What Were They Thinking

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What Were They Thinking?

• Page Keeley
• pkeeley_at_mmsa.org
• Maine Mathematics and Science Alliance
• www.mmsa.org
• NSTA National Science Conference
• St Louis, MO 2007

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Key Finding from How People Learn
Students come to the classroom with
preconceptions about how the world works. If
their initial understanding is not engaged, they
may fail to grasp the new concepts and
information that are taught, or they may learn
them for purposes of a test but revert to their
preconceptions outside the classroom How People
Learn, Bransford, Brown Cockling. pp 14-15
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Assessment Probes

• A probe is a purposefully designed question that
  links standards-based ideas with research on
  students conceptions.
• A probe reveals more than just an answer.
• A probe elicits a response that helps teachers
  identify students ideas about a phenomenon or a
  concept.

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Related Learning Goals in the Benchmarks for
Science Literacy

• K-2 The Earth Water can be a liquid or a solid
  and can go back and forth from one form to the
  other. If water is turned into ice and then the
  ice is allowed to melt, the amount of water is
  the same as it was before freezing.
• 3-5 Structure of Matter No matter how parts of
  an object are assembled, the weight of the whole
  object made is always the same as the sum of the
  parts and when a thing is broken into parts, the
  parts have the same total weight as the original
  thing.
• 6-8 Structure of Matter No matter how
  substances within a closed system interact with
  one another, or how they combine or break apart,
  the total weight of the system remains the same.
  The idea of atoms explains the conservation of
  matter If the number of atoms stays the same no
  matter how they are rearranged then the mass
  stays the same.
• .

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Research on Learning

• Students need to have a concept of matter in
  order to understand conservation of matter. (BSL
  p 336)
• Confusion between weight and density contributes
  to difficulty understanding conservation of
  matter. (BSL p 336)
• Some students believe one state of matter of the
  same substance has more or less weight than a
  different state. (Driver et al., p 80)
• The way a student perceives a chemical or
  physical change may determine whether they
  understand matter is conserved. For example, if
  it looks as if something has disappeared or
  spread out more, then student may think the mass
  changes. (Driver et al. p 77)

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Lemonade

• There is often a discrepancy between weight and
  matter conservation with dissolving. Some
  students accept the idea that the substance is
  still there but the weight is negligible, is up
  in the water, or it no longer weighs anything.
  (Driver et al., p 84)

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Chemical Bonds

• 6-8 Benchmark All matter is made up of atoms,
  which are far too small to see directly through a
  microscope. The atoms of any element are alike
  but are different from atoms of other elements.
  Atoms may stick together in well-defined
  molecules or may be packed together in large
  arrays. Different arrangements of atoms into
  groups compose all substances.
• 9-12 Benchmark Atoms are made of a positive
  nucleus surrounded by negative electrons. An
  atom's electron configuration, particularly the
  outermost electrons, determines how the atom can
  interact with other atoms. Atoms form bonds to
  other atoms by transferring or sharing electrons.
  

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Characteristic Properties

• Density
• Boiling Point
• Freezing Point

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