Misconceptions

    This article focuses on the misconceptions the kids of any age have regarding science terminology.  These misconceptions that kids are having are due to several factors such as teachers focusing too much on terminology, teachers focusing on to little terminology, a bad textbook, students not understanding the concepts of the lesson and simply not taking the time to learn terminology because they feel it is to hard.  Teachers focus on to much terminology and lose the sight of what the main point and idea of the lesson which makes it harder for the students to understand and learn the subject matter.  This happens a lot because teachers feel that vocabulary is a very important aspect in science, math, social studies and pretty much every class but when they focus to much on vocabulary the teacher loses the main concepts of the lesson and they have lost their students.  I remember in high school physics my teacher was big on vocabulary and that was a main part of the course but it was hard for me because I knew the vocabulary words but did not understand the concepts very well.  Also when students have a boring textbook they are not into reading the material as much as if it was a more interesting book and containing clear concepts.  The article also mentioned how the teachers could help these misconceptions.  Some solutions would be to choose a textbook that is more interesting to the students and has clear concepts and good explanations of the subject matter, having labs in the classroom creates hands on experience, and start at the beginning with the students and make sure to clear up any misconceptions before any tests so students understand and learn the material not just memorize vocabulary.  
      This article does impact me as a teacher because it opens my eyes to these misconceptions and makes me aware of what I should be looking for in a classroom when I observe or volunteer in a classroom.  I think helping students understand the concepts of what ever subject they are studying will help them in the long run because if they just memorize it will not be useful when they actually need the information.  By providing new textbooks, having hands on experiences and starting from the beginning will help clear up these misconceptions and help students learn and understand the concepts and not just memorize.