A Private Universe

I was not too surprised about the video “A Private Universe.” I had heard about this video before in SME 301, but it was still a little surprising to hear Harvard graduates having such large misconceptions about something that is taught in grade school. I think one of the biggest reasons for misconceptions such as why there are phases of the moon and about weather is because teachers assume that students already know certain things coming into a class. An astronomy professor at Harvard probably never felt compelled to teach the phases of the moon because it was assummed that the students would have learned about the phases way before being admitted to such a prestigious school. I know that before taking SME 301, I would have given the same sort of answer! As a future teacher, this video showed me how difficult it can be to correct a student’s misconception. Students have ideas in their head, and they are hard to change because the students think of these ideas as facts. Because of this, I think it would be important to give students a pre-test before starting a new unit in order to see what they do and do not know. This way, you could address the misconception from the beginning, and start focusing on the unit and what is now known to be correct.