To improve the teaching and learning materials for a curriculum it is important to incorporate the findings from educational research. In light of this, we present creative exercises and experiments to elicit, confront and resolve misconceptions in geometrical optics. Since ray diagrams can be both the cause and the solution for many…

Focuses on the provision of meaningful counterintuitive experimental evidence for students while taking into account the relations of theory, instruments, and experimental data. Discusses the use of experiments designed to test pupils' conceptual framework during the teaching of introductory electricity. (JRH)

Shows that the conventional wisdom about the extreme inaccuracy of stopwatch measurements during the acceleration and free fall of objects is mistaken. (ZWH)

Presents a simple experiment--a marble rolling on a tilted desk--to introduce students to moving bodies. Makes difficult subjects such as measurement, calculus, modeling, and uncertainty easier to identify by putting them into a simple context. Discusses misconceptions, models, and measurements. (JRH)

Designed to address the major conceptual problems associated with respiration and photosynthesis, this module can be used with high school students or college nonscience majors including those in elementary education. It is one in a series developed by the project Overcoming Critical Barriers to Learning in Nonmajors' Science Courses. The…

Designed to address the major conceptual problems associated with evolution and variation and survival in populations, this module can be used with high school students or college nonscience majors including those in elementary education. It is one in a series developed by the project "Overcoming Critical Barriers to Learning in Nonmajors'…

Discusses traditional school demonstrations and experiments in hydrotropism. Explains that these experiments seem to "prove" hydrotropism, but yet most botanists reject hydrotropism. Teachers continue to teach the concept because it is logical and the experiments are simple. (PR)

Designed to address the major conceptual problems associated with light and vision, appearances of surfaces, and color, this module can be used with high school students or college nonscience majors including those in elementary education. It is one in a series developed by the project "Overcoming Critical Barriers to Learning in Nonmajors'…