Of Electricity and Atoms

This chapter dealt a lot with the concept of energy and the alternative conceptions many students will have. However, these are not the only alternative conceptions that occur with this subject. It is found among teachers, administrators, creators of curriculum materials, and many others exist in the science education system itself. In the chapter two teachers are given science kits to use to introduce the unit on electricity. The kits even come with manuals for the teacher and the student. Wonderful!!! One might think this, but often teachers make the mistake of following these instructions thinking that this is the best thing for the students. It is a good idea to read the manual to get an idea of what you could do, but the true lesson planning should come from the teacher themselves. This is because we should be personalizing the content to our students and getting them engaged, not having them follow a how to booklet on how to make a circuit. The same goes for the molecule building kits that even I was fond of as a child. We should have the children explore using inquiry and if the little booklet doesn't include that little tidbit then it is up to us to create it.