MOSART

I thought the MOSART videos were helpful in the sense we could see teachers teaching and where the breakdown in instruction occurred and the misconception continued. It was also useful to think though teaching strategies. The student in the photosynthesis video couldn’t get the concept that air has weight. In the video the instructor used an example of dry ice to show that carbon dioxide does have weight. In my classroom I won’t have access to dry ice, so I thought though how I would show that air does have weight and came up with an idea about helium balloons.

I had some of the misconception tests sent to my email and I reviewed them. I liked the questions and how they presented the answers. I feel that it is useful to see, on average how many students get the answers correct and what is the most common misconception.

However, the tests would only be useful in a jumping-off situation. Because the tests cover such a wide range of topics, I don’t think you would want to use the test at the beginning of the year as a pretest – many of the questions would not be relevant.  I think the tests are a effective guide on how to form your own questions and to be aware of some of the common misconceptions regarding scientific principles.