This activity discusses a unit exercise in which a physics practical was implemented during a laboratory session. The lab practical design was centered on Newton's Second Law. The practical was implemented in a high school setting. Further, through the administration of both a pre and post test we were able to assess the effectiveness of the lab…

A great number of misconceptions in diverse subject areas as well as across age levels have been documented and described. Photosynthesis is one of the more intensively studied areas in biology. The purpose of this research was to carefully select and define misconceptions about photosynthesis needing remedial efforts. To achieve this, a specially…

This paper reports data collected during the first year of the Understandings of Consequence Project. This project explores how mismatched models of causality, instances when students' assumptions about how causes and effects behave significantly depart from scientific ones, may generate and/or exacerbate difficulties in achieving scientific…

The use and analysis of student generated propositions linking two scientific concepts (photosynthesis and respiration) were examined before and after the study of photosynthesis. A proposition-generating task (PGT) was used as a diagnostic tool to indicate student misconceptions and partial understandings. Focus was on determining: how the nature…

Over a period of about 3 years, 3204 students in Grades 4 to 10 completed 9862 tests to identify and track their interpretation of decimal notation. Analysis of the longitudinal data demonstrates that different misconceptions persist among students to different degrees and in different patterns across the grades. Estimating the prevalence of…