Identifies 6 types of misleading labels in the drawings of 12 biology textbooks. (Author/MKR)

Describes a procedure for ascertaining secondary students' misconceptions about concepts relating to astronomy. Summarizes results that indicate the usefulness of the approach and the range and extent of the misconceptions which could be revealed. Makes suggestions about how to use the technique in such a way that the findings will challenge the…

Reviews a study which examined high school biology students' (N=58) understandings of the concepts of food chain and ecosystem. Discusses the evaluation scheme and relates how this approach can be used in classifying student responses. It was found that most of the students failed to understand the targeted concepts. (ML)

Expands upon the popular belief that mirrors cause the left-right reversal of objects placed in front of them. The image-location rule and image-symmetry rule are applied throughout the article to help summarize some important properties of mirror images. (ZWH)

Describes the Capacitor-Aided System for Teaching and Learning Electricity (CASTLE) project which is a high school electricity curriculum developed by high school and college physics teachers. The project is motivated by research on students' conceptual difficulties in electricity. The instructional materials developed allow students to challenge…

Describes high-speed photographic methods used to demonstrate that the tip of a snapped towel does break the sound barrier. (ZWH)

Discussed is an approach to learning in which students are given the opportunity to discuss and rationalize the conflict between the students' existing misconceptions and the phenomenon to be studied. Curriculum materials for a unit on acids and bases were developed using this strategy. (KR)

Children's ideas about radiation and radioactivity are reviewed and several common areas of misunderstanding are identified. An approach to teaching the topic at the secondary school level which seeks to specifically address known difficulties is outlined. (CW)

Describes an experiment designed to disprove the belief that an electrical field originating from a point inside a closed conducting surface cannot produce an electric field outside this surface. (ZWH)

Describes a study to determine which action potential concepts are found in high school biology textbooks, find out how these concepts are presented, and identify misconceptions about the concepts. (PR)

Presents information on using analogies in science instruction. Describes the Teaching-with-Analogies Model. Presents an example for homeostasis. (PR)

Listed are errors students make by accepting misconceptions about pressure and precautions teachers might take to avoid fostering those misconceptions. Misconceptions discussed include pressure as a measure of energy per unit volume, fluid flow only from high to low pressure, and the lack of pressures lower than a vacuum. (CW)

Describes an application of methodology based on the Information Integration Theory to study intuitive mastery by 13-14 year-olds of Archimedes' Effect in physics. (Author/YP)

Explores the effects of the square-cube law that predicts the physical consequences of increasing or decreasing an object's size. Uses examples to discuss the economy of scales, common misconceptions, and applications of scaling laws. (JRH)

Misconceptions associated with the origins of force and the effectiveness of a bridging strategy for developing correct conceptual models in mechanics are identified for high school physics teachers in this paper. The situation investigated was whether a table exerts an upward force on a book. Student misconceptions related to this phenomenon as…