. Risk is part of living in a highly technological world.
  14. Reducing risk often results in new technology.
  15. Some consequences can be predicted, others cannot.
  16. Throughout all history people everywhere have invented and used tools.
  17. Many of today's tools are modifications of yesterday's tools.
  18. Technology helps extend the ability of people to change the world: cut, shape, put together, move from place to place, reach farther, increase senses, communicate, and think for survival needs such as food, water, shelter, and defense.

Educator notes

Concepts Literate (11+)

  1. People have always had problems and invented tools and techniques (ways of doing something) for scientific inquiry and technological design.
  2. The two have similarities and differences.
  3. Scientists propose explanations for questions about the natural world, and engineers propose solutions relating to human problems, needs, and aspirations.
  4. Technologies exist within nature and so they cannot contravene physical or biological principles. Technological solutions and technologies they have side effects, costs, carry risks, and provide benefits.
  5. Many different people in different cultures have made and continue to make contributions to science and technology.
  6. Technology is essential to science, because it provides instruments and techniques that enable observations of objects and phenomena that are other wise unobservable due to factors such as quantity, distance, location, size, and speed.
  7. Technology provides tools for investigations, inquiry, and analysis.
  8. Science and technology are reciprocal.
  9. Science helps drive technology, as it addresses questions that demand more sophisticated instruments and provides ideas for better instrumentation and technique. Technological designs have constraints that engineers, architects, and others must take into account to solve practical problems.
  10. Some constraints are unavoidable, for example, properties of materials, or effects of weather and friction; other constraints limit choices in the design, for example, environmental protection, human safety, and aesthetics.
  11. The knowledge base for science is recorded in print and electronic media and can be found and understood by people in and out of classrooms

Educator notes

 

Technology & design

  • Technology design, systems, and information processing information technology and instrumentation.

Misconceptions - Initial perceptual naive (any age)
(Explanations for people's misconceptions: naive understandings & perceptual responses)

  1. Peoplejust use trial and error to build things.
  2. Each new invention is created from scratch.

Educator notes

Concepts - Beginning (preschool - 7 years)

  1. People use objects and ideas to solve problems.
  2. People can't always make what they design.
  3. Some materials are better than others for making particular things.
  4. Materials that are better in some ways (stronger, cheaper) may be worse in other ways (heavier, harder to form).
  5. Steps are usually involved in making things.
  6. Tools are helpful when making things.
  7. Some things can't be made with out tools.
  8. Each kind of tool has a special purpose.
  9. People use different devices and media to communicate or send and receive information.
  10. A variety of different materials (paper, cardboard, wood, plastic, metal) can be used with a variety of tools (hammers, screwdrivers, clamps, rulers, scissors, hand lenses, and audio-visual equipment) to make simple constructions.

Educator notes

Concepts - Intermediate (7 years - 11 years) Intermediate (7 years - 11 years)

  1. There is no perfect design.
  2. Solutions for one problem may cause another and create trade-offs in designs.
  3. Even good designs may have flaws or fail.
  4. Material can be processed or combined with others to change their properties.
  5. Through science and technology people have created materials with a wide range of properties (steel, rayon, crystals).
  6. Discarded materials contribute to the waste problem.
  7. Many materials can be recycled or the amount of waste can be decreased with better production methods.
  8. Through mass production the time and cost of making something can be reduced.
  9. Most things in the world are made with automated machines that require people to run.
  10. Simple tools and materials can be used to make simple mechanical constructions and repair things.
  11. Measurement in the kitchen, garage, or laboratory can help in construction and being safe.
  12. Written documents that describe detailed observations, ideas, and predictions can be understood weeks or months later.
  13. Calculations of length, area, volume, time, cost, weight, can he helpful in making decisions.
  14. Safety should always be of primary concern.
  15. Audio and video equipment can be used to capture information.
  16. Patterns can be used to encode information, which can be sent, received, and decode if it is to be understood.

Educator notes

Concepts Literate (11+)

  1. Designs have limits that are based on physical properties of matter, energy, society, personal, and other conditions.
  2. Waves can be used to transmit digital information.
  3. All designs and technologies may have effects that were not anticipated.
  4. Almost all systems have inputs, outputs, and feedback.
  5. Digitized information is a pattern made with on and off current or 1s and 0s.
  6. Digital information can store large amounts of information which can be stored and shipped.
  7. Control is requires sensing information, processing it, and making changes.
  8. Systems fail because of poor design, selection of materials, use that exceeds design expectations, while testing and redundancy is used to reduce failure.
  9. The choice of materials for a task depend on the properties of the materials and how they will contribute to the successful production of the product.
  10. Manufacturing requires a series of steps (design, obtaining and preparing raw materials, processing the materials, assembly, testing, inspecting, packaging) that are important.
  11. Modern technology reduces production costs and produces a more uniform product.
  12. The use of synthetic materials can reduce the depletion of natural resources.
  13. Automation has change the nature of work (higher skills, knowledge of technology, engineering , quality control, supervision, maintenance).
  14. Computers can be used to store information.
  15. A variety of instruments can be used to measure, length, temperature, volume, mass, weight, elapsed time, rate, and reported with appropriate units to help in design and building.
  16. You can inspect a device by taking it apart, looking at the parts, and reassemble it to see how it works.
  17. You can also make changes and see the results.

Educator notes

Design process

 

Technology issues

  • Issues in Technology linking engineering, technology, and science to society and the natural world

Misconceptions - Initial perceptual naive (any age)
(Explanations for people's misconceptions: naive understandings & perceptual responses)

  1. Technology is made in factories and sold in stores.
  2. Tools are only used in workshops.
  3. Tools are only used by construction people.
  4. Cooking utensils are not tools.
  5. People alone or in groups are always inventing new ways to solve problems and do work.

Educator notes

Concepts - Beginning (preschool - 7 years)

  1. Technology is the use of science ideas and tools for practical purposes.
  2. Tools (technology) and the ways people do things affect all aspects of life.
  3. Technology has been on Earth since the beginning of humans.
  4. Technology influences people and people create technology.
  5. Any invention is likely to lead to another invention.
  6. An invention is likely to cause people to think of new ways of using it.
  7. We enjoy many luxuries because of technology.
  8. Technology is not equally available to all people on Earth.
  9. When people want to build something new they should consider how it might affect people.
  10. Scientific laws, engineering principles, properties of matter, and construction techniques are all used in designing solutions to problems.
  11. Cost, safety, appearance, environmental impact, and what happens if the solution fails should be considered when designing technology.
  12. Technologies have drawbacks as well as benefits that may be know or not during design and production.
  13. The ability to invent tools and technology has caused people to have a tremendous impact on all living organisms.

Educator notes

Concepts - Intermediate (7 years - 11 years)

  1. People shape the future by their ability for creating knowledge and technology and communicating it to others.
  2. Technology can not solve all problems or meet all human needs.
  3. Technology strongly influenced the course of history and continues to do so (agriculture, manufacturing, sanitation, medicine, warfare, transportation, information processing, and communication).
  4. New technologies have benefits and risks.
  5. Rarely are technology issues one-sided.
  6. Many issues can create benefits as well as negative consequences.
  7. Society influences what aspects of technology are developed and how they are used.

Educator notes

Concepts Literate (11+)

Educator notes

 

Personal and Social

  • Personal and Social - Science's relationship to personal and social decisions: health, safety, natural hazards, and risks. See Human organism for background information

Initial perceptual naive misconceptions (any age)

Misconceptions (Explanations, Naive understanding, Misconceptions, or Perceptual responses)

  1. Science doesn't relate to me.
  2. Scientists work alone.

Educator notes

Concepts - Beginning (preschool - 7 years)

Educator notes

Concepts - Intermediate (7 years - 11 years)

Educator notes

Concepts - Literate (11+)

Health

  1. Science can inform decision making in what is necessary for healthy lives and what is detrimental.

Safety

  1. Life involves risks.
  2. Science can provide data in making decision for risk management.

Natural hazards

  1. Natural hazards can present personal and societal challenges because miss identifying the change or incorrectly estimating the rate and scale of change may result in either too little attention and significant human costs or too much cost for unneeded preventative measures.

Risks

  1. Science provides data from observations and models to provide for risk analysis to consider the type of hazard and estimates for the number of people that might be exposed and the number likely to suffer consequences. The results are used to determine the options for reducing or eliminating risks. There are risks associated with natural hazards (fires, floods, tornadoes, hurricanes, earthquakes, and volcanic eruptions). with chemical hazards (pollutants in air, water, soil, and food), with biological hazards (pollen, viruses, bacterial, and parasite), social hazards (occupational safety and transportation) and with personal hazards (smoking, dieting, and drinking).
  2. Science provides real life data from observations that individuals can use in a systematic approach to thinking critically about risks and benefits. Examples include applying probability estimates to risks and comparing them to estimated personal and social benefits. Important personal and social decisions are made based on perceptions of benefits and risks.

Educator notes

See also: Human organisms/anatomy for background information

 

 

History of science

Initial perceptual naive misconceptions (any age)

Misconceptions (Explanations, Naive understanding, Misconceptions, or Perceptual responses)

  1. People have always known how to use science.
  2. Science doesn't change.

Educator notes

Concepts - Beginning (preschool - 7 years)

Science and technology have been practiced by people for a long time.

Educator notes

Concepts - Intermediate (7 years - 11 years)

  1. Scientists have been experimenting for years.
  2. Men and women have made a variety of contributions throughout the history of science and technology.
  3. Although men and women using scientific inquiry have learned much about the objects, events, and phenomena in nature, much more remains to be understood.
  4. Science will never be finished. Many people choose science as a career and devote their entire lives to studying it.
  5. Many people derive great pleasure from doing science.
  6. Women and men of various social and ethnic backgrounds-and with diverse interests, talents, qualities, and motivations-engage in the activities of science, engineering, and related fields such as the health professions.
  7. Some scientists work in teams, and some work alone, but all communicate extensively with others.
  8. Science requires different abilities, depending on such factors as the field of study and type of inquiry.

Educator notes

Concepts - Literate (11+)

  1. Some scientific knowledge is very old and is still applicable today.
  2. Tracing the history of science can show how difficult it was for scientific innovators to break through the accepted ideas of their time to reach to conclusions that we currently take for granted.
  3. Many individuals have contributed to the traditions of science.
  4. Studying some of these individuals provides further understanding of scientific inquiry, science as a human endeavor, the nature of science, and the relationships between science and society.
  5. Science is very much a human endeavor, and the work of science relies on basic human qualities, such as reasoning, insight, energy, skill, and creativity-as well as scientific habits of the mind, such as intellectual honesty, tolerance of ambiguity, skepticism, and openness to new ideas.
  6. In historical perspective, science has been practiced by different individuals in different cultures.
  7. In looking at the history of many peoples, one finds that scientists and engineers of high achievement are considered to be among the most valued contributors to their culture. Lavoisier successfully tested the concept of conservation of matter.
  8. Marie Curie and Pierre Curie isolated two new elements.
  9. One radium was named because of the powerful rays it gave off.
  10. Marie was the first person ever to win two Nobel prizes in two different fields.
  11. Louis Pasteur introduced germ theory. He demonstrated what caused milk and wine to spoil.

Educator notes

 

Nature of science

  • Doing of Science
  • Perspectives of science discipline or as a subject
  • Science as a social endeavor

Initial perceptual naive misconceptions (any age)

Misconceptions (Explanations, Naive understanding, Misconceptions, or Perceptual responses)

  1. Science finds one anwer.
  2. Science never changes.
  3. Only special people can do science.

Educator notes

Concepts - Beginning (preschool - 7 years)

Doing science

  1. Scientists use different ways to study the natural world.
  2. When an investigation is repeated there is usually similar results.
  3. Science is a human endeavor.
  4. Scientists answer questions with observations.
  5. Scientist look for patterns and order when making observations about the world.
  6. Scientists are often creative.
  7. Scientists use drawings, sketches, and models as a way to understand and communicate.
  8. Scientific ideas change with time. Science is tentative. Science explanations can change based on neew evidence.
  9. When an investigation is repeated there is usually similar results.
  10. Scientists answer questions with observations.
  11. People can often learn about things around them by just observing those things carefully, but sometimes they can learn more by doing something to the things and noting what happens.
  12. Although men and women using scientific inquiry have learned much about the objects, events, and phenomena in nature, much more remains to be understood. Science will never be finished.

Perspectives of science discipline or as a subject

  1. Scientists can disagree and work together to collect information that they agree with to understand the world.
  2. Science is a human endeavor.
  3. Scientific ideas change with time.

Science as a social endeavor

  1. Science ideas can be shared with others.
  2. Ideas and inventions affect people.
  3. People can agree and disagree on exploring similar and different ideas.
  4. Scientists can disagree and work together to collect information that they agree with to understand the world.

Educator notes

Concepts - Intermediate (7 years - 11 years)

Doing science

  1. Science investigations turn out exactly the same if variables are identified and controlled, different investigation methods are identified, and observations are accurate.
  2. Science is a creative process.
  3. Scientists create questions, design an experiment, and use observations to answer their questions.
  4. All scientific ideas are tentative and subject to change and improvement.
  5. However, most scientific ideas change incrementally retaining core ideas with a sort of modification for clarity rather than complete revision.
  6. Science is a process with a community of scientists that review and support each other and the understanding of the natural world.
  7. The scientific method can not answer all questions.
  8. Results of similar scientific investigations seldom turn out exactly the same. Sometimes this is because of unexpected differences in the things being investigated, sometimes because of unrealized differences in the methods used or in the circumstances in which the investigation is carried out, and sometimes just because of uncertainties in observations.
  9. It is not always easy to tell which.
  10. Scientific investigations may take many different forms, including observing what things are like or what is happening somewhere, collecting specimens for analysis, and doing experiments.
  11. Investigations can focus on physical, biological, and social questions.
  12. Scientists' explanations about what happens in the world come partly from what they observe, partly from what they think.
  13. Sometimes scientists have different explanations for the same set of observations. That usually leads to their making more observations to resolve the differences.
  14. Scientists' explanations about what happens in the world come partly from what they observe, partly from what they think.
  15. Sometimes scientists have different explanations for the same set of observations. That usually leads to their making more observations to resolve the differences.
  16. Scientists do not pay much attention to claims about how something they know about works unless the claims are backed up with evidence that can be confirmed and with a logical argument.
  17. Scientists formulate and test their explanations of nature using observation, experiments, and theoretical and mathematical models.
  18. Although all scientific ideas are tentative and subject to change and improvement in principle, for most major ideas in science, there is much experimental and observational confirmation. Those ideas are not likely to change greatly in the future.
  19. Scientists do and have changed their ideas about nature when they encounter new experimental evidence that does not match their existing explanations.

Perspectives of science discipline or as a subject

  1. Tracing the history of science can show how difficult it was for scientific innovators to break through the accepted ideas of their time to reach the conclusions that we currently take for granted.
  2. Science investigations turn out exactly the same if variables are identified and controlled, different investigation methods are identified, and observations are accurate.
  3. Science is a creative process.
  4. Scientists create questions, design an experiment, and use observations to answer their questions.
  5. All scientific ideas are tentative and subject to change and improvement. However, most scientific ideas change incrementally retaining core ideas with a sort of modification for clarity rather than complete revision.
  6. The scientific method can not answer all questions.

Science as a social endeavor

  1. Science is a process with a community of scientists that review and support each other and the understanding of the natural world.
  2. People continue inventing new ways of doing things, solving problems, and getting work done.
  3. New ideas and inventions often affect other people' sometimes the effects are good and sometimes they are bad.
  4. It is helpful to try to determine in advance how ideas and inventions will affect other people.
  5. The effect of science on society is neither entirely beneficial nor entirely detrimental.
  6. Society challenges often inspire questions for scientific, research, and social priorities often influence research priorities through the availability of funding for research.
  7. Science influences society through its knowledge and world view.
  8. Technology influences society through its products and processes.
  9. Science and technology have advanced through contributions of many different people, in different cultures.

Educator notes

Concepts - Literate (11+)

Doing science

  1. When scientists encounter new experimental evidence, that does not match their existing explanations, they decide if the differences are trivial or significant with additional investigations.
  2. If they decide the differences are significant they do and have changed their ideas.
  3. Doing science involves creativity, imagination, and logical thinking to generate and test the validity of ideas.
  4. Scientists formulate and test their explanations using observations, experiments, and theoretical and mathematical models.
  5. Most major ideas in science have much experimental and observational confirmation that is not likely to change much in the future.
  6. Accepted scientific theories are powerful models for explaining past, present, and future phenomena and events.
  7. The validity of an explanation being a function of the type and amount of evidence to support the theory.
  8. Scientific knowledge is subject to modification as new information challenges prevailing theories and as a new theory leads to looking at old observations in a new way.
  9. Scientists differ greatly in what phenomena they study and how they go about their work. Although there is no fixed set of steps that all scientists follow, scientific investigations usually involve the collection of relevant evidence, the use of logical reasoning, and the application of imagination in devising hypotheses and explanations to make sense of the collected evidence.
  10. From time to time, major shifts occur in the scientific view of how the world works. More often, however, the changes that take place in the body of scientific knowledge are small modifications of prior knowledge.
  11. Change and continuity are persistent features of science.
  12. No matter how well one theory fits observations, a new theory might fit them just as well or better, or might fit a wider range of observations.
  13. In science, the testing, revising, and occasional discarding of theories, new and old, never ends.
  14. This ongoing process leads to an increasingly better understanding of how things work in the world but not to absolute truth.
  15. Evidence for the value of this approach is given by the improving ability of scientists to offer reliable explanations and make accurate predictions.
  16. In the short run, new ideas that do not mesh well with mainstream ideas in science often encounter vigorous criticism. In the long run, theories are judged by how they fit with other theories, the range of observations they explain, how well they explain observations, and how effective they are in predicting new findings.
  17. Science distinguishes itself from other ways of knowing and from other bodies of knowledge through the use of empirical standards, logical arguments, and skepticism, as scientists strive for the best possible explanations about the natural world.
  18. Scientific explanations must meet certain criteria. First and foremost, they must be consistent with experimental and observational evidence about nature, and must make accurate predictions, when appropriate, about systems being studied.
  19. They should also be logical, respect the rules of evidence, be open to criticism, report methods and procedures, and make knowledge public.
  20. Explanations on how the natural world changes based on myths, personal beliefs, religious values, mystical inspiration, superstition, or authority may be personally useful and socially relevant, but they are not scientific.
  21. Because all scientific ideas depend on experimental and observational confirmation, all scientific knowledge is, in principle, subject to change as new evidence becomes available.
  22. The core ideas of science such as the conservation of energy or the laws of motion have been subjected to a wide variety of confirmations and are therefore unlikely to change in the areas in which they have been tested. In areas where data or understanding are incomplete, such as the details of human evolution or questions surrounding global warming, new data may well lead to changes in current ideas or resolve current conflicts.
  23. In situations where information is still fragmentary, it is normal for scientific ideas to be incomplete, but this is also where the opportunity for making advances may be greatest.
  24. The historical perspective of scientific explanations demonstrates I how scientific knowledge changes by evolving over time, almost always building on earlier knowledge.

Perspectives of science discipline or as a subject

  1. In new scientific areas there is not a great deal of experimental or observational evidence and understanding, therefore it is normal for scientists to differ with one another about the interpretation of the evidence or theory being considered.
  2. Different scientists might publish conflicting experimental results or might draw different conclusions from the same data. Ideally, scientists acknowledge such conflict and work towards finding evidence that will resolve their disagreement by reviewing experimental procedures, examining the evidence, identifying faulty reasoning, pointing out statements that go beyond the evidence, and suggesting alternative explanations for the same observations.
  3. Although scientists may disagree about explanations of phenomena, about interpretations of data, or about the value of rival theories, they do agree that questioning, response to criticism, and open communication are integral to the process of science.
  4. As scientific knowledge evolves, major disagreements are eventually resolved through such interactions between scientists.
  5. Some matters (ethical and moral) cannot be examined by the scientific method.
  6. When scientists encounter new experimental evidence, that does not match their existing explanations, they decide if the differences are trivial or significant with additional investigations.
  7. If they decide the differences are significant they do and have changed their ideas.
  8. Science involves creativity, imagination, and logical thinking to generate and test the validity of ideas.
  9. Scientists formulate and test their explanations using observations, experiments, and theoretical and mathematical models.
  10. Most major ideas in science have much experimental and observational confirmation that is not likely to change much in the future.
  11. Accepted scientific theories are powerful models for explaining past, present, and future phenomena and events.
  12. The validity of an explanation being a function of the type and amount of evidence to support the theory. In new scientific areas there is not a great deal of experimental or observational evidence and understanding, therefore it is normal for scientists to differ with one another about the interpretation of the evidence or theory being considered.
  13. Different scientists might publish conflicting experimental results or might draw different conclusions from the same data.
  14. Ideally, scientists acknowledge such conflict and work towards finding evidence that will resolve their disagreement by reviewing experimental procedures, examining the evidence, identifying faulty reasoning, pointing out statements that go beyond the evidence, and suggesting alternative explanations for the same observations.
  15. Although scientists may disagree about explanations of phenomena, about interpretations of data, or about the value of rival theories, they do agree that questioning, response to criticism, and open communication are integral to the process of science.
  16. As scientific knowledge evolves, major disagreements are eventually resolved through such interactions between scientists. Some matters (ethical and moral) cannot be examined by the scientific method.
  17. Science is influenced by social, cultural, political, religious, and geographical entities in which people live.
  18. Science rejects authoritarianism.
  19. Science seeks honest information.
  20. Science is skeptical and rejects the idea of absolute truth.
  21. Science rejects supernatural explanations.
  22. Science seeks simplicity (Occam's Razor).
  23. Science seeks consistency.

Science as a social endeavor

  1. Scientist often collaborate with each other.
  2. Some matters (ethical and moral) cannot be examined by the scientific method.
  3. Scientists are influenced by societal, cultural, and personal beliefs and ways of viewing the world. Science is not separate from society but rather science is a part of society.
  4. Science is influenced by social, cultural, political, religious, and geographical entities in which people live.
  5. Science rejects authoritarianism. Science seeks honest information. Science is skeptical and rejects the idea of absolute truth.
  6. Science rejects supernatural explanations.
  7. Science seeks simplicity (Occam's Razor). Science seeks consistency.
  8. Social needs, attitudes, and values influence the direction of technological development.
  9. Science and technology have greatly improved food quality and quantity, transportation, health, sanitation, and communication.
  10. These benefits of science and technology are not available to all of the people in the world.
  11. Technology influences the quality of life and the ways people act and interact.
  12. Technological changes are often accompanied by social, political, and economic changes that can be beneficial or detrimental to individuals and to society.
  13. Scientists and engineers have ethical codes requiring that human subjects involved with research be fully informed about risks and benefits associated with the research before the individuals choose to participate.
  14. This ethic extends to potential risks to communities and property.
  15. In short, prior knowledge and consent are required for research involving human subjects or potential damage to property.
  16. Science and technology have contributed enormously to economic growth and productivity among societies and groups within societies.
  17. Scientists and engineers work in many different settings, including colleges and universities, businesses and industries, specific research institutes, and government agencies.
  18. Science cannot answer all questions and technology cannot solve all human problems or meet all human needs.
  19. Scientific knowledge and the procedures used by scientists influence the way many individuals in society think about themselves, others, and the environment.

Educator notes

Top

 

Home Science

 

Dr. Robert Sweetland's notes
homeofbob.com & thehob.net